Principal Software Engineer, Full Stack

Principal Software Engineer, Full Stack Lila Sciences Software Engineering San Francisco, CA, USA USD 204k-272k / year + Equity Posted on Feb 12, 2026 Apply now Your Impact at Lila We are seeking a Principal Full-stack Engineer to join our software group and help build the next generation AI-driven scientific platform. In this role, you will design, build, and optimize backend systems that power intelligent, data-driven applications. You will focus on developing UI, services, high-performance APIs, databases, and ensuring the reliability of services that integrate advanced AI frameworks with complex scientific analytics and laboratory workflows. You'll work closely with ML researchers, platform engineers, and scientists to develop systems that can handle diverse workloads and scale seamlessly, including structured SQL database, data lake houses, and vector databases. This is an opportunity to apply your deep front-end and backend expertise to a cutting-edge AI platform with real scientific impact. If you are passionate about building performant, and elegant systems, we would love to hear from you!

What You'll Be Building Design & Build UI and APIs:

Design and build high-performance, secure, and well-documented UI and APIs that integrate with AI-driven applications.

Database Architecture & Scaling:

Develop schemas and manage diverse data systems (SQL, NoSQL, Vector DBs, and others) for optimal performance and scalability.

Application Development:

Drive the implementation of front-end and backend services, focusing on performance, maintainability, and reliability.

Performance & Reliability:

Diagnose and optimize system bottlenecks, ensuring high availability and low-latency performance across large-scale workloads.

Cloud & Infrastructure:

Leverage AWS services, Kubernetes and modern DevOps practices to build and deploy production-grade systems at scale.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

Work with ML researchers, engineers, and scientists to integrate data pipelines, APIs, and cloud infrastructure into scientific workflows. What You'll Need to Succeed Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field. 8-15 years of engineering experience building and deploying large-scale systems in production. You must be strong in either front-end or backend.

Typescript, React and Python Expertise:

Strong experience with React and Typescript is required. Expertise in

Databases:

Strong experience with SQL, NoSQL, and emerging database technologies (e.g., Vector DBs); proven track record in schema design, indexing, and query optimization.

API Development:

Proven ability to design and scale RESTful or GraphQL APIs with a focus on reliability and performance. Hands on experience using AI coding assistants to drive productivity is required.

Communication & Collaboration :

Acute listening skills, and a proven track record of working cross-functionally with scientists, data engineers, and product teams; able to explain complex ideas to diverse audiences.

Problem Solving :

Proven ability to take ownership of complex backend challenges, balancing trade-offs between scalability, performance, and maintainability.

Bonus Points For Cloud & DevOps Knowledge:

Hands-on experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure; strong understanding of Kubernetes and containerization, infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CloudFormation), and CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions).

Scientific or Data-Intensive Domains:

Experience working with life sciences, material sciences, or other research-heavy fields.

Orchestration Systems:

Experience with orchestration tools (Flyte, Temporal, Airflow, Prefect, etc.). About Lila Lila Sciences is the world's first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science. We are pioneering a new age of boundless discovery by building the capabilities to apply AI to every aspect of the scientific method. We are introducing scientific superintelligence to solve humankind's greatest challenges, enabling scientists to bring forth solutions in human health, climate, and sustainability at a pace and scale never experienced before. Learn more about this mission at www.lila.ai If this sounds like an environment you'd love to work in, even if you only have some of the experience listed below, we encourage you to apply. Compensation We expect the base salary for this role to fall between $204,000 - $272,000 USD per year , along with bonus potential and generous early equity. The final offer will reflect your unique background, expertise, and impact. 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. Apply now See more open positions at Lila Sciences