Engineering Manager, Labs

Details

Anthropic is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead and grow a team of software engineers working on early-stage AI capabilities within Anthropic Labs, an internal accelerator focused on transforming research breakthroughs into products through rapid iteration. Past Labs successes include Claude Code and MCP.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coach a high-performing team of software engineers through zero-to-one development, creating an environment that rewards experimentation and learning.
• Hire and develop versatile, entrepreneurial engineers who thrive in ambiguity and can adapt across problem spaces.
• Partner with design, product, and research leaders to align direction and execution.
• Balance creative exploration with rigorous evaluation of results.
• Help teams test hypotheses, make project-kill decisions, and extract learnings from successes and failures.
• Facilitate collaboration between Labs engineers and research teams across Anthropic.
• Provide actionable feedback and support engineer growth in an environment where projects shift frequently.
• Drive adoption of Labs prototypes and learnings to inform company-wide product strategy.
• Represent the Labs perspective and roadmap to research, product, and leadership stakeholders.
• Maintain team stability and morale through the uncertainty of early-stage work.

Requirements

• 5+ years of engineering management experience, including significant experience leading teams in ambiguous, early-stage, or zero-to-one environments.
• Strong technical background as an individual contributor before moving into management; startup or founding engineer experience is preferred.
• Ability to create psychological safety and help teams navigate uncertainty without burnout.
• Strong facilitation and decision-making skills, including comfort with ending unsuccessful projects and maintaining strong opinions loosely held.
• Experience building and retaining generalist teams that can adapt as priorities shift.
• Exceptional interpersonal intelligence and the ability to guide teams through rapid pivots while maintaining trust.
• Strategic thinking to identify high-potential research breakthroughs and viable paths to productization.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain Labs work and impact to leadership and the broader company.
• Comprehensive technical understanding across full-stack engineering and modern product development, with familiarity with AI/ML concepts.
• Commitment to responsibly advancing AI capabilities.

Additional Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing teams that work directly with research organizations or in R&D-adjacent environments.
• Experience helping engineers grow through non-traditional career paths.
• Experience with AI/ML products or working knowledge of large language models.
• Experience building teams from scratch or scaling early-stage organizations.
• Experience managing organizational change or frequent strategic pivots.

Candidates do not need every listed skill, formal certifications, education credentials, or direct machine learning or AI research experience. The minimum education requirement is a bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience. The required field of study should be relevant to the role through coursework, training, or professional experience.

Compensation

Annual salary: $1-$2 USD.

Work Policy and Logistics

The role is based in San Francisco, California, or New York City, New York. Anthropic currently expects staff to work from one of its offices at least 25% of the time, although some roles may require more office time. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis with no stated deadline.

Anthropic explicitly states that it sponsors visas and will make every reasonable effort to obtain a visa for an offer recipient, although sponsorship is not guaranteed for every role or candidate. Anthropic also provides an immigration lawyer to assist with the process.