Head of Scientific Development Solutions Engineering

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

The Scientific Development Solutions (SDS) Group is a family of engineering teams that deliver products and solutions to biologists centered on the conduct of complex lab operations; development, qualification, and execution of rigorous SOPs; analysis of complex time-series data; and biological and IT-driven workflows for sample management, analytical chemistry, and more. SDS solutions are frequently (but not exclusively) sought out by Benchling’s customers with GLP / GMP regulatory concerns.

As the group lead for SDS engineering, you will be responsible for all software engineering work throughout our SDLC – specification, development, testing, deployment, and operational maintenance (SRE) work – for the Procedures, Studies, and Workflows products, split across two teams. Benchling runs an agile process and each of these various aspects of the SDLC are all typically in flight in a continuous fashion.

You will work closely with senior engineering leadership, a group-level product management counterpart, as well as engineering leaders, PMs, and designers supporting teams within your group and across the organization. Group leads typically directly manage one engineering scrum themselves (i.e., 5–10 engineers), while additional teams within the group report to other managers who will report to you. The SDS group sits within the Applications pillar of Benchling’s Software Engineering dept, and you will report to the Head of Engineering for Applications along with two other senior group leaders.

In addition to the day-to-day management of the team and its execution, engineering group leads attend to more horizontal demands of the broader engineering organization and Benchling as a whole, such as setting and maintaining standards for engineering quality; running and improving our interviewing, hiring, and onboarding processes; and continuously improving our overall SDLC.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage a group of 2–3 engineering scrum teams; up to one team may be directly reporting to you, with other teams reporting to other line managers in your organization

• Translate strategy into execution by developing and executing quarterly plans with clear metrics and targets.

• Define and execute on a software engineering roadmap across your teams that encompasses new product and new feature development, quality improvements for both internal and external stakeholders, and bugfixes and software maintenance activities. Work closely with Product Mgmt and Design counterparts to articulate an achievable roadmap that meets our customer needs.

• Recruit, hire, and onboard exceptional full-stack engineers and engineering managers to staff your organization; mentor team members and act as a bar-raiser for talent.

• Build a strong partnership with stakeholders across the engineering organization and other functions across the company.

• Contribute to engineering-wide organizational improvements as part of the management team.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 10–15 years overall experience in software engineering and engineering management roles.

• 5+ years overall experience in SaaS or the broader high-tech commercial software sector.

• 5+ years of engineering management experience, including 3+ years of indirectly managing other teams through subordinate engineering managers.

• Experience driving complex multi-quarter roadmaps to completion, with multiple technical projects and products.

• Experience building and deploying cloud-based web applications, ideally on both the front- and back-end.

• Track record of growing high-trajectory, early-to-mid-career engineers into leaders with company-wide impact.

• Familiarity with software engineering management productivity tools (e.g., Jira or other bug database), as well as observability tools for logging, metrics, and alerting.

• Interest in / curiosity about biotech! Prior experience with biotech, pharmaceutical, or other life sciences business sectors or education is not required, but is absolutely a plus.

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).

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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.