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Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)

Location
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY
Compensation
$500k–$850k/yr
Level
senior
Type
full time · Hybrid

Posted by employer 1 year ago

First seen on Joblaze 6 months ago

Last verified on the company career page 11 hours ago

Requirements

Education
Bachelor's degree
Visa
Sponsorship available

Not disclosed in this posting: years of experience.

Benefits

Equity/Stock Options Flexible Working Hours Parental Leave

Joblaze summary

In the role of Research Engineer focused on reinforcement learning at Anthropic, the individual will engage in both research and engineering tasks to enhance the capabilities of large language models. Key skills include proficiency in Python and experience with machine learning frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow, alongside a solid understanding of reinforcement learning techniques. This position is ideal for someone with industry experience in machine learning who can effectively balance research exploration with practical implementation. Anthropic's collaborative environment emphasizes impactful AI research, making it a fitting place for those passionate about developing safe and benefic

Joblaze insights

  • Listed about 6 months ago — first seen on Joblaze April 14, 2026. Last confirmed on Anthropic's careers page October 31, 2026.
  • This exact title is also open at 1 other location at Anthropic: London, UK.
  • Salary band is above the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
  • Starts above 99% of 211 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States that list Python we track (median $182,000 across 72 companies). See Python salary trends
  • Python appears in 53.5% of 563 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States; Rust appears in 3.7% of 563 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States.

Quick facts

Is the Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning) role remote?
It's hybrid — Anthropic expects some on-site time in San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY.
What's the salary range?
Anthropic lists $500,000–$850,000 for this role.
Where is the role based?
Anthropic is hiring for this position in San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: C++, JAX, Kubernetes, LLM, PyTorch, Python.
Does Anthropic sponsor work visas for this role?
Yes — the posting indicates visa sponsorship is available for the right candidate.
What seniority level is this role?
Anthropic targets senior candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning) role at Anthropic.

From the original posting

About Anthropic

About the teams

Our Reinforcement Learning teams lead Anthropic's reinforcement learning research and development, playing a critical role in advancing our AI systems. We've contributed to all Claude models, with significant impacts on the autonomy and coding capabilities of Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Opus 4.5. Our work spans several key areas:

  • Developing systems that enable models to use computers effectively
  • Advancing code generation through reinforcement learning
  • Pioneering fundamental RL research for large language models
  • Building scalable RL infrastructure and training methodologies
  • Enhancing model reasoning capabilities

We collaborate closely with Anthropic's alignment and frontier red teams to ensure our systems are both capable and safe. We partner with the applied production training team to bring research innovations into deployed models, and are dedicated to implement our research at scale. Our Reinforcement Learning teams sit at the intersection of cutting-edge research and engineering excellence, with a deep commitment to building high-quality, scalable systems that push the boundaries of what AI can accomplish.

About the Role

As a Research Engineer within Reinforcement Learning, you will collaborate with a diverse group of researchers and engineers to advance the capabilities and safety of large language models. This role blends research and engineering responsibilities, requiring you to both implement novel approaches and contribute to the research direction. You'll work on fundamental research in reinforcement learning, creating 'agentic' models via tool use for open-ended tasks such as computer use and autonomous software generation, improving reasoning abilities in areas such as mathematics, and developing prototypes for internal use, productivity, and evaluation.

Representative projects:

  • Architect and optimize core reinforcement learning infrastructure, from clean training abstractions to distributed experiment management across GPU clusters. Help scale our systems to handle increasingly complex research workflows.
  • Design, implement, and test novel training environments, evaluations, and methodologies for reinforcement learning agents which push the state of the art for the next generation of models.
  • Drive performance improvements across our stack through profiling, optimization, and benchmarking. Implement efficient caching solutions and debug distributed systems to accelerate both training and evaluation workflows.
  • Collaborate across research and engineering teams to develop automated testing frameworks, design clean APIs, and build scalable infrastructure that accelerates AI research.

You may be a good fit if you:

  • Are proficient in Python and async/concurrent programming with frameworks like Trio
  • Have experience with machine learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX)
  • Have industry experience in machine learning research
  • Can balance research exploration with engineering implementation
  • Enjoy pair programming (we love to pair!)
  • Care about code quality, testing, and performance
  • Have strong systems design and communication skills
  • Are passionate about the potential impact of AI and are committed to developing safe and beneficial systems

Strong candidates may have:

  • Familiarity with LLM architectures and training methodologies
  • Experience with reinforcement learning techniques and environments
  • Experience with virtualization and sandboxed code execution environments
  • Experience with Kubernetes
  • Experience with distributed systems or high-performance computing
  • Experience with Rust and/or C++

Strong candidates need not have:

  • Formal certifications or education credentials
  • Academic research experience or publication history

Deadline to apply: None. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.

Annual Salary:
$500,000—$850,000 USD

Logistics

Standard company text repeated across Anthropic's postings is omitted here.

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