Principal Data Engineer

Company Summary

Lila Sciences is a privately held, early-stage technology company pioneering the application of artificial intelligence to transform every aspect of the scientific method. Lila is backed by Flagship Pioneering, which brings the courage, long-term vision, and resources needed to realize unreasonable results. Join our mission-driven team and contribute to the future of science.

Our Life Sciences effort is leveraging AI and high-throughput automation for valuable therapeutic discovery and development across biological modalities.

At Lila, we are uniquely cross-functional and collaborative. We are actively reimagining the way teams work together and communicate. Therefore, we seek individuals with an inclusive mindset and a diversity of thought. Our teams thrive in unstructured and creative environments. All voices are heard because we know that experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way.If this sounds like an environment you’d love to work in, even if you only have some of the experience listed below, please apply.

Job Description

As the Principal Data Engineer, you will be the technical leader of our data storage strategy. You will work as a member of the platform team to design and implement a system that efficiently stores, organizes, and retrieves complex datasets from various sources (e.g., laboratory instruments, simulations, ML systems). You will also set the direction for data infrastructure best practices, ensuring security, compliance, and top-tier performance. Your work will enable engineers and scientists to leverage high-quality, curated data to drive scientific discoveries and real-world applications.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Design and implement a scalable data lake and/or data warehouse architecture optimized for large volumes of heterogeneous scientific data. 
2. Drive optimizations for query performance and data retrieval, reducing time to insight for end-users and downstream systems.
3. Implement data governance processes, including data cataloging, lineage, and quality controls.
4. Participate in the software development life cycle and drive continuous improvement, focusing on designing, implementing, and maintaining software services.
5. Develop reusable code, libraries, APIs, and services to improve efficiency and scalability.
6. Align development with strategic goals, ensuring software supports broader organizational needs.
7. Manage git repositories and CI/CD pipelines, enforce best practices, and foster a collaborative development culture.
8. Support infrastructure as code and design efficient deployment strategies.
9. Utilize observability tooling to monitor and optimize software performance.
10. Write clear, concise documentation for both engineers and end users.

Required Qualifications:

1. Minimum of 5 years of experience managing data systems in a production setting.
2. Python coding experience in the data domain.
3. Acute listening skills and patience to deeply understand user challenges.
4. Experience implementing petabyte scale data solutions.
5. Excellent problem-solving skills and team-first mentality.
6. Strong communication skills to effectively collaborate with team members and stakeholders across different data domains.
7. Energetic self-starter and independent thinker, with strong attention to detail.
8. Eager to work with highly skilled and dynamic teams in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and technical setting.

Preferred Qualifications: 

1. Experience with workflow orchestration software (e.g., Temporal, Airflow, Dagster, Prefect).
2. Familiarity with data science and ML libraries (pandas, numpy, scipy).
3. Knowledge of modern developer tools (pydantic, pyright, uv, poetry).
4. Experience working in Kubernetes environments.
5. Familiarity with AWS services (e.g., IAM, RDS, S3, Redshift).

More About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture.  Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at www.flagshippioneering.com.

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are 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.

At Flagship, we recognize there is no perfect candidate. If you have some of the experience listed above but not all, please apply anyway. Experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way. We are dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams and look forward to learning more about your unique background.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.