Latest AI JobsBrowse Jobs
Anthropic logo

Research Engineer, RL Engineering

AnthropicSan Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WAAI Research & Engineering
Apply on company site
Salary
Not listed
Job type
Full-time
Posted
15 Oct 2025
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

Role Overview

The Research Engineer, RL Engineering position at Anthropic is a full-time technical role based in San Francisco, CA, New York City, NY, or Seattle, WA, designed for software professionals eager to build advanced training infrastructure for production AI models like Claude. This opportunity suits experienced engineers who want to focus on high-performance algorithms, machine learning systems, and empowering research teams to achieve breakthroughs in artificial intelligence safety and capability.

Key Responsibilities

Build, maintain, and improve the core algorithms and systems that researchers use to train internal and production Claude models through RLHF and related methods.
Focus on enhancing the speed, reliability, and usability of reinforcement learning pipelines to accelerate research progress.
Profile reinforcement learning pipelines to identify and implement performance improvements.
Build automated systems that launch training jobs in test environments to quickly detect pipeline issues.
Modify finetuning systems to support new model architectures seamlessly.
Create instrumentation to detect and eliminate Python GIL contention within training code.
Diagnose and resolve training slowdowns that occur after a specific number of steps.
Implement stable and fast versions of novel training algorithms proposed by research scientists.

Requirements

Bring four or more years of professional software engineering experience.
Hold a Bachelor’s degree or possess an equivalent combination of education, training, and relevant experience in a related field.
Demonstrate a results-oriented mindset with flexibility, impact-driven focus, and a willingness to pick up tasks outside the primary job description.
Enjoy collaborative practices such as pair programming.
Show a strong interest in learning machine learning research and caring about societal impacts.
Comply with the location-based hybrid policy, requiring staff to work from an office at least 25% of the time.

Nice to Have

Experience building high-performance, large-scale distributed systems.
Background in large-scale LLM training.
Proficiency in Python.
Practical experience implementing LLM finetuning algorithms, including RLHF.

Skills and Tools

Python
Large Language Models (LLMs)
Distributed Systems
Reinforcement Learning Infrastructure

Salary and Benefits

Annual base salary range of $500,000 to $850,000 USD.
Competitive compensation and benefits package.
Optional equity donation matching.
Generous vacation days and parental leave.
Flexible working hours.
Access to a collaborative office environment.
Visa sponsorship is available for qualified candidates.

About the Company

Anthropic is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco with a mission to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems that remain safe and beneficial for society. Operating as a single cohesive team, the organization approaches AI research as an empirical science akin to physics and biology, focusing on large-scale efforts rather than isolated puzzles. The growing multidisciplinary group consists of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders who value collaboration, frequent research discussions, and transparent communication.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit their application directly through the official Anthropic careers page.

Skills and tech stack

PythonLLM

Questions candidates ask

What locations are available for this role?

This role is available in San Francisco, CA, New York City, NY, or Seattle, WA, with a location-based hybrid policy requiring staff to be in the office at least 25% of the time.

What is the annual salary range for the Research Engineer position?

The annual salary range is $500,000 to $850,000 USD.

How much experience is required to apply?

Candidates must have four or more years of software engineering experience along with a relevant Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.

Does Anthropic offer visa sponsorship for this job?

Yes, Anthropic sponsors visas for this role and retains an immigration lawyer to assist candidates who receive an offer.

What core technologies will I work with?

The role primarily involves working with Python, large-scale distributed systems, and large language model training infrastructure.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official Anthropic careers page.

Apply on company site