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Research Manager, Biological Safety

AnthropicSan Francisco, CASafeguards (Trust & Safety)
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Salary
Not listed
Job type
Full-time
Posted
2 Sept 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

The Research Manager, Biological Safety position at Anthropic in San Francisco involves leading a specialized research engineering team focused on biological safety and AI model governance. This hands-on management role is ideal for an experienced technical leader with a background in life sciences and machine learning who wants to ensure artificial intelligence supports beneficial research while preventing misuse.

Role Overview

Anthropic's Safeguards organization is seeking a dedicated professional to guide the team responsible for biological safety evaluations, datasets, and classifiers. In this hybrid role based in San Francisco, the manager will spend most of their time coaching staff, establishing strategic technical roadmaps, and making critical decisions regarding safeguard readiness. Success in this position requires balancing precision so that sophisticated threats are mitigated without obstructing legitimate life sciences researchers utilizing Claude.

Key Responsibilities

Manage, mentor, and expand a team of research scientists and engineers specializing in biological safety evaluations and safety classifiers.
Establish the technical direction, scope, and prioritization for the biological safety research agenda under uncertainty.
Oversee capability evaluations to assess frontier model behaviors in the biological domain and convert findings into actionable deployment recommendations.
Guide the curation of robust training and evaluation datasets in collaboration with internal and external threat modeling experts.
Monitor the training and iteration of safety classifiers alongside machine learning engineers to optimize for adversarial robustness and minimal false positives.
Direct ongoing red-teaming, stress-testing, and production traffic performance tracking for safeguards as model capabilities evolve.
Collaborate cross-functionally with Research, Product, Policy, and government affairs teams to integrate biological safety across the model lifecycle.
Communicate research findings through external channels such as model cards, technical blog posts, and policy documentation.

Requirements

Experience managing a technical team, encompassing hiring, performance management, and career coaching.
Demonstrated ability to set technical direction and make tough prioritization calls under conditions of uncertainty.
Proficiency in Python with a solid foundation in scientific programming and data analysis.
Strong grasp of machine learning fundamentals to critically review evaluation designs and classifier development.
Deep knowledge of modern biology across measurement and engineering, including high-throughput assays, functional characterization, gene synthesis, genome editing, and protein engineering.
Proven capability in designing quantitative experiments and drawing defensible conclusions from noisy results.
Clear analytical writing abilities alongside comfort navigating ambiguity.
Familiarity with biosecurity frameworks, dual-use research concerns, select agent regulations, or similar guidelines.
Minimum education of a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to Have

Three or more years of people management experience leading research or machine learning engineering teams.
Background building a functional team from a small headcount, defining scope, and establishing team operations.
Eight or more years of hands-on life sciences experience in computational biology, molecular biology, or drug discovery.
Practical familiarity working with large language models through prompting, fine-tuning, or evaluation.
Experience training or deploying classifiers and reasoning about precision and recall for rare, high-consequence categories.
Background in developing machine learning methods for biological data, adversarial robustness, or safety evaluations.

Skills and Tools

Python
Machine Learning Fundamentals
Dataset Curation and Evaluation Design
Classifier Training and Optimization
Adversarial Robustness and Red-Teaming
Life Sciences and Biosecurity Frameworks

Salary and Benefits

Annual base salary ranging from $405,000 to $485,000 USD.
Competitive compensation and benefits package including optional equity donation matching.
Generous vacation policies and parental leave.
Flexible working hours with a location-based hybrid policy requiring at least 25% time in the San Francisco office.
Visa sponsorship available with immigration legal support provided for qualifying candidates.

About the Company

Anthropic is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco with a mission to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems that are safe and beneficial for society. The organization functions as a single cohesive team pursuing large-scale empirical research with significant social and ethical implications, valuing high-impact contributions to trustworthy artificial intelligence.

How to Apply

Candidates interested in joining Anthropic should review position openings and submit their application directly on the official Anthropic careers page.

Skills and tech stack

Python

Questions candidates ask

What is the salary range for the Research Manager, Biological Safety role?

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $405,000 to $485,000 USD.

Where is this position located?

This role is located in San Francisco, CA, operating under a location-based hybrid policy where staff are expected to be in the office at least 25% of the time.

Does Anthropic offer visa sponsorship for this position?

Yes, Anthropic does sponsor visas for this role and provides assistance through an immigration lawyer for candidates who receive an offer.

What programming language is required for the job?

Proficiency in Python is required, alongside a background in scientific programming and data analysis.

How should I apply for this position?

You should apply directly through the official Anthropic careers page to ensure secure communication and verify open positions.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official Anthropic careers page.

Apply on company site