Research Engineer / Scientist, Frontier Red Team (Cyber)

Anthropic•San Francisco, CA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Frontier Red Team (FRT) is a small, focused technical research team within Anthropic's Policy organization. Our goal is to make the entire world safer in an era of advanced AI by understanding what these systems can do and building the defenses that matter. In 2026, we're focused on researching and ensuring safety with self-improving, highly autonomous AI systems, especially ones related to cyberphysical capabilities. See our previous related work on cyberdefense, robotics, and Project Vend. This is early-stage, high-conviction research with the potential for outsized impact. In the last year, we've seen compelling signs that LLMs and agents are increasingly capable of novel cyber capabilities. We think 2026 will be the year where models reach expert-level, even superhuman, in several cybersecurity domains. This is a novel and massive threat surface. As a Research Scientist on FRT focusing on cyber, you'll build the tools and frameworks needed to defend the world against advanced AI-enabled cyber threats. Senior candidates will have the opportunity to shape and grow Anthropic's cyberdefense research program, working with Security, Safeguards, Policy, and other partner teams. This work sits at the intersection of AI capabilities research, cybersecurity, and policy—what we learn directly shapes how Anthropic and the world prepare for AI-enabled cyber threats. This is applied research with real-world stakes. Your work will inform decisions at the highest levels of the company, contribute to demonstrations that shape policy discourse, and build the technical defenses that we will need for a future of increasingly powerful AI systems.

Requirements

Have deep expertise in cybersecurity or security research
Are driven to find solutions to complex, high-stakes problems
Have experience doing technical research with LLM-based agents or autonomous systems
Have strong software engineering skills, particularly in Python
Can own entire problems end-to-end, including both technical and non-technical components
Design and run experiments quickly, iterating fast toward useful results
Thrive in collaborative environments
Care deeply about AI safety and want your work to have real-world impact on how humanity navigates advanced AI
Are comfortable working on sensitive projects that require discretion and integrity
Have proven ability to lead cross-functional security initiatives and navigate complex organizational dynamics
We require at least a Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience with offensive security research, vulnerability research, or exploit development
Research or professional experience applying LLMs to security problems
Track record in competitive CTFs, bug bounties, or other security-related competitions
Experience building security tools or automation
Track record of building demos or prototypes that communicate complex technical ideas
Experience working with external stakeholders (policymakers, government, researchers)
Familiarity with AI safety research and threat modeling for advanced AI systems

Responsibilities

Develop systems, tools, and frameworks for AI-empowered cybersecurity, such as autonomous vulnerability discovery and remediation, malware detection and management, network hardening, and pentesting
Design and run experiments to elicit and evaluate autonomous AI cyber capabilities in realistic scenarios
Design and build infrastructure for evaluating and enabling AI systems to operate in security environments
Translate technical findings into compelling demonstrations and artifacts that inform policymakers and the public
Collaborate with external experts in cybersecurity, national security, and AI safety to scope and validate research directions
Senior candidates will also set research strategy, define what problems are worth solving, own the technical roadmap, and manage relationships with cross-functional partners