Head of Scientific Development Solutions Engineering

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).