Lila Sciences
Senior / Principal Materials Scientist, AI Safety
$268K–$384K
Cambridge, MA USA +5 · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 21, 2026
- Location
- Cambridge, MA USA
London, UK
San Francisco, CA USA
Alewife, Cambridge, MA
Europe
San Francisco, CA - Education
- PhD, or comparable experience, in materials science or a closely related discipline.
About the job
Assess dual-use risks in materials science and translate findings into safety policies, evaluations, and mitigations for increasingly capable scientific AI.
What you'll do
- Map materials-related misuse risks and assess their feasibility, likelihood, and uncertainty.
- Synthesize expert evidence and work with research, engineering, and experimental teams to assess capabilities and safeguards.
- Translate dual-use assessments into policy boundaries, evaluation priorities, and mitigation requirements.
What they ask for
- Deep expertise in materials science or a closely related discipline, with a PhD or comparable experience.
- Substantive experience assessing dual-use risks in a relevant area.
- Ability to evaluate technical evidence, investigate risks beyond one's specialty, and synthesize across disciplines.
- Clear scientific communication, independent research judgment, and cross-functional collaboration.
Nice to have
- Experience applying physical-science expertise to AI safety through threat analysis, evaluations, red teaming, or mitigation design.
- Experience with computational materials science, advanced manufacturing, or automated synthesis and characterization.
Pay
$268,000 — $384,000 USD (base salary)
AI focus
Assess and mitigate dual-use risks from scientific AI, including evaluating capabilities and safeguards as models, tools, and automated laboratories advance.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative