Research Scientist/Engineer, Biological Safety

Details

Anthropic is seeking a research engineer to build safety and oversight mechanisms governing how AI models handle biological knowledge. The role sits at the intersection of applied machine learning and biosecurity and focuses on model evaluations, safety classifier development, adversarial testing, and deployment recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and run capability evaluations to assess what frontier models can do in the biological domain and turn results into deployment recommendations.
• Develop training and evaluation datasets for safety classifiers in collaboration with internal and external threat-modeling experts.
• Train, tune, and iterate on safety classifiers with machine learning engineers, optimizing for adversarial robustness and low false-positive rates.
• Build tooling and pipelines that make evaluation and classifier development fast and repeatable.
• Analyze classifier and evaluation performance against production traffic, identify gaps, and prioritize improvements.
• Design and run red-teaming and stress-testing of safeguards as threats, models, and product surfaces evolve.
• Partner with Research, Product, and Policy teams to embed biological safety throughout the model development lifecycle.
• Contribute to external communications, including model cards, blog posts, and policy documents.
• Track developments in biology, machine learning, and biosecurity for potential risks and mitigations.

Requirements

• Strong proficiency in Python and extensive experience with scientific programming and data analysis.
• Excellent grasp of machine learning fundamentals and the ability to rapidly adopt machine learning development practices.
• Excellent knowledge of modern biology, including high-throughput assays, functional characterization, gene synthesis, genome editing, strain construction, and protein engineering.
• Ability to build and maintain personal tooling rather than relying on others to implement ideas.
• Experience designing quantitative experiments or evaluations and drawing defensible conclusions from noisy results.
• Strong analytical and writing skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Familiarity with dual-use research concerns and biosecurity frameworks such as select agent regulations, the Biological Weapons Convention, or Australia Group guidelines.
• Comfort with ambiguity and shifting priorities as AI capabilities change.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Results-oriented approach, flexibility, and ability to work in a fast-paced research environment while balancing rigorous scientific standards with rapid iteration.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with large language models, including prompting, fine-tuning, or evaluation.
• Experience training or deploying classifiers or other machine learning systems in production.
• Experience developing machine learning methods for biological systems or biological data.
• Familiarity with adversarial robustness, red-teaming, or machine learning safety evaluation.
• At least 8 years of hands-on experience in life sciences, with deep expertise in areas such as molecular biology, drug discovery, or computational biology.
• Experience leading complex technical projects across multiple stakeholder groups.

Education and Experience

• Minimum education: Bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• Required field of study: A field relevant to the role, as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience.
• Minimum years of experience will correlate with the internal job level requirements for the position.

Compensation

The annual salary range is $300,000–$405,000 USD.

Benefits and Logistics

• Hybrid policy: Staff are expected to work from one of Anthropic's offices at least 25% of the time, although some roles may require more office time.
• Anthropic sponsors visas and makes reasonable efforts to obtain visas for candidates who receive an offer, with assistance from an immigration lawyer.
• Anthropic offers competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and office space for collaboration.