Software Engineer, Labs

Anthropic•San Francisco, NY

13d•$320,000 - $485,000•Hybrid

About The Position

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.

Requirements

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

Nice To Haves

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

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