Research Engineer, AI Observability

at Anthropic

📍 San Francisco, United States

USD 320,000-405,000 per year

MIDDLE

✅ Hybrid

✅ Visa Sponsorship

Used Tools & Technologies

Machine Learning

Required Skills & Competences
Tag name is followed by "@" symbol and proficiency level value. About proficiency levels:

1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;

3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;

7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;

10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.

Data Science @ 3 Communication @ 3 LLM @ 2 Observability @ 3 AI @ 3

Details

Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. The AI Observability team builds integrated tools that enable Anthropic to ask open-ended questions, surface unexpected patterns, and maintain meaningful human oversight over massive datasets. The team’s tools are used for enforcement, threat intelligence investigations, model audits, and more. As a Research Engineer on this team you will design and build systems that let AI analyze large, unstructured datasets (tens or hundreds of thousands of conversations or documents) and produce structured, trustworthy insights. You will work across the full stack, from core analysis frameworks through user-facing apps and interfaces.

Responsibilities

Design and implement AI-based monitoring systems for AI training and deployment
Extend and improve core frameworks for processing large volumes of unstructured text
Partner with researchers and safety teams across Anthropic to understand analytical needs and build solutions
Develop agentic integrations that allow AI systems to autonomously investigate and act on analytical findings
Contribute to the strategic direction of the team, including decisions about what to build, what to partner on, and where to invest

Requirements

5+ years of software engineering experience, with meaningful exposure to ML systems
Familiarity with LLM application development (context engineering, evaluation, orchestration)
Experience building tools with attention to UX, reliability, and documentation
Ability to work across deep infrastructure work and user-facing product thinking
Comfortable working in collaborative, cross-functional environments
Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience

Strong candidates may also have

Research experience in AI safety, alignment, or responsible deployment
Practical experience with both data science and engineering, including large-scale data processing frameworks
Experience productionizing internal tools or building developer-facing platforms
Background building monitoring or observability systems
Comfort with ambiguity and experience contributing to small, growing teams

Compensation

Annual Salary: $320,000 - $405,000 USD

Logistics

Location: San Francisco, CA
Location-based hybrid policy: staff are expected to be in one of Anthropic’s offices at least 25% of the time
Education requirement: at least a Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience
Visa sponsorship: Anthropic states they do sponsor visas and retain an immigration lawyer to assist (noting they cannot successfully sponsor every role/candidate)

Benefits

Competitive compensation and benefits
Optional equity donation matching
Generous vacation and parental leave
Flexible working hours and office space to collaborate

How we work

Anthropic emphasizes large-scale research efforts, collaboration, frequent research discussions, and communication skills. The team uses Claude to help make sense of large datasets and focuses on steerable, trustworthy AI.