Software Engineer, Backend (Release Engineering)

Benchling; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 148,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Benchling, the AI platform for biotech R&D, is seeking a Release Engineer to create tools and frameworks that enable engineers to ship changes to Benchling’s customers. You will drive developer happiness, productivity, and high-quality product releases.

This role emphasizes building tooling, collaborating with product, design, and engineering peers, and contributing to scalable processes. A flexible hybrid work arrangement is offered, with on-site 3 days per week.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in software engineering.
• Build software with a product-first approach.
• Expertise with at least one web framework, preferably node or python.
• Have strong abilities in problem solving and iterating on feedback.
• Enjoy ownership and building key pieces of product.
• Have empathy for your customers and curiosity about their challenges.

Responsibilities

• Build and implement tooling for efficient, frictionless development, testing, and packaging for production release.
• Iterate on developer experience improvements using qualitative and quantitative feedback.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to address challenges in engineering workflows that impact developer happiness and productivity.
• Work closely with product managers, designers, and peers in engineering to make Benchling a delightful place to develop software.
• Help rapidly scale our product and team. As a member of the engineering team, you'll be an integral part of how we mature our tooling, best practices, engineering processes, and hiring.

Skills

Software engineering

Node.js

Python

Problem solving

Ownership

Customer empathy

Job description

We are rebuilding biotech for the AI era.

When a breakthrough is delayed, the world waits. Getting a molecule from discovery to patients, or a crop from lab to field, involves thousands of slow, manual, disconnected steps. AI has the potential to change this, compressing decades of R&D work into years. But that only happens when clean, structured scientific data and AI are built into how science gets done.

Benchling is the AI platform for biotech R&D. Scientists use Benchling to design experiments, capture structured data, and run AI agents and models directly in their workflows. Over 200,000 scientists around the world trust Benchling to power their most important work, from academic labs to Sanofi, Moderna, and more than half of the world's top 50 biopharma.

We’re building an AI scientist for our customers. We can’t do that if we haven’t built the muscle ourselves. AI fluency is the foundation we build on; it's core to how we work, and we're committed to helping every new hire integrate it into their day-to-day. As part of our interview process, you'll complete a brief AI-focused exercise or discussion so we can understand how you think about and use AI to drive impact in your role. Feel free to reference any tools, platforms, or workflows you use today.

Role Overview

Release Engineering is a crucial function that empowers our engineers to excel in their craft. You will be pivotal in creating tools and frameworks that enable engineers to ship changes to Benchling’s customers. Your success will enable our engineering teams to efficiently deliver high quality products. By understanding the unique challenges developers face and crafting solutions to streamline their workflows, you'll play a key role in driving innovation and fulfilling Benchling’s mission.

Responsibilities

• Build and implement tooling for efficient, frictionless development, testing, and packaging for production release.
• Iterate on developer experience improvements using qualitative and quantitative feedback.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to address challenges in engineering workflows that impact developer happiness and productivity.
• Work closely with product managers, designers, and peers in engineering to make Benchling a delightful place to develop software.
• Help rapidly scale our product and team. As a member of the engineering team, you'll be an integral part of how we mature our tooling, best practices, engineering processes, and hiring.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in software engineering.
• Build software with a product-first approach. You ship code quickly and care about the real world impact of your code.
• Expertise with at least one web framework, preferably node or python.
• Have strong abilities in problem solving and iterating on feedback.
• Enjoy ownership and building key pieces of product.
• Have empathy for your customers and curiosity about their challenges.
• Are interested in learning more about life science (prior knowledge is not required; desire to learn is a must).

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).

#BI-Hybrid

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.

Compensation Range: $148K - $200K