Application Guide
How to Apply for ML/Research Engineer, Safeguards
at Anthropic
🏢 About Anthropic
Anthropic is a frontier AI research and product company focused specifically on building reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. Unlike many AI companies, they have a strong public commitment to safety through initiatives like their Responsible Scaling Policy, making them unique for engineers who want to work on AI safety as a core mission rather than an afterthought.
About This Role
This ML/Research Engineer role on the Safeguards team involves building systems to detect and mitigate misuse of Anthropic's AI systems, including developing classifiers for harmful use and monitoring for coordinated attacks. The work directly contributes to Anthropic's Responsible Scaling Policy commitments, making it impactful for both product safety and broader AI safety research.
💡 A Day in the Life
A typical day might involve developing and refining classifiers to detect policy violations in AI interactions, analyzing patterns of potential coordinated attacks across user sessions, and collaborating with research teams to implement new safety methods based on the latest findings. You'd also work on building synthetic data pipelines to improve classifier training and evaluate agentic product safety in test environments.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Anthropic Is Looking For
- Has experience developing ML classifiers for detecting harmful content or anomalous behavior at scale
- Can build synthetic data pipelines for training safety classifiers and methods to source representative evaluations
- Understands how to develop threat models and testing environments for agentic AI products
- Has experience with systems that monitor for multi-exchange harms like coordinated cyber attacks or influence operations
📝 Tips for Applying to Anthropic
Explicitly mention Anthropic's Responsible Scaling Policy and how your experience aligns with their safety commitments
Highlight specific projects where you've built classifiers for detecting harmful content or misuse, not just general ML experience
Demonstrate understanding of the unique challenges in safeguarding frontier AI systems versus traditional content moderation
Include examples of working with synthetic data pipelines or automated evaluation sourcing for safety systems
Show familiarity with Anthropic's research publications on AI safety, particularly those related to misuse detection
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
['Your specific experience with misuse detection systems and safety classifiers', "How your work aligns with Anthropic's mission of building reliable and steerable AI systems", 'Examples of working on systems that protect against sophisticated, coordinated attacks', 'Your approach to developing threat models for agentic AI products']
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Anthropic's Responsible Scaling Policy and how it guides their safety work
- → The company's research publications on AI safety and misuse detection
- → Their public statements on AI safety commitments and safeguards
- → How Anthropic's approach to safety differs from other frontier AI labs
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Focusing only on general ML engineering without specific safety/misuse detection experience
- Not demonstrating understanding of Anthropic's specific safety mission and commitments
- Treating this as just another ML role without acknowledging the unique challenges of frontier AI safety
📅 Application Timeline
This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.
Typical hiring timeline:
Application Review
1-2 weeks
Initial Screening
Phone call or written assessment
Interviews
1-2 rounds, usually virtual
Offer
Congratulations!