Senior Director, Software Development, Test Automation at Lila Sciences · LumiJobs

Responsibilities

We're hiring a Senior Director, Software Development, Test Automation Systems to architect and build Lila's test automation platform and quality engineering practice for our AI-powered scientific and lab automation products. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, you'll own the test automation system, CI/CD test infrastructure, AI-driven test tooling, and the eval discipline that hold the bar across our SDLC.
This is a builder-leader role. You will drive the quality vision, write requirements, make sharp build-vs-buy calls, drive execution, and build and lead a small (3–5 person) team that delivers leverage. The operating model is federated: you own the platform, standards, and metrics; engineering teams own test execution. You scale through tooling and influence.
As you scale into this role, you'll also stand up the QC framework for our lab automation system — the validation patterns, harnesses, and contracts that science operations teams will operate day-to-day. Data integrity and ALCOA+ compliance are foundational to everything you build.
What You'll Be Building
Architect and ship the test automation platform
Design and build the test automation platform — frameworks, fixtures, golden datasets, test orchestration, and reporting — that the engineering org adopts by default
Set standards across unit, integration, contract, end-to-end, regression, performance, and chaos testing for backend services, the frontend monorepo, and data pipelines
Treat platform adoption, flake rate, and time-to-signal as first-class engineering metrics
Make build-vs-buy decisions with conviction
Own the buy/build/borrow strategy across test infrastructure, eval platforms, browser/device clouds, observability, and lab QC tooling
Justify every choice with TCO, signal quality, integration cost, and time-to-leverage — and revisit decisions as the org and tech landscape evolve
Bias toward leverage: buy commodity capabilities, build the differentiators (Lila-specific AI evals, lab QC, scientific data integrity)

Qualification

10+ years in software engineering3+ years managing engineersStrong software architect/engineerDeep CI/CD expertiseDemonstrated build-vs-buy judgmentCustomer- and UX-first instinctsExperience with lab automationMulti-tenant SaaS quality at scaleExposure to event-driven systems

Required

10+ years in software engineering, with 5+ years leading test automation, quality engineering, or platform/SRE-adjacent functions
3+ years managing engineers, including building or scaling a team
Strong software architect/engineer. You write designs your team wants to read and review. Python and/or Typescript hands on expertise is highly desirable.
Deep CI/CD expertise. GitHub Actions or equivalent at scale, monorepo build/test orchestration (Nx, Turborepo, or Bazel), test parallelization and caching, hermetic environments, ephemeral preview envs, flake quarantine, and test impact analysis
Demonstrated build-vs-buy judgment. You've made and defended decisions on test infra, eval platforms, browser/device clouds, and observability — and can articulate the TCO and signal trade-offs that drove them
Hands-on AI-driven test automation experience. Using LLMs to generate, maintain, or triage tests in production, with rigorous eval validation. Fluency with eval frameworks
Track record of standing up a test automation platform that engineering teams adopted — not one bolted on
Working knowledge of Google's SRE practices and a point of view on when they apply to pre-production quality
Metrics-driven leader who drives outcomes through platform leverage and influence, not gatekeeping
Customer- and UX-first instincts: treats test automation as a vehicle for user experience, not a cost center

Preferred

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

Senior Director, Software Development, Test Automation

Responsibilities

Qualification

Required

Preferred

Benefits

Company

Lila Sciences

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