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) 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 area, 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)
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry, especially those at Anthropic. A friendly chat can open doors and give you insights that a job description just can't.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills in real-time! If you get the chance, participate in coding challenges or tech meetups. It’s a great way to demonstrate your expertise in distributed systems and cloud platforms.
✨Tip Number 3
Tailor your pitch! When you get an interview, make sure to highlight your experience with Kubernetes and IaC. Show how your background aligns with Anthropic's mission of building reliable AI systems.
✨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 being part of our team.
We think you need these skills to ace Staff Infrastructure Engineer (Cluster Infrastructure)
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:Don’t hold back on detailing your technical skills! We want to see your proficiency in systems languages like Rust, Go, or Python, and your experience with large-scale compute infrastructure. Be specific about your achievements and how they relate to the role.
Communicate Clearly:When writing your application, keep it clear and concise. Use straightforward language to explain complex concepts, as we value effective communication across all levels. This will help us understand your thought process and technical direction.
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. Plus, it shows your enthusiasm for joining our team at Anthropic!
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.
✨Understand the Bigger Picture
Anthropic is focused on building reliable AI systems. Be ready to discuss how your work in infrastructure can contribute to this mission. Think about how you can ensure security, scalability, and fault tolerance in the systems you design, and be prepared to share your thoughts on these topics.
✨Prepare for Technical Questions
Expect in-depth technical questions related to cluster provisioning, networking, and security. Review concepts like VPC design, BGP, and pod security standards. Practising problem-solving scenarios can help you articulate your thought process during the interview.
