Software Engineer, Labs

About the role

At Anthropic, we're building AI systems that are safe, beneficial, and transformative. Our mission is to develop AI that benefits humanity, and we believe the most powerful capabilities emerge when we thoughtfully bridge the gap between research breakthroughs and real-world applications.

Anthropic Labs serves as our internal accelerator. We're looking for the next breakout hits that bring substantial revenue or transform an industry. We operate in close partnership with research and build through fast iteration cycles. Past successes include Claude Code and MCP.

We're seeking versatile, entrepreneurial engineers to join Labs. In this role, you'll work at the intersection of cutting-edge research and real-world application, rapidly building and testing new experiences, working directly with researchers and users, and generating the insights that shape Anthropic's product future. You'll need to be comfortable with ambiguity, willing to kill your own projects when the data says to, and energized by the pace of building in uncharted territory.

Responsibilities

Rapidly prototype full-stack applications that showcase emerging AI capabilities, shipping early and often to maximize learning

Collaborate closely with research teams to understand new model capabilities and translate them into intuitive user experiences

Work directly with internal test users and external partners to gather feedback, iterate quickly, and validate (or invalidate) product concepts

Design and run structured experiments to test hypotheses, balancing creative exploration with rigorous evaluation

Generate documentation and insights to guide successful prototypes toward full product teams

Advocate for user experience and product considerations early in the research process

Provide feedback to research teams about model effectiveness and where capabilities can be improved

Flexibly contribute across Labs initiatives based on organizational priorities and emerging opportunities—context from one project should inform the next

You may be a good fit if you

Have 8+ years of experience building full-stack applications, with a track record of zero-to-one work in startup or startup-like environments

Thrive in ambiguity and are energized (not anxious) by uncertainty—you're comfortable working on projects that might not exist in three months

Have a hacker mentality: high agency, bias toward shipping, comfort with technical debt when it's the right tradeoff

Are deeply user-centric—you validate ideas with actual users before over-investing and talk about problems before solutions

Can articulate learnings from failed or killed projects without defensiveness; you treat your work as experiments

Hold strong opinions loosely—you advocate forcefully for ideas but change your mind based on evidence

Are a generalist who can transition between different problem spaces as priorities shift

Work independently with good judgment about what matters, without needing constant direction

Have strong technical skills across modern web development stacks (React, Node.js, Python, etc.) and are comfortable with APIs, databases, and cloud technologies

Communicate effectively and translate complex AI capabilities into intuitive experiences

Care about the societal impacts and ethics of your work

Strong candidates may also have

Experience building products that involve AI/ML components or working with large language models

Experience collaborating directly with research teams in AI/ML environments

Background conducting user research, interviews, and usability testing

Experience across both B2B and B2C product development, or in multiple industries

Design sensibility or hands-on experience with UI/UX for AI-powered applications

Experience with real-time applications, WebSocket implementations, or complex frontend interactions

What we're not looking for at this stage

Deep specialists who can't adapt if their domain becomes irrelevant

Engineers who've only succeeded in big-company structures with well-defined processes and long timelines

People who are precious about their work or frame all past projects as successes

Those who need clear roadmaps and get stressed by shifting priorities

Candidates need not have

100% of the skills listed above

Formal certifications or education credentials

Direct machine learning or AI research experience

Deadline to apply: None. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.

For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role.

Annual Salary:

$320,000—$485,000 USD

Logistics

Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience

Required field of study: A field relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience

Minimum years of experience: Years of experience required will correlate with the internal job level requirements for the position

Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.

Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.

How we're different

Anthropic is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco. We offer competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and a lovely office space in which to collaborate with colleagues. Guidance on Candidates' AI Usage: Learn about our policy for using AI in our application process.