Research Engineer / Scientist, Pre-Training

Details

Anthropic is seeking a Research Engineer to join its Pre-training team and help develop the next generation of large language models. The role combines cutting-edge AI research with practical engineering to build safe, steerable, and trustworthy AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research and implement solutions involving model architecture, algorithms, data processing, and optimizer development.
• Independently lead small research projects and collaborate on larger initiatives.
• Design, run, and analyze scientific experiments to advance understanding of large language models.
• Optimize and scale training infrastructure for improved efficiency and reliability.
• Develop and improve developer tooling to enhance team productivity.
• Contribute across the technology stack, from low-level optimizations to high-level model design.

Requirements

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
• Strong software engineering skills and a track record of building complex systems.
• Expertise in Python and experience with deep learning frameworks, preferably PyTorch.
• Familiarity with large-scale machine learning, particularly language models.
• Ability to balance research goals with practical engineering constraints.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a results-oriented mindset.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Interest in the societal impacts of AI.

Preferred Experience

• High-performance, large-scale machine learning systems.
• GPUs, Kubernetes, and operating system internals.
• Language modeling with transformer architectures.
• Reinforcement learning techniques.
• Large-scale ETL processes.

Sample Projects

• Optimizing the throughput of novel attention mechanisms.
• Comparing the compute efficiency of different Transformer variants.
• Preparing large-scale datasets for efficient model consumption.
• Scaling distributed training jobs to thousands of GPUs.
• Designing fault-tolerance strategies for training infrastructure.
• Creating interactive visualizations of model internals, such as attention patterns.

Work Policy and Logistics

This is a remote-friendly role with travel required. Anthropic currently expects staff to work from one of its offices at least 25% of the time, although some roles may require more office attendance. Anthropic sponsors visas for eligible roles and candidates and works with an immigration lawyer to provide support.

The minimum education requirement is a bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience. The required field of study must be relevant to the role through coursework, training, or professional experience.

Anthropic offers competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and office collaboration spaces.