Engineering Manager, Frontier Prototyping

Details

Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. The Research Prototyping team functions as an innovation accelerator that identifies paradigm-shifting AI capabilities and builds prototypes that demonstrate their potential. This role leads the Research Prototyping engineering team to rapidly experiment with emerging AI capabilities, validate breakthrough ideas, and accelerate the path from research innovation to user impact.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of versatile engineers who thrive in 0-to-1 environments and can rapidly prototype across the full stack.
• Partner closely with research teams to identify emerging capabilities with transformative potential and translate them into compelling prototypes.
• Create a culture that embraces experimental failure as a path to breakthrough success while maintaining momentum through rapid iteration cycles.
• Develop frameworks for evaluating prototype success beyond traditional metrics, focusing on capability breakthroughs and research learnings.
• Build strong partnerships across Product and Research teams to ensure smooth transitions for successful prototypes.
• Champion lightweight, prototype-first development practices that maximize learning velocity.
• Guide the team in building "living evals" that provide rapid feedback loops between product experiences and model development.
• Represent ambitious, transformative product possibilities in research planning discussions.
• Foster an environment where engineers feel empowered to pursue bold ideas and pivot quickly based on learnings.

Requirements

• 5+ years of engineering management experience, with significant time leading teams in highly ambiguous, research-oriented environments.
• Deep technical expertise across full-stack development and ML/AI systems.
• Experience working with large language models (LLMs) and other frontier AI technologies is expected.
• Demonstrated ability to identify high-potential ideas from many possibilities and to translate research breakthroughs into user-facing products or demos.
• Ability to manage high-variance outcomes, navigate emotional challenges of experimental work, and context-switch across multiple experimental projects while maintaining strategic clarity.
• Strong communication skills and care about the societal impacts of advanced AI systems.
• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience is required.

Strong candidates may also have experience with

• Building and leading teams focused on emerging technologies or R&D.
• Creating developer tools, AI agents, or other productivity-enhancing systems.
• Working directly with machine learning researchers on productization efforts.
• Managing portfolios of high-risk, high-reward technical projects.
• Building prototyping infrastructure and frameworks that accelerate experimentation.
• Leading through extreme pivots and maintaining team morale through failure.
• Creating compelling demos that communicate complex technical capabilities.
• Working with LLMs, multi-agent systems, or other frontier AI technologies.

Logistics

• Location: San Francisco, CA and New York City, NY (location-based hybrid policy — staff expected to be in an office at least 25% of the time).
• Education: At least a Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience.
• Visa sponsorship: Anthropic will make reasonable efforts to sponsor visas for offered candidates and retains an immigration lawyer to assist.
• Deadline to apply: None (applications reviewed on a rolling basis).

Why work here / Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and collaborative office spaces.
• Opportunity to operate at the frontier of AI research with a focus on steerable, trustworthy AI and to influence both research and product directions.