Senior Director, Software Development, Test Automation
Lila Sciences · San Francisco, CA
$260,000–$390,000
Jul 10, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior engineering leadership role responsible for designing and building a test automation platform, CI/CD test infrastructure, and AI-driven testing tooling for a company developing AI-powered scientific and lab automation products. The position also involves establishing an evaluation discipline for AI/agent systems and, over time, standing up a quality control framework for lab automation with data integrity and ALCOA+ compliance requirements. Suited to a hands-on technical leader with deep quality engineering and platform experience who can build and manage a small team while driving adoption across a broader engineering organization.
Principal level · 10+ years · National · Full-time
Pay in the description: $260,000–$390,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $178,991 (middle half $141,096–$225,584). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
This is a genuine people-management role (building and leading a 3–5 person team, reporting to VP of Engineering, with hiring authority), which drives the 11-3021 classification. However, the posting strongly emphasizes hands-on technical architecture and platform building, making 15-1253 a credible runner-up.
The title 'Senior Director' maps to Principal seniority given the org-wide scope, executive reporting line, and cross-team authority — this is not a typical Senior band role despite the 10+ year baseline.
Location is not explicitly stated in the posting. The salary range is quoted in USD and benefits reference U.S. employees, so the role is treated as US-based. No specific city or metro is mentioned.
Python and TypeScript are listed together as 'highly desirable' within the Required Qualifications section ('Python and/or TypeScript hands-on expertise is highly desirable'). Despite the softening phrase, they appear under the hard-requirements heading and are framed as a single interchangeable requirement — captured as one skill with alternatives.
GitHub Actions is listed with 'or equivalent at scale' — alternatives populated with common CI/CD peers. Nx is listed with 'Turborepo, or Bazel' as explicit alternatives.
GxP, LIMS, chaos engineering, event-driven architecture, and agent orchestration frameworks all appear under the explicit 'Nice to Have / Bonus Points For' section.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): chaos engineering.
Read the full posting
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