Software Engineer, Platform (Developer Experience)

Platform Engineer · Mid · Full Time

San Francisco, CAUSD 173k – 234k4d ago
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Role

What you'll do.

Benchling seeks a Software Engineer for Developer Experience within the Platform organization to design and implement tooling that enhances developer productivity and accelerates the path to production. This role combines platform engineering expertise with developer advocacy, focusing on creating frictionless development workflows, release tooling, and quality integration systems. You'll work with 4+ years of software engineering experience, ideally with Node.js or Python proficiency, to enable thousands of developers to efficiently deliver high-quality products in a life sciences AI context.

Responsibilities

  • Develop Release Tooling and Production Pipeline Infrastructure: Design and implement release tooling and CI/CD infrastructure that enables code changes to reach production within 10 minutes, focusing on reducing deployment friction and improving the path to production. Build automation frameworks that streamline packaging, testing, and deployment processes while maintaining reliability and observability across the system.
  • Build Developer Productivity Tools and Frameworks: Create internal tools, frameworks, and libraries that enhance the development experience, including testing infrastructure, local development environments, dependency management systems, and developer-facing APIs. Focus on reducing setup time, improving code quality tooling, and enabling developers to be more productive from day one.
  • Implement Qualitative and Quantitative Feedback Loops: Establish systematic feedback mechanisms to understand developer pain points through surveys, usage analytics, and direct engagement with engineering teams. Use data-driven insights to prioritize improvements and measure the impact of developer experience initiatives on productivity metrics and team satisfaction.
  • Champion Engineering Best Practices and Operational Patterns: Lead the adoption and evolution of effective engineering patterns across the organization, including code review practices, architectural guidelines, release procedures, and testing strategies. Work to ensure consistency and quality across teams while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
  • Collaborate on Cross-Functional Engineering Challenges: Partner with Developer Productivity and Release Engineering teams to identify and resolve systemic bottlenecks in engineering workflows. Address challenges around code quality, deployment velocity, infrastructure reliability, and developer happiness through collaborative problem-solving.
  • Support Engineering Organizational Growth and Maturity: Contribute to scaling Benchling's engineering organization by improving tooling, processes, and best practices. Participate in hiring, mentoring, and establishing operational excellence standards that enable the team to grow while maintaining high engineering velocity and product quality.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Web Framework Proficiency

    Demonstrated expertise with at least one modern web framework, preferably Node.js or Python, with the ability to build production-grade applications and tools. Experience building both user-facing and infrastructure tooling is valuable.

  • CI/CD and Release Engineering Knowledge

    Strong understanding of continuous integration and continuous deployment practices, including build systems, testing frameworks, deployment strategies, and infrastructure automation. Experience optimizing build times and release processes is essential.

  • Software Development Best Practices

    Proficiency in testing methodologies, code quality tools, version control systems (Git), and development workflows. Experience designing developer-friendly APIs and SDKs that encourage good practices is highly valuable.

  • Systems Thinking and Problem Solving

    Ability to understand complex system interactions, identify root causes of developer friction, and propose scalable solutions. Strong capability in breaking down ambiguous problems and iterating based on feedback from diverse stakeholders.

  • Cross-Platform Development Familiarity

    Working knowledge of backend services, frontend tooling, infrastructure management, and DevOps principles. Understanding of how developers interact with systems at multiple layers enables better tool design.

Education

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field

    Formal education in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, or a related technical discipline. Equivalent professional experience is considered on a case-by-case basis.

Experience

  • 4+ Years of Software Engineering Experience

    Minimum four years of professional software engineering experience, including shipping production code and delivering projects with measurable business impact. Experience with multiple programming languages and frameworks demonstrates versatility.

  • Platform or Infrastructure Engineering Background

    Prior experience with developer tools, platform engineering, infrastructure, DevOps, or release engineering is highly beneficial. Understanding the challenges developers face in their daily workflows is a significant advantage.

  • Experience with Product-First Development Approach

    Demonstrated ability to ship code quickly while maintaining quality, with a track record of understanding real-world impact and end-user value. Experience iterating rapidly based on user feedback and metrics indicates strong product sensibility.

Skills

Required

  • Node.js or Python Web Development

    Production experience building web applications and tools using Node.js (Express, NestJS, etc.) or Python (Django, FastAPI, Flask) frameworks. Ability to design scalable, maintainable backend systems.

  • Software Engineering Fundamentals

    Strong grasp of core engineering concepts including data structures, algorithms, system design, design patterns, and software architecture. Ability to make sound technical decisions balancing trade-offs.

  • Problem Solving and Debugging

    Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to trace complex issues, debug production systems, and develop robust solutions. Strong intuition for identifying root causes rather than symptoms.

  • Iterative Development and Feedback Integration

    Proven ability to work collaboratively, accept feedback gracefully, and iterate on solutions based on user input. Comfortable working in ambiguous situations and adapting approach based on learnings.

  • Cross-Functional Communication

    Clear and effective communication skills, particularly in translating between technical and non-technical stakeholders. Ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences including product managers, designers, and engineers.

Preferred

  • CI/CD and DevOps Experience

    Nice to have

    Hands-on experience with continuous integration platforms (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI), container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes), and infrastructure-as-code tools. Experience optimizing build times and deployment velocity.

  • Test Automation and Quality Engineering

    Nice to have

    Background in implementing comprehensive testing strategies including unit tests, integration tests, end-to-end tests, and quality gates. Experience building developer tools that enforce quality standards.

  • Life Sciences or Scientific Software Domain Knowledge

    Nice to have

    Experience working in life sciences, biotech, pharmaceutical, or scientific research contexts. Understanding of R&D workflows, experimental design, or scientific data management provides valuable context for this role.

  • Observability and Monitoring Systems

    Nice to have

    Experience implementing logging, metrics, and distributed tracing systems for production applications. Understanding of how to surface relevant signals to developers for faster debugging and optimization.

  • Developer Experience and Internal Tools

    Nice to have

    Prior work building internal developer platforms, SDKs, developer-facing APIs, or other tools specifically designed to improve engineering productivity. Understanding of developer personas and pain points.

  • Startup or Scaling Organization Experience

    Nice to have

    Background working in high-growth environments where processes and tooling must evolve rapidly. Experience building scalable systems and processes that grow with team size demonstrates valuable perspective.

  • AI and Machine Learning Integration

    Nice to have

    Familiarity with integrating AI/ML capabilities into applications, understanding of prompt engineering, LLM APIs, and agent-based architectures. Comfort with AI-first product development approaches.

Tech stack

Languages

PythonNode.js / JavaScriptTypeScriptBash / Shell ScriptingSQL

Frameworks

Express.js or FastifyDjango or FastAPIReact or Vue.js

Databases

PostgreSQLRedis

Tools

Docker and Container TechnologyKubernetesGitHub / GitLabGitHub Actions or Similar CI/CDTerraform or CloudFormationMonitoring and Observability (DataDog, New Relic, Prometheus)

Other

Cloud Platforms (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure)Agile and DevOps PracticesObservability-Driven DevelopmentAI and LLM Integration

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 173,000 – 234,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Comprehensive Health and Wellness Coverage

    Medical, dental, and vision insurance with competitive rates for employees and their families. Mental health support and wellness programs designed to support overall wellbeing.

  • Equity Ownership Program

    Stock options for employees at all levels, providing opportunity to participate in company growth and success as Benchling scales its impact in biotech.

  • Flexible Hybrid Work Arrangement

    Three days per week on-site (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday) with flexibility for remote work. Supportive work environment that balances collaboration and autonomy.

  • Professional Development and Learning

    Opportunities to develop AI fluency and learn about life sciences domain through internal programs, workshops, and cross-functional collaboration with scientists.

  • Generous Time Off and Parental Leave

    Competitive paid time off, parental leave benefits, and support for work-life balance. Flexible scheduling to accommodate personal needs.

  • Retirement and Financial Planning

    401(k) retirement plan with employer matching to support long-term financial security and retirement planning.

  • Collaborative Engineering Culture

    Work within a high-performing engineering organization focused on excellence, continuous learning, and supporting each other to deliver impactful products.

  • Meaningful Impact in Life Sciences

    Contribute to transforming biotech R&D and enabling faster scientific breakthroughs that benefit patients worldwide. Direct visibility into how your work accelerates research.

Full posting

Original listing.

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

 Developer Experience is a crucial function that empowers our engineers to excel in their craft. As a technical leader in the Platform pillar, you’ll work closely with the Developer Productivity and Release Engineering teams to create tools and frameworks that enhance developer experience, with a focus on the Path to Production. 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.

  • Lead the design and development of release tooling that enables code changes to reach production within 10 minutes.

  • Iterate on developer experience improvements using qualitative and quantitative feedback.

  • Implement feedback loops that integrate quality into software development workflows.

  • Champion effective engineering and operational patterns across the Engineering org.

  • 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

  • You have 4+ years of experience in software engineering.

  • Build tools and 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).

  • Clear and effective communicator, especially in cross-functional settings

 

 

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).

#LI-Hybrid

#BI-Hybrid

#LI-CG1

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.

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