Joblaze summary

In this role, the research scientist will focus on integrating AI with biological research to enhance discoveries in life sciences. Key responsibilities include designing reinforcement learning environments, curating datasets, and evaluating model performance in chemistry tasks, requiring a strong foundation in both chemistry and machine learning. This position is ideal for someone with a PhD in a relevant field and experience in computational chemistry, particularly those who thrive in collaborative, fast-paced research settings. Anthropic emphasizes a cohesive team approach, valuing communication and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Joblaze insights

Listed today — first seen on Joblaze October 26, 2026. Last confirmed on Anthropic's careers page October 26, 2026.
Salary band is above the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
Starts above 92% of 202 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States that list Python we track (median $182,000 across 70 companies). See Python salary trends
Python appears in 52.3% of 551 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States; cheminformatics appears in 0.2% of 551 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States.

Quick facts

Is the Research Scientist, Life Sciences (Computational Chemistry) role remote?: No — this is an on-site role in San Francisco, CA, United States.
What's the salary range?: Anthropic lists $300,000–$320,000 for this role.
Where is the role based?: Anthropic is hiring for this position in San Francisco, CA, United States.
What's the tech stack?: Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: Machine Learning, Molecular Modeling, Python, cheminformatics, reinforcement learning.
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 (Computational 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 a research scientist who combines deep chemistry knowledge with machine learning 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 a computational chemist who knows reactions, synthesis, and medicinal chemistry in depth and has hands-on experience training and evaluating machine learning models. Above all, you'll build the reinforcement learning environments, datasets, and evaluations that teach Claude chemistry. Working alongside our bench chemists and AI researchers, you'll turn real chemistry problems and experimental data into training tasks and measure whether the models get better at them.

This role is fully on-site in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Key responsibilities

Design and build reinforcement learning environments for chemistry end to end, including task design, data curation, automated grading, and checks against shortcuts and data leakage
Design and source new experimental datasets, environments, and evaluations with our bench chemists, and external research and academic partners
Develop evaluations that measure model performance on real chemistry tasks, such as reaction outcome prediction, synthesis planning, structure elucidation, and compound design, and feed results back to research teams
Run and analyze training experiments with AI research teams, diagnose where models fail at chemistry, and prioritize what to build next
Ensure datasets and environments are high quality and well documented, including sources, train and test splits, and failure modes
Communicate findings clearly to chemistry, AI research, and life sciences audiences

Minimum qualifications

PhD in chemistry, computational chemistry, or a related field
Deep knowledge of organic and medicinal chemistry, including reactions, synthesis, and SAR, with experimental data as your ground truth
Strong Python skills and solid machine learning fundamentals, with hands-on experience training and evaluating models
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

Experience with reinforcement learning, large language models, or building evaluations and benchmarks
Track record of supporting drug discovery programs alongside medicinal and synthetic chemists
Experience curating chemistry datasets from the literature, patents, or lab notebooks, including reaction, ADMET, and spectroscopic data
Cheminformatics and molecular modeling skills, for example RDKit, docking, free energy calculations, or quantum chemistry
Hands-on synthetic or medicinal chemistry experience at the bench
Publications, patents, or open-source software demonstrating scientific impact

The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.

Annual Salary:

$300,000—$320,000 USD

Logistics

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

Research Scientist, Life Sciences (Computational Chemistry)