Back to jobs
New

Software Engineer, Molecular Biology

Boston, MA

Biotechnology is rewriting life as we know it, from the medicines we take, to the crops we grow, the materials we wear, and the household goods that we rely on every day. But moving at the new speed of science requires better technology.

Benchling’s mission is to unlock the power of biotechnology. The world’s most innovative biotech companies use Benchling’s R&D Cloud to power the development of breakthrough products and accelerate time to milestone and market. 

Come help us bring modern software to modern science.

ROLE OVERVIEW

Benchling builds modern software for research and development across life sciences and biotechnology. Our tools help scientists work more efficiently as they explore the mechanisms of biology and chemistry, driving innovation across health, agriculture, drug discovery, and more. The Molecular Biology team focuses on building powerful, intuitive features that support a wide range of scientific workflows—from designing DNA constructs to analyzing protein sequences, performing gene editing experiments, and streamlining complex experimental data management.

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Own end-to-end project development: Take ownership of projects from understanding product requirements and designs to planning, implementing, testing, and deploying solutions. You will handle the full lifecycle of features, from initial concept to final delivery.
  • Collaborate with product managers and designers: Work closely with cross-functional teams to turn product requirements into actionable tech plans. Provide technical insights and feedback, balancing product goals with technical feasibility.
  • Write clean, maintainable code: Contribute to both frontend (React) and backend (Python) development, ensuring high-quality, scalable code that adheres to best practices and solid engineering principles.
  • Refactor and manage technical debt: Take responsibility for improving and cleaning up existing code while building new features. Identify areas for technical improvement, ensuring long-term code maintainability and product scalability.
  • Design and implement robust testing and metrics: Write comprehensive tests for new and existing features, ensuring software reliability. Implement metrics to track and measure the performance and success of features post-launch.
  • Collaboration with Other Engineers – It’s important to emphasize the ability to work effectively within a team of engineers, especially in cross-functional settings. This includes code reviews, collaboration on architecture decisions, and pairing with colleagues to solve problems.
  • Ownership and Accountability – While you’ve mentioned taking ownership of the projects, there could be more about being able to self-manage, prioritize tasks, and drive projects forward without heavy supervision.
  • Scalability and Performance Optimization – Although you mentioned technical debt, a more explicit mention of experience in building scalable systems and optimizing performance could be valuable.
  • Adaptability and Openness to New Challenges – Especially in a fast-paced, evolving field like life sciences, the ability to pivot, handle ambiguity, and quickly learn new technologies or domains could be important.
  • Cross-functional Communication – While collaboration with product and design is covered, it could be good to add how important clear communication across teams is. 

QUALIFICATIONS

  • 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
  • Proven ability to take product requirements and transform them into actionable technical plans and high-quality code.
  • Solid understanding of software engineering best practices, including writing clean, maintainable code, testing, version control, and working within Agile workflows.
  • Experience in building scalable and performant systems that meet user demands while ensuring reliability.
  • Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to iteratively improve solutions based on feedback and real-world performance.
  • Experience working with platform and cross-functional teams to build comprehensive solutions that address multiple business needs beyond individual features.
  • Ability to push back when necessary: Respectfully challenge product and design assumptions, advocating for technical solutions that improve product quality, scalability, and maintainability.
  • Ability to mentor and contribute to team growth: Help onboard new team members and foster a collaborative, learning-driven environment, while contributing to the evolution of engineering practices and processes.
  • Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams (Product, Design, Data Science, etc.).
  • A passion for learning and growth, especially in the life sciences or biotechnology space (no prior knowledge required, just a willingness to learn and adapt).

Nice to Have:

  • Familiarity with molecular biology or chemistry concepts or a strong interest in learning more about these fields.
  • Strong expertise in frontend development with React and backend development with Python. Experience building scalable, user-friendly applications that support complex scientific workflows.
  • Experience managing technical debt and making decisions that balance product speed with long-term maintainability.

Experience with layered architecture concepts and designing solutions that are robust, maintainable, and scalable.

HOW WE WORK

Flexible Hybrid Work: We offer a flexible hybrid work arrangement that prioritizes in-office collaboration. Employees are expected to be on-site 3 days per week.

SALARY RANGE

Benchling takes a market-based approach to pay.  The candidate's starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and work location. For this role the base salary range is $186,622 -  $252,488. 

To help you determine which zone applies to your location, please see this resource. If you have questions regarding a specific location's zone designation, please contact a recruiter for additional information.

Total Compensation includes the following:
  • Competitive total rewards package
  • Broad range of medical, dental, and vision plans for employees and their dependents
  • Fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits
  • Four months of fully paid parental leave
  • 401(k) + Employer Match
  • Commuter benefits for in-office employees and a generous home office set up stipend for remote employees
  • Mental health benefits, including therapy and coaching, for employees and their dependents
  • Monthly Wellness stipend
  • Learning and development stipend
  • Generous and flexible vacation
  • Company-wide Winter holiday shutdown
  • Sabbaticals for 5-year and 10-year anniversaries

#LI-Hybrid 

#BI-Hybrid 

#LI-GP1

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.

 

Please be aware that Benchling will never request personal information, payment, or sensitive details outside of Greenhouse or via email. All official communications will come from an @benchling.com email address or from an approved vendor alias. If you are contacted by someone claiming to represent Benchling and are unsure of their legitimacy, please reach out to us at recruiting-fraud-alert@benchling.com to verify the communication.

 

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

U.S. Voluntary Demographic Questionnaire:

At Benchling we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. We understand the value of building teams that represent different identities, lived experiences, and perspectives. We also understand that in order to realize this value, we must be intentional.

To get a comprehensive understanding of our pipeline, we invite all applicants to fill out these demographic questions. Completion of this form is entirely voluntary and declining to provide this information will not subject you to adverse treatment. All responses to this survey will be kept anonymous. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Benchling’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.