Software Engineer, Intern
Over the coming years, biotech will fundamentally rewrite the way we live. Gene editing and cell therapy are dramatically changing how we treat cancer and other major illnesses. Biofuels and biomaterials are transforming the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, and the makeup of everyday objects. Crop science and synthetic biology are producing sustainable and ethical food. Benchling’s mission is to accelerate the research that propels us towards this reality, and magnify its impact, through modern software.
Every day, scientists around the world use Benchling’s applications, platform, & analytics in their efforts to solve humanity’s most pressing problems. For these scientists, Benchling is the central technology they use to conduct their research. Our customers include pharmaceutical giants, leading biotechs, and the world’s most renowned research institutes.
We're looking for interns to join our Summer 2022 intern class in San Francisco (Benchling HQ). As an intern, you'll be entrusted with a significant degree of ownership to work alongside full-time engineers who hail from MIT, Google, Facebook, Stripe, and more. You'll learn to design complex and highly scalable product and systems. Our past interns have built DNA search engines, key pieces of our AWS infrastructure, and analytics pipelines.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Work with and learn from a strong team of engineers coming from top computer science programs and industry leaders. We grow our interns through mentorship and ownership.
- Own a project end-to-end, from initial design, to prototype, to large-scale rollout. You might:
- Design and implement backend models and API endpoints for complex scientific workflows.
- Design and implement rich frontend components and architecture. We build and operate one of the largest, richest React applications out there and power complex scientific analyses.
- Design and build a platform framework or infrastructure tool for other Benchling engineers to use.
YOU
- Are pursuing a BA/BS and/or MA/MS degree in computer science, math or a related technical field.
- Have had a prior Software Engineer Internship or similar experience.
- Build software with a product-first approach. You ship code quickly and care about the real world impact of your code.
- Have strong abilities in problem solving and iterating on feedback.
- Enjoy ownership and building key pieces of product and/or platform.
- Are interested in learning about life science, but prior knowledge is not required!
YOU MIGHT WORK ON
Check out our blog posts for some examples of past intern work. Here are some other examples of recent and future projects:
- Tools to simulate DNA assembly - Computers can assist scientists by informing scientific decisions with complex calculations. Our bulk assembly tool allows scientists to simulate constructing hundreds of DNA constructs in parallel, visualizing the end result and highlighting potential issues.
- Complex querying and visualization tools - The big advantage of keeping all your data stored in one system is that you can query that data all at once, without digging up multiple sources. This works best when you can query Benchling the same way you can query a database: by choosing from a large number of possible filters on any related objects, joining together various sources, and performing aggregations. We want to enable this in a user-friendly experience, without leaving your browser.
- Improving our deployment process - Being able to reliably and quickly deploy changes to our hundreds of customers is critical to getting new features out and responding quickly to regressions or incidents. Our CD (continuous deployment) process is responsible for releasing tens of changes to customers everyday. As the codebase grows and the engineering team grows to 100+ engineers, we’ve needed to rearchitect parts of our CD pipeline.
*The perks/benefits below are only offered to our full-time Benchling employees*
Benchling welcomes everyone. We believe every member of our team enriches our diversity and inclusion by broadening our ways of problem-solving for future challenges. Even if you don't meet 100% of the qualifications for this job, we strongly encourage you to apply.
LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES
- Admit mistakes and shortcomings
- Deliver results
- Disagree and commit
- Obsess over customers
- Rely on work ethic
- Show empathy
- Recruit and develop the best
- Sweat the details
- Think and communicate clearly
- Unite around the mission
PERKS AND BENEFITS
- Work with a talented yet humble team
- Competitive compensation & equity package
- Weekly virtual social events, and annual company retreats
- 401k, Medical, dental, and vision insurance (US Employees Only)
- Monthly health & wellness stipend
- Yearly educational stipend
- Flexible & Generous Vacation Policy: If you feel you need a break, you can talk directly with your manager to find coverage and support while you are out of the office. Need time off to vote? We've got you covered.
- Quarterly company-wide mental health days off
- Holiday Shut-down: company-wide holiday shut-down between Christmas Eve and New Years
- Major US and EMEA holidays observed
- To support remote work conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Benchling provides each employee a one-time stipend of $1,000(USD) upon commencing employment, and additional discounted employee purchase plans for home-office equipment.
In following best practices and safety protocols, all Benchling employees are expected to work remotely until we are further advised that it is safe for employees to resume work in their respective office locations.
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. 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.