Software Engineer, Applications (App Foundations) (High Seniority)

Role Overview

The App Foundations group — comprised of our Lab Notebook and Enterprise Lifecycle teams — builds the surfaces and systems at the heart of the Benchling experience. On one side, that's how scientists capture their work every day — the Notebook and the structured data-input tables where experimental data becomes clean, structured, and analyzable. On the other, it's the enterprise lifecycle capabilities that make that data trustworthy at scale: audit trails, review and approval, exports, and backups. These are the features that show up in FDA submissions and GxP-regulated workflows.

As a Software Engineer at the High Seniority level, you will be the senior engineering authority for the Lab Notebook and Enterprise Lifecycle teams — owning horizontally impactful systems while directly enabling the product features enterprise customers depend on. You will also serve as an IC leader across the broader Applications division, helping set engineering direction that reaches well beyond any single team.

This role reports to the Head of Engineering for Applications and works day-to-day as the senior IC anchor for the Lab Notebook and Enterprise Lifecycle teams.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior technical authority for the Lab Notebook and Enterprise Lifecycle teams, driving the design and development of the Notebook, structured data-input, and enterprise lifecycle systems.
• Independently architect and implement solutions to complex, open-ended problems — from system architecture to backend models and APIs to rich frontend UI — in areas such as comprehensive audit coverage, review and approval flows, scalable export systems, backups, and document lifecycle management.
• Lead large, multi-quarter initiatives: break down ambiguous requirements into concrete technical plans and iterative delivery milestones, designing for scale and reliability.
• Use technical decision-making as a tool of engineering strategy — knowing when to leverage existing platform capabilities, when to take on technical debt deliberately, and when to preserve optionality for the long term.
• Act as a force multiplier across the Applications division: help set engineering direction, raise standards for quality and architecture, and influence technical choices beyond your immediate teams.
• Provide technical leadership through code review, architectural guidance, and mentorship of engineers across all experience levels.
• Partner closely with product management, design, and cross-functional stakeholders to translate customer needs — including regulatory and compliance needs — into technical solutions.
• Explore and evaluate opportunities to leverage AI and LLMs to improve data capture, audit reporting, and compliance workflows.
• Collaborate with other teams to ensure our horizontal systems integrate seamlessly and enable product development across the organization.
• Own end-to-end delivery of critical features — from planning and development through deployment, maintenance, and monitoring — and help scale our tooling, engineering processes, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a demonstrated progression of increasing scope and impact.
• Experience as a technical lead on significant projects involving multiple engineers across multiple quarters.
• Strong experience building backend systems and APIs for cloud-based web applications, plus the ability to build full-stack when needed. (Stack: React frontend and Python backend on a Postgres relational model; direct experience is appreciated but not required).
• Proven ability to design scalable, robust architectures that align with business requirements and long-term maintainability.
• Track record of independently scoping and driving initiative-level work whose impact spans multiple teams and shapes an entire product area or division.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and develop other engineers, raising the bar in areas such as testing, performance, and maintainability.
• Interest in learning about life sciences. (Experience with audit, compliance, or GxP-regulated software is a plus).

Work Arrangement

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). As part of our interview process, you will complete a brief AI-focused exercise or discussion.