Join Anthropic as a Research Scientist to drive biological discoveries by integrating AI with hands-on medicinal chemistry.
Posted by employer 1 month ago
First seen on Joblaze 1 month ago
Last verified on the company career page 12 hours ago
Skills & Technologies
AI in the day-to-day
You'll close the loop between AI-generated hypotheses and experimental data to share with the community.
Requirements
- Experience
- 5+ years
- Education
- PhD
- Visa
- Sponsorship available
Benefits
Joblaze summary
In this role, the research scientist will engage in hands-on medicinal chemistry, focusing on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of small molecules while integrating AI-generated hypotheses with experimental data. Key skills include expertise in SAR-driven design, synthetic route optimization, and proficiency in analytical techniques like NMR and LC-MS. This position is ideal for experienced chemists with a PhD and a strong background in medicinal chemistry, particularly those comfortable navigating a dynamic research environment. Anthropic's collaborative team emphasizes impactful AI research, making this a unique opportunity to contribute to significant advancements in life sciences.
Joblaze insights
- Listed about a month ago — first seen on Joblaze August 15, 2026. Last confirmed on Anthropic's careers page October 8, 2026.
- Salary band is above the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
- Starts above 92% of 204 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States that list Python we track (median $181,000 across 69 companies). See Python salary trends
- Python appears in 53% of 538 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States; RDKit appears in 0.2% of 538 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States.
Quick facts
- Is the Research Scientist, Life Sciences (Chemistry) role remote?
- No — this is an on-site role in San Francisco, CA.
- What's the salary range?
- Anthropic lists $300,000–$320,000 for this role.
- How much experience is required?
- At least 5 years of relevant experience for this Research Scientist, Life Sciences (Chemistry) role.
- Where is the role based?
- Anthropic is hiring for this position in San Francisco, CA.
- What's the tech stack?
- Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: AI/ML, HPLC, LC-MS, Medicinal Chemistry, NMR, 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 Scientist, Life Sciences (Chemistry) role at Anthropic.
From the original posting
About Anthropic
About the role
Anthropic's Life Sciences team is building a research group focused on biological discoveries by combining AI with hands-on biological research. We're seeking research scientists with deep medicinal chemistry expertise to join the team. Our goal is to speed up progress in the life sciences by an order of magnitude, and this role puts that mission into practice. You'll be an expert medicinal chemist with hands-on experience designing, synthesizing, purifying, and characterizing small molecules. Above all, you'll close the loop between AI-generated hypotheses and experimental data to share with the community. Working alongside AI researchers and engineers, you'll drive experimental programs end to end and pressure-test AI-designed molecules and AI-proposed synthetic routes against real chemistry.
This role is fully on-site in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Key responsibilities
- Design multi-step synthetic routes for small molecules and oversee their execution end to end, including route selection, reaction optimization, purification strategy, and interpretation of full characterization data (NMR, LC-MS, HPLC)
- Coordinate synthesis and biological evaluation with external contract research organizations and academic partners
- Evaluate AI-designed molecules and AI-proposed synthetic routes, drive them to experimental readout, and feed results back to research teams
- Apply medicinal chemistry principles, including SAR analysis and physicochemical property optimization, to compound design and prioritization
- Ensure experimental data across programs is high quality and well documented, including procedures, spectra, and failure modes
- Communicate findings clearly to chemistry, AI research, and life sciences audiences
Minimum qualifications
- PhD in chemistry
- Demonstrated medicinal chemistry experience, including SAR-driven design and optimization of small molecules, with recent, sustained hands-on synthetic work
- Comfort navigating ambiguity and defining problems in a rapidly evolving research environment
- Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across cross-functional teams, with strong written and verbal communication skills
Preferred qualifications
- 5+ years of medicinal chemistry experience beyond the PhD
- Track record of advancing programs from hit identification through lead optimization
- Experience directing synthetic chemistry activities at contract research organizations
- Computational chemistry, cheminformatics, or coding skills, for example Python with RDKit or pandas for data analysis and automation
- Experience using AI or ML tools in the life sciences
- Publications and/or patents demonstrating scientific impact
The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.
Logistics
Standard company text repeated across Anthropic's postings is omitted here.