Senior+ Software Engineer, Research Tools

Anthropic Anthropic · AI Frontier · San Francisco, CA · AI Research & Engineering

This role focuses on building full-stack applications and infrastructure for AI researchers, enabling them to iterate quickly, run experiments, and analyze results. It requires strong software engineering skills, product thinking, and the ability to operate independently in an ambiguous environment. While no ML or research experience is required, the work directly supports AI safety and capability research.

What you'd actually do

  1. Build and maintain full-stack applications and infrastructure that researchers use daily to conduct experiments, collect feedback, and analyze results
  2. Partner closely with research teams to understand their workflows, pain points, and requirements, translating these into technical solutions
  3. Design intuitive interfaces and abstractions that make complex research tasks accessible and efficient
  4. Create reusable platforms and tools that accelerate the development of new research applications
  5. Rapidly prototype and iterate on solutions, gathering feedback from users and refining based on real-world usage

Skills

Required

  • 5+ years of software engineering experience
  • full-stack development
  • rapid iteration and shipping
  • building tools, platforms, or infrastructure for technical users
  • high agency and ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments
  • quickly develop deep understanding of complex technical domains
  • strong product instincts
  • modern web technologies (React, TypeScript, Python, etc.)
  • track record of building user-facing applications
  • Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Nice to have

  • Experience building research tools, scientific software, or experimentation platforms
  • Background in machine learning, AI research, or working closely with ML researchers
  • Founded or been an early engineer at a startup
  • Built open-source tools or platforms with active user communities
  • Experience with data visualization, interactive interfaces, or novel interaction paradigms
  • Contributed to engineering platforms or internal tooling at scale
  • Experience leveraging AI/LLMs to build more powerful or efficient tools
  • Previous work in creative tools, artist tools, or other domains requiring deep user empathy
  • Domain knowledge in areas like human-computer interaction, systems safety, or AI alignment

What the JD emphasized

  • No ML or Research experience is required