Staff Engineer, OT Security

Your Impact at LILA

Lila Sciences is seeking a Staff OT Security Engineer to own hands-on security engineering for Lila’s Operational Technology environment across instruments, automation platforms, lab compute, and building automation systems. This role translates OT security architecture into operational controls across segmentation, identity, privileged access, vendor access, detection, response, and lifecycle management.

This is a senior individual contributor role reporting to the Senior Director, OT Operations & Security. The Staff OT Security Engineer partners closely with OT security architecture, Staff OT engineers, the SOC and detection engineering teams, controls and automation, corporate IT, and laboratory operations leadership. The right person operates with high autonomy, sets technical direction within their domain, and serves as the senior technical voice for OT security architecture and engineering decisions.

This is a foundational hire for Lila’s OT security program. Lila is building autonomous laboratories where security is designed into laboratory platforms before they ship. This person will help turn that secure-at-ship model into durable operating controls, validated deployments, and day-to-day security operations across Lila’s active and expanding lab environments.

What You'll Be Building

• Translate OT security architecture into operational controls across segmentation, identity, privileged access, detection, response, and vendor access.
• Design and validate zone-and-conduit segmentation aligned to IEC 62443, including security level targets and compensating controls where needed.
• Develop OT-specific threat models for instruments, automation platforms, and lab buildouts, then translate findings into design and rollout decisions.
• Own security review and technical sign-off for new automation platforms, vendor integrations, and laboratory deployments.
• Design and operate machine identity, certificate lifecycle, privileged access, and secure vendor remote-access patterns for OT environments.
• Operate and tune OT monitoring and visibility capabilities, including sensor coverage, behavioral baselines, and telemetry integration with central security operations.
• Partner with SOC and detection engineering teams to build OT-specific detection content, runbooks, escalation paths, and incident response exercises.
• Lead OT vulnerability and lifecycle management, including patch strategy, compensating controls, supplier security review, and residual risk documentation.
• Pair with OT engineering, controls, automation, IT, and lab operations teams on segmentation, identity, network interactions, post-cutover stabilization, and incident response.
• Mentor engineers, contractors, and managed-service partners as the OT function scales.

What You'll Need to Succeed

• Significant hands-on experience in cybersecurity, infrastructure engineering, systems integration, or OT security engineering in operationally constrained environments.
• Experience designing and implementing security controls in OT, industrial control systems, laboratory automation, manufacturing, infrastructure, or similarly constrained environments.
• Strong working knowledge of segmentation, identity, access control, compensating controls, and secure remote access patterns.
• Hands-on experience with one or more core OT security domains: machine identity, PKI, privileged access management, OT monitoring, detection engineering, vulnerability management, or incident response.
• Solid networking and segmentation fundamentals, including VLANs, firewall policy, TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, and packet analysis.
• Ability to translate architecture into operating controls, runbooks, risk decisions, and repeatable engineering standards.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical decisions to engineers, scientists, security leaders, and executives.
• Willingness to work on-site at Lila laboratory locations on a regular basis, including participation in on-call rotation and scheduled maintenance or incident response coverage.

Bonus Points For

• Experience in life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, laboratory automation, manufacturing, or high-throughput research environments.
• Familiarity with IEC 62443, NIST SP 800-82, NIST CSF, GxP, 21 CFR Part 11, ISO 9001, or comparable quality and security frameworks.
• Experience with OT visibility platforms such as Claroty, Tenable OT, Dragos, Nozomi Networks, or comparable tools.
• Experience with PKI, TLS/mTLS, TPM-bound credentials, certificate lifecycle management, or modern machine identity patterns.
• Experience with privileged access management platforms such as CyberArk, Delinea, HashiCorp Vault, or comparable tools.
• Background in product security, embedded security, IoT security, secure-at-ship programs, or shift-left security practices.
• Practical scripting or automation experience with Python, PowerShell, APIs, or infrastructure-as-code tooling.
• Relevant OT or security certifications such as GICSP, IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Expert, GIAC GRID, GCIH, CISSP, or similar credentials.

Compensation

We offer competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity. Your final offer will reflect your background, expertise, and expected impact.

U.S. Benefits. Full-time U.S. employees receive a comprehensive benefits program including medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer-paid life and disability insurance; flexible time off with generous company wide holidays; paid parental leave; an educational assistance program; commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees; and a company subsidized lunch program.

International Benefits. Full-time employees outside the U.S. receive a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region. USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions; international salaries are set to local market.

Expected Base Salary Range$140,000—$186,667 USD

About LILA

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges. We believe science is the most inspiring frontier for AI. Rather than hard-coding expert knowledge into tools, LILA builds systems that can learn for themselves.

LILA combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments into an operating system for science that executes the entire scientific method autonomously, accelerating discovery at unprecedented speed, scale, and impact across medicine, materials, and energy. Learn more at www.lila.ai.

Guided by our core values of truth, trust, curiosity, grit, and velocity, we move with startup speed while tackling problems of historic importance. If this sounds like an environment you'd love to work in, even if you don't meet every qualification listed above, we encourage you to apply.

We’re All In

Lila Sciences is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

Information you provide during your application process will be handled in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy.

A Note to Agencies

Lila Sciences does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to Lila Sciences or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Lila Science’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of Lila Sciences, and Lila Sciences will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.