At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the strategy for agent-driven cluster lifecycle management and collaborate across teams.
- Company: Join Anthropic, a pioneering AI company focused on safe and beneficial technology.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, hybrid work model, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Dynamic team environment with mentorship opportunities and a focus on operational excellence.
- Why this job: Shape the future of AI infrastructure and make a real impact in a fast-growing field.
- Qualifications: Expertise in distributed systems and cloud platforms, with strong coding skills.
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
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.
- 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
- 8+ 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
Annual Salary
The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.
Annual Salary: £325,000 — £485,000 GBP
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.
Staff Infrastructure Engineer (Cluster Infrastructure) in London employer: Menlo Ventures
At Anthropic, we pride ourselves on fostering a collaborative and innovative work culture that empowers our employees to drive meaningful advancements in AI technology. As a Staff Infrastructure Engineer, you will not only have the opportunity to shape the future of compute infrastructure but also benefit from a supportive environment that prioritises professional growth through mentorship and cross-team collaboration. Located in a vibrant city, our hybrid work policy ensures flexibility while maintaining a strong sense of community among our dedicated team members.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Staff Infrastructure Engineer (Cluster Infrastructure) in London
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry, especially those at Anthropic. A friendly chat can sometimes lead to opportunities that aren’t even advertised yet.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! If you’ve got a GitHub or portfolio, make sure it’s up to date. Share projects that highlight your expertise in distributed systems and cloud platforms.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for the interview like it’s a big game day. Research Anthropic’s mission and think about how your experience aligns with their goals. Be ready to discuss your past projects and how they relate to cluster infrastructure.
✨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, we love seeing candidates who take that extra step.
We think you need these skills to ace Staff Infrastructure Engineer (Cluster Infrastructure) in London
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 well as any relevant projects that showcase your skills in Kubernetes or IaC.
Showcase Your Technical Expertise:We want to see your deep expertise in the technologies mentioned in the job description. Be specific about your experience with systems languages like Rust or Go, and don’t forget to mention any large-scale infrastructure projects you've led.
Communicate Clearly:Effective communication is key! Use clear and concise language to explain your past experiences and how they align with our mission at Anthropic. Remember, we’re looking for someone who can build alignment across teams.
Apply Through Our Website:Don’t forget to submit your application through our website! It’s the best way for us to receive your details and ensure you’re considered for the role. We can’t wait to see what you bring to the table!
How to prepare for a job interview at Menlo Ventures
✨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. Brush up on Kubernetes, IaC, and any systems languages like Rust or Go. Being able to discuss your experience with these tools will show that you're not just familiar but truly knowledgeable.
✨Showcase Your Leadership Skills
As a Staff Engineer, you'll need to demonstrate your ability to lead complex initiatives. Prepare examples from your past where you've successfully led projects across multiple teams. Highlight how you built alignment among stakeholders and communicated effectively at all levels.
✨Prepare for Technical Questions
Expect deep technical questions related to cluster provisioning, security, and scalability. Be ready to discuss your experience with large-scale compute infrastructure and how you've tackled challenges in this area. Practising problem-solving scenarios can help you articulate your thought process during the interview.
✨Cultural Fit Matters
Anthropic values collaboration and mentorship. Think about how you can contribute to the team culture and support the growth of your colleagues. Be prepared to discuss your approach to mentoring and how you foster a positive work environment, as this will resonate well with the interviewers.
