Benchling

Software Engineer, Developer Enablement

Benchling$120K — $160K *
Enterprise Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of software engineering experience
  • Strong coding skills with a focus on maintainable code
  • Proven experience in building scalable, reliable systems
  • Leadership in engineering practices and team development
  • Ability to collaborate across teams to deliver cohesive solutions
  • Strategic problem-solving skills for complex technical challenges
  • Experience mentoring team members and contributing to their growth
  • Effective communicator in cross-functional environments
  • Interest in building Enterprise SaaS in the life sciences sector

Responsibilities

  • Own projects from ideation through delivery, including development and scaling
  • Design and implement robust APIs and services for integration with the ecosystem
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to convert user needs into software solutions
  • Influence platform direction by proposing innovative solutions and ideas
  • Design and maintain external developer-facing APIs and SDKs
  • Contribute to the evolution of REST and GraphQL APIs for consistency and performance
  • Build systems to deliver real-time scientific data
  • Participate in developing APIs for AI agents supporting scientific applications
  • Architect high-throughput APIs for efficient bulk data handling

Benefits

  • Flexible hybrid work model promoting in-office collaboration
  • Emphasis on team-oriented work environment
  • Opportunities for professional growth and mentoring
  • Engagement in impactful projects influencing scientific applications
  • Supportive culture for innovative thinking and problem-solving
Full Job Description
ROLE OVERVIEW

As a Software Engineer on the Developer Enablement team, you'll play a pivotal role in building the platform that enables our ecosystem of scientific applications. You won't just write code, you'll help shape how developers, partners, and scientists interact with Benchling's products, allowing them to create tools that directly support groundbreaking research. Your work will impact the way science gets done, driving innovation and enabling seamless integration of third-party solutions across the platform.

The team is working on a wide range of early- and mid-stage initiatives-including developer APIs, event delivery, AI-powered agents, and new platform infrastructure designed to support a growing ecosystem of scientific applications. Because of the diversity of our work, engineers have the flexibility to take on projects that align with both business needs and their own interests and skills. This role was envisioned as a "Developer Platform Engineer," reflecting the breadth of opportunities to contribute across our developer-facing systems.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role where your contributions will be visible across the company and to our scientific users worldwide. You'll collaborate with product managers, designers, and engineers, tackling complex challenges while growing your expertise in platform development and life sciences.

RESPONSIBILITIES
  • Take ownership of projects from ideation to delivery, including prototyping, building, and scaling new software features.
  • Design and implement robust APIs, services, and interfaces that integrate seamlessly with our growing ecosystem.
  • Partner with cross-functional teams to translate user needs into scalable, elegant software solutions.
  • Influence the direction of our platform by bringing creative solutions and new ideas to the table.

Developer Interfaces & Platform APIs
  • Design, build, and maintain external developer-facing APIs and SDKs that power extensibility in Benchling's platform.
  • Contribute to evolving and scaling our REST and GraphQL APIs, ensuring consistency, performance, and usability for external and internal developers.
  • Build and maintain delivery systems for real-time scientific data

Bonus: AI Agents & Model Context Protocol (MCP)
  • Contribute to the development of APIs and interfaces that support AI-driven agents like Benchling's Deep Research Agent and Data Entry Agent.
  • Support the development of our Benchling MCP to enable AI agents to interact safely with Benchling's data and APIs.
  • Collaborate with our AI infra / agents teams to support the agentic ecosystem.

Bonus: APIs for ingesting/exporting large amounts of data
  • Architect and implement high-throughput APIs designed specifically for bulk data ingestion and export, capable of handling millions of records daily with minimal latency.
  • Design scalable API specifications (REST or gRPC) that support complex filtering, sparse fieldsets, and cursor-based pagination to efficiently manage large payloads.

Check out our engineering blog for some examples of past work across Benchling.

QUALIFICATIONS
  • 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
  • Strong coding skills and engineering fundamentals - able to turn product requirements into well-architected, maintainable, and tested code
  • Experience building scalable, reliable systems with attention to performance and user impact
  • Leadership in engineering practices - drives and upholds high standards in testing, code quality, reviews, version control, and team development workflows
  • Proven ability to work across teams - partnering with product, design, and platform groups to ship cohesive solutions
  • Strategic problem solving - tackles complex, ambiguous technical challenges with a focus on long-term impact, scalability, and user value
  • Comfortable pushing back thoughtfully - advocate for technical solutions that improve quality, scalability, and maintainability
  • Experience mentoring others and contributing to team growth - through onboarding, pairing, and process improvement
  • Clear and effective communicator, especially in cross-functional settings
  • Have a keen interest in delving deeper into building Enterprise SaaS in the life sciences industry. While prior knowledge isn't a prerequisite, an enthusiasm to learn certainly is!


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

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About Benchling

Benchling is a cloud-based informatics platform that accelerates life sciences R&D by streamlining workflows and centralizing data. The platform offers a suite of applications for molecular biology, including DNA design, antibody design, CRISPR analysis, and protein expression. Benchling's customers include pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, and academic institutions. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.
Learn more about Benchling
Size
500 employees
Industry
Founded
2012

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