Software Engineer, Applications (Scientific Development Solutions) (High Seniority) at Benchling
San Francisco, CA
$225,378–$304,924
Jul 19, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual contributor engineering role focused on building and architecting full-stack software for complex laboratory operations — specifically products covering studies, workflows, procedures, and bioprocess/bioanalytical use cases in regulated (GLP/GMP) settings. The position involves leading multi-quarter technical initiatives, shaping architecture across an Applications division, and mentoring other engineers, with the stack centered on a React frontend and Python/Postgres backend.
Staff level · 8+ years · Remote · Full-time
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 118,500 people nationally plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 71,000–177,500
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $107,524–$175,762).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The title is 'Software Engineer at the High Seniority level' — no standard level word (Senior, Staff, etc.) appears in the title itself, so the title states no level. However, the actual scope — org-wide technical authority across an Applications division, setting engineering direction beyond any single team, multi-quarter initiative leadership, and reporting to a Head of Engineering as the senior IC anchor — clearly supports Staff-level classification.
The JD explicitly states the stack (React frontend, Python backend, PostgreSQL) is 'appreciated but not required if you can pick it up quickly', so these are marked preferred rather than hard gates.
LLMs appear under a responsibility bullet ('Explore and evaluate opportunities to leverage AI and LLMs') and are not listed as a qualification gate — marked preferred.
The posting mentions a hybrid 3-days-per-week in-office expectation; the caller has overridden this and declared the role fully remote for pool-sizing purposes.
No compensation figures are provided in the posting.
GLP/GMP and life sciences domain knowledge are explicitly called out as a plus/preferred, not a hard requirement — not emitted as skills since they are domain knowledge rather than named technologies or tools.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): cloud-based web applications.
Caller marked this a fully-remote role — scored against the national candidate pool.
Read the full posting
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