Security Engineer

Role Overview

As a Security Engineer at Benchling, you will be joining a team responsible for supporting the security program and safeguarding some of society's most sensitive data. Our team's scope spans from building and maintaining internal security tools to managing mission‑critical security infrastructure that ensures the overall security of our enterprise environment for employees and customers. We're looking for experienced builders who are excited to lead complex projects, mentor teammates, and drive architectural decisions that will shape robust security solutions as Benchling continues to grow.

• Lead the architecture and development of security tools and infrastructure to support Benchling's security mission, owning complex projects end‑to‑end from planning through delivery.
• Collaborate with Product Security Engineers and Software Engineers to identify, design, and implement security features and controls in our AWS cloud infrastructure.
• Drive alignment across multiple engineering teams on internal and customer‑facing security and privacy initiatives, proactively identifying trade‑offs and risks.
• Support security detection and response efforts by contributing to detections, automation, and investigations.
• Research, evaluate, and advocate for new security tools, both in‑house and third‑party, ensuring they meet Benchling's security needs.
• Define and operationalize processes for data mining, data modeling, and data production that establish security engineering standards.
• Partner with Security Detection & Response Engineers during incident response and investigations.
• Guide the development of processes to ensure the quality and reliability of security data.
• Mentor Security Engineers on your team, providing technical guidance, actionable code reviews, and career development support.
• Proactively identify and fix long‑term, impactful problems within the security program.

• 6+ years of experience in Security Engineering or a related role.
• Deep domain expertise in security engineering sufficient to anticipate implications on adjacent fields.
• Strong software engineering skills with the ability to design maintainable systems and provide architectural guidance.
• Deep expertise in AWS cloud infrastructure and security services.
• Familiarity with modern infrastructure technologies such as Docker, Terraform, Cloud Formation, and Kinesis.
• Demonstrated ability to own multi‑quarter initiatives from planning to completion with minimal guidance.
• Proven mentorship experience, having successfully coached junior engineers to higher performance.
• Proven leadership in cross‑functional initiatives, managing stakeholders and driving consensus.
• Strong communication skills, able to influence both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Understanding of security trade‑offs and prioritizations across the organization, identifying gaps in priorities.
• User empathy and awareness of how work impacts internal and external stakeholders.

• Experience as a technical leader on a security team, formally or informally.
• Track record of defining and operationalizing team processes, standards, or best practices.
• Public presence through security conference talks, blog posts, open‑source contributions, or industry publications.
• Experience with RFC writing and technical design documentation for large initiatives.
• Participation in hiring programs, including interview process design and sourcing.

We offer a flexible hybrid work arrangement that prioritizes in‑office collaboration. Employees are expected to be on site three days per week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday).

Benchling takes a market‑based approach to pay. The base salary range for this role is $208,000 to $281,000, determined by skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and location.

• 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 on‑site employees and a generous home‑office stipend for remote employees
• Mental health…