Job Details

Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Biology & Life Sciences

About Anthropic

Anthropic's mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. Our team includes researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.

About the Role

We are seeking an exceptional Research Engineer / Research Scientist to join our Life Science team. The team aims to accelerate progress in the life sciences from discovery through translation by an order of magnitude. You will combine biology expertise with machine learning engineering to develop evaluation frameworks and training strategies that push the frontier of AI in biology. As a founding member, you will work at the intersection of cutting-edge AI and biological sciences to develop rigorous methods for measuring and improving model performance on complex scientific tasks, collaborating with world-class researchers and engineers to support all phases of research and development while upholding safety and beneficial impact.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement evaluation methodologies for assessing AI model capabilities relevant to biological research and applications
• Develop and execute strategies to systematically improve model performance on scientific tasks
• Develop approaches to address long-horizon task completion and complex reasoning essential for scientific discovery
• Collaborate with domain experts and partners to establish benchmarks and gather high-quality data
• Translate between biological domain knowledge and machine learning objectives

You may be a good fit if you

• Have 8+ years of machine learning experience, with demonstrated ability to train and evaluate large language models
• Have 5+ years of hands-on experience in life sciences R&D, with deep expertise in molecular biology, drug discovery, or computational biology
• Bridge biological domain knowledge with computational approaches to solve real scientific problems
• Are proficient in Python and familiar with modern ML development practices
• Are comfortable navigating ambiguity and developing solutions in rapidly evolving research environments
• Can work independently while maintaining strong collaboration with cross-functional teams
• Are results-oriented with a bias toward flexibility and impact
• Thrive in a fast-paced research environment balancing rigorous scientific standards with rapid iteration
• Are passionate about using AI to accelerate scientific discovery while maintaining high ethical standards
• Have experience managing data pipelines and working with large-scale biological datasets

Strong candidates may have

• Ph.D. in a biological science (molecular biology, biochemistry, computational biology), in Machine Learning, or related field, or equivalent industry experience
• Published research or practical experience in scientific AI applications or long-horizon reasoning
• Experience with Reinforcement Learning and/or Pretraining
• Knowledge of containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud deployment at scale
• Ability to work across multiple domains (language modeling, systems engineering, scientific computing)
• Experience with modern machine learning techniques and model training methodologies
• Familiarity with biological databases (UniProt, GenBank, PDB) and computational biology tools
• Experience in drug discovery, including computational chemistry or structure-based design
• Knowledge of regulatory requirements for therapeutic development or clinical research
• Contributions to open-source scientific software or databases

This role offers a unique opportunity to shape how AI transforms biological research. You will work with leading AI researchers to tackle problems with meaningful impact on human health and scientific understanding.

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

Base compensation: The expected base compensation for this position is below. Our total compensation package includes equity, benefits, and may include incentive compensation.

$315,000 - $340,000 USD

Logistics

Education requirements: At least a Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience.

Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, staff are expected to be in an office at least 25% of the time; some roles may require more time in offices.

Visa sponsorship: We sponsor visas. If we offer you a role, we will make reasonable efforts to obtain a visa with the help of our immigration lawyer.

Application guidance: We encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every single qualification. We value diverse perspectives and believe AI has significant social and ethical implications; representation is important to us.

How we're different

We believe the highest-impact AI research is big science. We work as a cohesive team on a few large-scale research efforts, valuing impact and steerable, trustworthy AI. We pursue empirical science and emphasize collaboration and communication skills. Our recent directions include GPT-3, Circuit-Based Interpretability, Multimodal Neurons, Scaling Laws, AI & Compute, Concrete Problems in AI Safety, and Learning from Human Preferences.

Come work with us!

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 collaborative office space.

Important notes

We do not include the lengthy application forms or government self-identification materials in the job description here. For the official application process and details (including our AI usage policy and candidate guidelines), please refer to the official Anthropic careers page.