Chief of Staff to the CEO

About the role

Lila Sciences is seeking an experienced Chief of Staff to partner with our Founder and CEO, Geoff von Maltzahn, in advancing the company's strategic and scientific priorities. The role combines strategic counsel, technical judgment, and high-trust communication, and requires sound judgment, technical fluency, and the ability to navigate ambiguity at the pace of an early-stage, science-driven company.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a sounding board for the CEO on the company's hardest scientific bets, from which research directions to pursue to how much weight to put on an early result.
• Pressure-test scientific and technical tradeoffs with the CEO before they reach the executive team or the board.
• Sharpen the reasoning so the decision that comes out is a better one.
• Work with the strategy function and the technical leadership team to turn the company's hardest scientific questions into clear plans and priorities.
• Prepare the CEO for high-stakes scientific conversations with the board, investors, and outside collaborators. Make sure the reasoning behind each decision holds up under scrutiny.
• Own the prep for board meetings, investor updates, and fundraising. Turn the company's scientific and technical progress into materials that land, and make sure the CEO walks in ready.
• Act as the connective tissue between the CEO, the executive team, and the wider company. Make sure scientific context and decisions move fast and nothing important falls through.
• Drive the hardest calls to closure. Cut through competing priorities to the few decisions that matter, and make sure they stick.

Requirements

• 8+ years of progressive experience, including time as a founder, Chief of Staff, function head, or senior operator at a high-growth company.
• You've helped shape hard technical or scientific decisions before, ideally in an AI or science-driven environment.
• A PhD, founding experience at a technical company, or equivalent hands-on training in a scientific or AI domain.
• You engage with the CEO and the research team as a peer.
• You operate without a playbook. This is the first company of its kind, and fast-scaling labs, an active raise, and genuinely hard problems energize you rather than overwhelm you.
• You bring rigor and follow-through to fast-moving, ambitious teams, moving from strategy to the details without missing a step.
• The instinct to push back. You challenge the CEO and the executive team on priorities, strategy, org design, and execution quality, and you get teams to commit and move.
• High emotional intelligence. You build trust fast across scientists, operators, and executives, and you drive outcomes across a leadership team that doesn't report to you.
• Exceptional communicator. You make complex, technical work legible, and you can draft in another executive's voice, from a board deck to an all-hands.
• You thrive in high-stakes complexity. Fast-scaling labs, an active raise, and tackling genuinely hard problems with smart people energize you.
• High discretion, professionalism, and trustworthiness, commensurate with the access this role carries.

Qualifications

• Onsite at One Charles Park in Cambridge, with availability to travel.

Skills

• Strategic thinking
• Technical judgment
• High-trust communication
• Complex problem-solving
• Executive-level collaboration

Benefits

• Full-time U.S. employees receive a comprehensive benefits program including 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.

Pay

• USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions; international salaries are set to local market.
• Expected Base Salary Range: $204,000 USD - $315,000 USD

Schedule

• Based at Lila's Cambridge headquarters at One Charles Park, in person and onsite with the CEO, with willingness to travel as the role requires.