Staff Software Engineer, Labs: Applied AI
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY
Posted 16d ago
About the job
Anthropic is building AI systems that are safe, beneficial, and transformative, aiming to develop AI that benefits humanity. Applied AI is a new exploration within Anthropic Labs, focused on bringing frontier AI capabilities to professionals in less software-native roles. This role involves taking advanced AI and turning it into user-friendly applications, rapidly prototyping new experiences, and partnering with researchers, domain experts, and users to shape the direction of this exploration. The ideal candidate is an entrepreneurial engineer comfortable with ambiguity, willing to iterate quickly, and energized by building in uncharted territory.
Responsibilities
- Rapidly prototype full-stack applications to integrate frontier AI into non-software-first workflows, shipping frequently to maximize learning.
- Immerse in unfamiliar domains by observing users and encoding their workflows into products, evaluations, and processes.
- Collaborate with research teams to translate new model capabilities into tools for non-technical professionals.
- Work with internal teams and external partners to gather feedback, iterate quickly, and validate product concepts.
- Design and execute experiments to test hypotheses, balancing exploration with rigorous evaluation.
- Generate documentation and insights to guide successful prototypes towards full product development.
- Provide feedback to research teams on model effectiveness in real-world settings and areas for improvement.
- Flexibly contribute to various Labs initiatives based on organizational priorities and emerging opportunities.
Requirements
- 8+ years of experience building full-stack applications, with a track record of zero-to-one work in startup or startup-like environments.
- Deep curiosity about other industries and ability to translate complex workflows into simple software.
- Thrives in ambiguity and uncertainty, comfortable working on projects with evolving scope.
- Hacker mentality with high agency, bias toward shipping, and comfort with technical debt when appropriate.
- Deeply user-centric, validating ideas with users before significant investment.
- Ability to articulate learnings from failed projects without defensiveness, treating work as experiments.
- Strong opinions held loosely, advocating for ideas but changing mind based on evidence.
- Generalist capable of transitioning between problem spaces as priorities shift.
- Works independently with good judgment, requiring minimal direction.
- Effective communication skills, able to make complex AI capabilities intuitive to non-technical individuals.
- Cares about the societal impacts and ethics of AI work.