Lead Recruiter

About the role

At Lila Sciences, the Lead Recruiter plays a critical role in driving the talent strategy that fuels the company's mission. Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges, believing that science is the most inspiring frontier for AI. Rather than hard-coding expert knowledge into tools, Lila builds systems that can learn for themselves. This mission is supported by the combined efforts of commercial, business development, and broader General & Administrative functions. The Lead Recruiter will own the end-to-end recruitment process across these vital areas, ensuring the company attracts the operators, dealmakers, and builders essential for growth. This role requires a strategic partner who can translate high-level strategy into actionable hiring plans while maintaining a hands-on approach to full-cycle recruiting.

The position is based within the Talent Acquisition team, which is predominantly located in Cambridge, MA. The role demands a high level of autonomy and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment where priorities can shift rapidly. Success in this role requires a recruiter who is not only skilled in execution but also in strategic advising. You will be the talent partner for senior leaders, helping them understand the market dynamics and talent risks associated with building a scientific superintelligence company.

What you'll do

Your responsibilities will span the entire recruitment lifecycle, from initial sourcing to closing offers. You will own end-to-end searches across commercial, corporate development, and broader General & Administrative roles at Lila. This involves partnering directly with senior hiring managers to define roles, calibrate interview panels, and run rigorous processes that ensure the best talent is identified and selected.

A significant part of your role will involve influencing creative sourcing strategies to build proactive pipelines across the functions in your portfolio. You will be responsible for driving offer strategy, negotiation, and closure for senior individual contributor and people-leader hires. This includes advising leadership on market conditions, compensation benchmarks, and talent risks across your assigned functions.

You will also have a continuous improvement mandate, where you will work to enhance process and tooling with an obsession for candidate experience at every stage. This involves analyzing pipeline metrics, conversion rates, and other recruitment data to drive informed decisions. Your role will provide exposure across the full breadth of how Lila is built, as the mix of work will move as the business priorities evolve.

Requirements

To succeed in this role, you must bring a substantial background in full-cycle recruiting. The ideal candidate will have 5+ years of equivalent experience, with deep sourcing experience specifically in highly technical environments. This includes demonstrated experience working on go-to-market and product roles within such contexts. A track record of closing senior hires at high-growth startups or in competitive talent markets is essential.

You must possess excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to push back constructively while partnering directly with hiring managers. The role requires an ability to flex across multiple functions as business priorities shift, demonstrating agility and a strong sense of ownership. Proficiency in using pipeline metrics, conversion rates, and reporting to drive recruiting decisions is non-negotiable. A Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience is required.

Candidates must be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment where ambiguity is inherent and complex, cross-functional workflows need to be owned. The ability to operate independently while contributing to a collaborative team environment is crucial.

Bonus Points For

While not required, certain experiences will significantly strengthen your application. These include prior experience recruiting at a deep-tech, biotech, or scientific company. In-house recruiting experience scaling a function from early to mid-stage is also highly valued. Familiarity with Greenhouse and modern sourcing tools is expected in today's competitive recruitment landscape. Additionally, experience hiring across G&A functions such as Finance, Legal, or People will be considered a significant advantage.

Practical Notes

This role is based in Cambridge, MA, USA, and is a full-time engagement. The compensation package includes competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity. Your final offer will reflect your background, expertise, and expected impact. U.S. benefits for full-time employees include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer-paid life and disability insurance; flexible time off with generous company-wide holidays; paid parental leave; an educational assistance program; commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office-based employees; and a company subsidized lunch program. International employees outside the U.S. receive a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region, with USD salary ranges applying only to U.S.-based positions.