At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the strategy for agent-driven cluster lifecycle management and ensure secure, scalable infrastructure.
- Company: Join Anthropic, a pioneering AI company focused on safe and beneficial technology.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, hybrid work policy, and visa sponsorship available.
- Other info: Dynamic environment with opportunities for mentorship and career growth.
- Why this job: Shape the future of AI infrastructure and make a real impact in a fast-growing team.
- Qualifications: 10+ years in software engineering with expertise in distributed systems and cloud platforms.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
About Anthropic
Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.
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. Cluster Infra owns the full lifecycle of compute clusters at Anthropic. We build agent-driven automation for cluster provisioning and lifecycle management across all major cloud providers and our own datacenters. Our systems stand up clusters that are interconnected with high bandwidth, secure‑by‑default, and able to automatically drain and recover in response to failure. As a Staff engineer on this team, you'll set the technical direction for how Anthropic brings compute online - at a moment when the scale of that compute is growing faster than at almost any company in the world.
Key responsibilities
- Own the technical strategy and roadmap for agent‑driven cluster lifecycle management - provisioning, updates and decommissioning
- Partner across teams to ensure new compute capacity is ingested on time
- Align with partner teams on physical build‑out and leverage cloud solutions to deliver high‑bandwidth inter‑cluster connectivity
- Collaborate with security owners to ensure clusters are provisioned secure‑by‑default
- Define and drive strategy on cluster scalability, homogeneity and fault tolerance
- Work closely with cloud providers and internal research, inference and product teams to shape long‑term compute, data, and infrastructure strategy
- Establish and evolve operational‑excellence practices: incident response, postmortem culture and on‑call health
- Support the growth of engineers around you through technical mentorship and coaching
- 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.
- Track record of leading complex, multi‑quarter technical initiatives spanning multiple teams or systems
- Ability to build alignment across senior stakeholders and communicate effectively at all levels
Preferred qualifications
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including time as a technical lead setting direction for a team
- Experience operating large‑scale compute infrastructure at hyperscale (100+ clusters, 10K+ nodes)
- Depth in one or more of: Kubernetes internals, cluster provisioning and management systems, cluster orchestration systems (Mesos, Borg‑like)
- Experience with cloud networking: VPC design and peering, Shared VPC/Transit Gateway, Cloud Interconnect/Direct Connect, Cloud NAT, cross‑cloud private connectivity, BGP and route control, edge load balancing and DDoS mitigation (Cloud Armor / AWS Shield)
- Experience with cluster and host networking: CNI (Cilium), eBPF, NetworkPolicy, multi‑NIC, sFlow, service mesh (Istio/Envoy/Linkerd, mTLS)
- Experience with cluster security: pod security standards and admission control, RBAC and least‑privilege IAM, node and container hardening, supply‑chain/image provenance
- Deep experience with infrastructure‑as‑code (Terraform, Atlantis), workflow orchestration (Temporal, Argo Workflows)
- Skill in quickly understanding systems design tradeoffs and keeping track of rapidly evolving software systems
Logistics
- Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience
- Required field of study: A field relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience
- Minimum years of experience: Years of experience required will correlate with the internal job level requirements for the position
- Location‑based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.
- Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.
We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification.
Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure London, UK employer: Anthropic
At Anthropic, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer, fostering a collaborative and innovative work culture that empowers our engineers to shape the future of AI infrastructure. Located in London, our team enjoys a dynamic environment with ample opportunities for professional growth, mentorship, and the chance to work on cutting-edge technology that impacts millions of users. We offer competitive benefits, a commitment to employee well-being, and a supportive atmosphere where every voice is valued.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure London, UK
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry, attend meetups, and connect with current employees at Anthropic. A friendly chat can sometimes open doors that applications alone can't.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! If you’ve got a portfolio or GitHub with projects related to distributed systems or cloud platforms, make sure to highlight them. It’s a great way to demonstrate your expertise beyond just a CV.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for those interviews! Research common questions for infrastructure roles and practice your answers. Be ready to discuss your experience with Kubernetes, IaC, and any relevant projects you've led.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in joining the team at Anthropic.
We think you need these skills to ace Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure London, UK
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application:Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter for the Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer role. Highlight your experience with distributed systems and cloud platforms, as these are key to what we do at Anthropic.
Showcase Your Technical Skills:Don’t hold back on showcasing your expertise in systems languages like Rust or Go, and your proficiency with Terraform. We want to see how your skills align with our needs in building reliable AI infrastructure.
Be Clear and Concise:When writing your application, keep it clear and to the point. Use bullet points where possible to make it easy for us to see your achievements and relevant experience at a glance.
Apply Through Our Website:We encourage you to apply directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensures you’re considered for the role without any hiccups!
How to prepare for a job interview at Anthropic
✨Know Your Tech Inside Out
Make sure you have a solid grasp of distributed systems, cloud platforms, and the specific technologies mentioned in the job description, like Kubernetes and Terraform. Brush up on your knowledge of cluster provisioning and management systems, as well as any relevant programming languages like Rust or Go.
✨Showcase Your Leadership Skills
As a Staff Engineer, you'll need to demonstrate your ability to lead complex initiatives. Prepare examples from your past experiences where you've set technical direction, collaborated across teams, and built alignment among stakeholders. This will show that you're not just a tech whiz but also a great team player.
✨Prepare for Scenario-Based Questions
Expect questions that assess your problem-solving skills in real-world scenarios. Think about how you would handle incidents, manage postmortems, or ensure security in cluster provisioning. Practising these scenarios can help you articulate your thought process clearly during the interview.
✨Ask Insightful Questions
Interviews are a two-way street! Prepare thoughtful questions about Anthropic's infrastructure strategy, team dynamics, or future projects. This shows your genuine interest in the role and helps you gauge if the company is the right fit for you.
