Software Engineer, Agents

Benchling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 165,113 - 223,388; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive total rewards package

Medical, dental, and vision plans

Parental leave

401(k) + Employer Match

Commuter benefits

Mental health benefits

Learning and development stipend

Flexible vacation

Sabbaticals for 5 and 10-year anniversaries

Job summary

An innovative biotechnology company in San Francisco seeks a Software Engineer to develop AI agents that automate scientific processes. You will collaborate with customers, build end-to-end systems, and improve the platform. A flexible hybrid work arrangement is in place, emphasizing in-office collaboration three days a week. The position offers competitive compensation ranging from $165,113 to $223,388.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience, building and maintaining production systems.
• Experience across the stack, comfort working with backend and frontend systems.
• Strong product sense with the ability to iterate quickly.

Responsibilities

• Build end-to-end AI agents that automate scientific work.
• Work directly with customers to gather feedback and build evaluations.
• Continuously improve our agent platform and shape AI development.

Skills

Software engineering experience

Backend systems (Python or similar)

Frontend frameworks (React or equivalent)

Strong product sense

Curiosity about LLMs and AI agents

Collaborative mindset

Fast-paced environment adaptability

Interest in biotechnology

Job description

Biotechnology is rewriting life as we know it, from the medicines we take, to the crops we grow, the materials we wear, and the household goods that we rely on every day. But moving at the new speed of science requires better technology.

Benchling’s mission is to unlock the power of biotechnology. The world’s most innovative biotech companies use Benchling’s R&D Cloud to power the development of breakthrough products and accelerate time to milestone and market.

Come help us bring modern software to modern science.

ROLE OVERVIEW

We’re a team focusing on shipping AI agents for scientists, helping them automate toil and accelerate breakthroughs. Our agents automate many parts of scientific work that take hours to weeks today: designing experiments, capturing data, analyzing data, and writing complex reports. As an engineer on the team, you’ll build these agents end-to-end, from designing the agent architecture to shipping intuitive interfaces for the agents within our scientific applications. It’s early days for AI agents, both at Benchling and in the industry at large. We’ll rapidly iterate with customers and change directions quickly, figuring out new patterns for how we develop and go to market. We’ll win if we stay curious and obsess over our customers.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build end-to-end AI agents, prototyping and productionizing systems that automate scientific work, from experiment design to data analysis and reporting.
• Work directly with customers to ideate use cases, gather feedback, build evaluations, and onboard scientific teams.
• Engineer across the stack, from developing new LLM-powered primitives to shipping intuitive user interfaces inside Benchling’s applications.
• Continuously improve our agent platform, contributing to frameworks, tooling, and infrastructure that accelerate future agent development.
• Shape how we build AI at Benchling, driving experimentation, contributing to technical direction, and helping evolve our engineering and product development practices as the field matures.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience, building and maintaining production systems.
• Experience across the stack, comfort working with backend systems (Python or similar languages) and modern frontend frameworks (React or equivalent).
• Strong product sense, with the ability to iterate quickly and refine solutions based on user feedback and data.
• Curiosity and excitement about LLMs and AI agents, and a desire to shape how they can transform scientific research.
• Collaborative mindset, able to work closely with engineers, product managers, and scientists to bring new ideas to life.
• Desire to work in a fast‑paced environment, where priorities can shift and rapid experimentation is encouraged.
• Interest in learning about biotechnology (no prior knowledge required, just a willingness to learn and adapt).

HOW WE WORK

We offer a flexible hybrid work arrangement that prioritizes in‑office collaboration. Employees are expected to be on‑site 3 days per week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday).

SALARY RANGE

Benchling takes a market‑based approach to pay. The candidate's starting pay will be determined based on job‑related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and work location. For this role the base salary range is $165,113 to $223,388.

To help you determine which zone applies to your location, please see this resource. If you have questions regarding a specific location's zone designation, please contact a recruiter for additional information.

Total Compensation includes the following:

• Competitive total rewards package
• Broad range of medical, dental, and vision plans for employees and their dependents
• Fertility healthcare and family‑forming benefits
• Four months of fully paid parental leave
• 401(k) + Employer Match
• Commuter benefits for in‑office employees and a generous home office set up stipend for remote employees
• Mental health benefits, including therapy and coaching, for employees and their dependents
• Monthly Wellness stipend
• Learning and development stipend
• Generous and flexible vacation
• Company‑wide Winter holiday shutdown
• Sabbaticals for 5‑year and 10‑year anniversaries

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Benchling welcomes everyone.

We believe diversity enriches our team so we hire people with a wide range of identities, backgrounds, and experiences.

We are an equal opportunity employer. That means we don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We also consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

Please be aware that Benchling will never request personal information, payment, or sensitive details outside of Greenhouse or via email. All official communications will come from an @benchling.com email address or from an approved vendor alias. If you are contacted by someone claiming to represent Benchling and are unsure of their legitimacy, please reach out to us at [e-mail] to verify the communication.