At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the strategy for AI infrastructure and manage the lifecycle of cutting-edge hardware.
- Company: Join Anthropic, a leader in AI systems with a focus on reliability and innovation.
- Benefits: Enjoy a competitive salary, flexible hours, generous leave, and equity donation matching.
- Other info: Dynamic work environment in San Francisco with excellent growth opportunities.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on AI technology while working with top-tier professionals.
- Qualifications: Expertise in distributed systems and cloud platforms; strong coding skills required.
About the role
Anthropic's Infrastructure organization is foundational to our mission of developing AI systems that are reliable, interpretable, and steerable. The systems we build determine how quickly we can train new models, how reliably we can run safety experiments, and how effectively we can scale Claude to millions of users — demonstrating that safe, reliable infrastructure and frontier capabilities can go hand in hand. Node Infra owns the full lifecycle of accelerator capacity at Anthropic. We ingest and provision compute from all major CSPs and our own datacenters, stand up and scale clusters from thousands to hundreds of thousands of hosts, and build the health, diagnostics and repair automation that keep every GPU, TPU and Trainium node in the fleet usable and ready to power Anthropic’s frontier AI research.
Key responsibilities
- Own the technical strategy and roadmap for node lifecycle management – ingestion, bring‑up, health checking, and automated repair
- Drive cross‑team initiatives to build and scale AI clusters across multiple clouds and accelerator families
- Design and operate the systems that detect, isolate, and remediate unhealthy hardware automatically, driving up fleet MTBI and minimizing stranded capacity
- Define infrastructure architecture, ensuring the hardest problems get solved – whether by you directly or by working through others
- Work closely with cloud providers and internal research/inference/product teams to shape long‑term compute, data, and infrastructure strategy
- Establish and evolve operational excellence practices (incident response, postmortem culture, on‑call)
- Support the growth of engineers around you through technical mentorship and coaching
Minimum qualifications
- Deep expertise in distributed systems, reliability, and cloud platforms (e.g., Kubernetes, IaC, AWS/GCP/Azure)
- Strong proficiency in at least one systems language (e.g., Rust, Go, or Python), IaC proficiency with Terraform
- Hands‑on experience with machine learning accelerators (GPUs, TPUs, or Trainium)
- Track record of leading complex, multi‑quarter technical initiatives that span multiple teams or systems
- Ability to build alignment across senior stakeholders and communicate effectively at all levels
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a field relevant to the role
Preferred qualifications
- 8+ years of software engineering experience, including time as a technical lead setting direction for a team
- Experience managing large‑scale compute infrastructure at hyperscale (10K+ nodes), including capacity management and efficiency
- Depth in one or more of: Kubernetes internals (scheduler, autoscaler, kubelet, Karpenter), cluster orchestration systems (Mesos, Borg‑like), or node provisioning pipelines
- Low‑level systems experience: kernel, virtualization, device drivers, firmware, or hardware health/diagnostics daemons
- Familiarity with high‑performance networking (EFA, RDMA, InfiniBand) for distributed ML workloads
- Demonstrated ownership of production reliability for high‑throughput, latency‑sensitive systems
- Contributions to relevant open‑source projects (Kubernetes, Linux kernel, container runtimes, etc.)
- Skill in quickly understanding systems design tradeoffs and keeping track of rapidly evolving software systems
Compensation
Annual salary: £325,000 – £485,000 GBP
Benefits
- Competitive compensation and benefits package
- Optional equity donation matching
- Generous vacation and parental leave
- Flexible working hours
- Lovely office space in San Francisco
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra employer: Anthropic
Anthropic is an exceptional employer for those passionate about advancing reinforcement learning in a collaborative and innovative environment. With competitive compensation, generous vacation and parental leave, and flexible working hours, employees enjoy a supportive work culture that prioritises both personal and professional growth. Located in a vibrant office space, team members have the unique opportunity to engage directly with cutting-edge research while making meaningful contributions to the responsible scaling of AI.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Anthropic or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Anthropic.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Anthropic.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Anthropic that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Anthropic.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Anthropic and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Anthropic
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Anthropic uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
