Product Designer, App Foundations

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 Product Design team at Benchling is committed to building user experiences that support the scientists who are solving the world’s most important problems. Our work has a direct impact on making scientific workflows more efficient while improving the quality of that research—ultimately helping to drive the biotech revolution.

App Foundations owns the notebook, document editing, and the compliance and lifecycle workflows that sit at the core of how scientists work in Benchling. We're looking for a senior Product Designer to own design across two teams: Document Canvas, which covers the document editing experience scientists use to write and execute experimental work, and Enterprise Lifecycle, which covers the review, audit, and compliance surfaces built on top of it.

This is a broad role with meaningful autonomy. You'll set design direction, work closely with Product on priorities, and be the primary design voice for a set of surfaces that a large portion of Benchling's users interact with daily. That includes contributing to longer-horizon thinking and ideating on where AI can meaningfully improve how scientists write, review, and manage their work. It suits someone who's comfortable holding complexity across multiple product areas and who has strong opinions about what good looks like.

An ideal person for this team will be able to balance customer needs and priorities with scalable, consistent, delightful user experiences in an agile environment.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work with Product Management and Engineering teams to define product strategy, scope, and prioritization across Document Canvas and Enterprise Lifecycle

• Own the design for high-impact initiatives from research, concepts, wireframing, and mockups through to implementation

• Design and prototype multiple ideas quickly to validate product directions

• Conduct user research and interviews to inform product direction and improve usability for scientists in regulated environments

• Incorporate AI tools into your design workflow to move faster and help define how the team uses AI as a design medium going forward

• Drive design strategy for long-horizon projects, balancing incremental improvements with foundational investments

• Use and contribute to evolving design systems by collaborating with other Designers to identify gaps and design components that have high utility across the product

• Clearly communicate design rationale to cross-functional teams and Product and Design leadership

• Effectively communicate in a hybrid environment that balances in-person collaboration and remote work
  

QUALIFICATIONS

• 5+ years of experience* driving the design of software products, ideally SaaS, while maintaining a relentless focus on the user

• A strong portfolio of relevant design work that conveys an ability to ship successful products

• A track record of working with and simplifying complex product architectures or workflows

• Strong communication skills and ability to explain the reasoning behind complex decisions

• Experience contributing to a design system for complex software products

• Experience working with Product Management, Engineers, and fellow Designers in an agile environment

• A background with lab work, scientific process, or healthcare will serve you well in this role but it is not a requirement.

* We've learned that people hesitate to apply without quantifiable years of experience. However, what’s most important to us is the kind of experiences you’ve had and the skills you’ve developed along the way, regardless of how long it took you to get there. Have well over 5 years of experience? That's great! Have fewer than 5 years, but feel you meet the other requirements? That's ok too! Please apply.

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.