Senior Director, Software Development, Test Automation

San Francisco, CA USA. Posted 4 months ago

The role

You will architect and build a test automation platform and quality engineering practice for AI-powered scientific and lab automation products. You will lead a small team to drive quality vision, CI/CD infrastructure, and AI-driven test tooling.

What you will do

Architect and ship the test automation platform
Make build-vs-buy decisions for test infrastructure and tooling
Modernize CI/CD for fast, reliable signal
Drive AI-driven test automation using LLMs
Define and operate the quality metrics system
Stand up the QC framework for lab automation
Build and lead a 3–5 person team of test automation engineers
Coach engineering teams on test design and quality investments

Required qualifications

10+ years in software engineering
5+ years leading test automation, quality engineering, or platform/SRE-adjacent functions
3+ years managing engineers, including building or scaling a team
Deep CI/CD expertise including GitHub Actions or equivalent at scale
Monorepo build/test orchestration (Nx, Turborepo, or Bazel)
Demonstrated build-vs-buy judgment
Hands-on AI-driven test automation experience
Track record of standing up a test automation platform
Working knowledge of Google's SRE practices

Nice to have

Python and/or Typescript hands on expertise
Experience in GxP-regulated environments or scientific data integrity programs
Experience with lab automation, LIMS, or other instrument-driven systems
Multi-tenant SaaS quality at scale
Exposure to event-driven systems, agent orchestration frameworks, or MCP
Performance/load testing or chaos engineering background

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision coverage
Employer-paid life and disability insurance
Flexible time off with generous company wide holidays
Paid parental leave
Educational assistance program
Commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees
Company subsidized lunch program

About the company

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges. The company combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments into an operating system for science.