Research Engineer / Scientist, Frontier Red Team (Cyber)

About the role

In the last year, we've seen compelling signs that LLMs and agents are increasingly capable of novel cyber capabilities. We think 2026 will be the year where models reach expert-level, even superhuman, in several cybersecurity domains. This is a novel and massive threat surface. As a Research Scientist on FRT focusing on cyber, you'll build the tools and frameworks needed to defend the world against advanced AI-enabled cyber threats.

Senior candidates will have the opportunity to shape and grow Anthropic's cyberdefense research program, working with Security, Safeguards, Policy, and other partner teams. This work sits at the intersection of AI capabilities research, cybersecurity, and policy—what we learn directly shapes how Anthropic and the world prepare for AI-enabled cyber threats. This is applied research with real-world stakes. Your work will inform decisions at the highest levels of the company, contribute to demonstrations that shape policy discourse, and build the technical defenses that we will need for a future of increasingly powerful AI systems.

What You'll Do

• Develop systems, tools, and frameworks for AI-empowered cybersecurity, such as autonomous vulnerability discovery and remediation, malware detection and management, network hardening, and pentesting
• Design and run experiments to elicit and evaluate autonomous AI cyber capabilities in realistic scenarios
• Design and build infrastructure for evaluating and enabling AI systems to operate in security environments
• Translate technical findings into compelling demonstrations and artifacts that inform policymakers and the public
• Collaborate with external experts in cybersecurity, national security, and AI safety to scope and validate research directions

Requirements

• Deep expertise in cybersecurity or security research
• Driven to find solutions to complex, high-stakes problems
• Experience doing technical research with LLM-based agents or autonomous systems
• Strong software engineering skills, particularly in Python
• Ability to own entire problems end-to-end, including both technical and non-technical components
• Experience designing and running experiments quickly, iterating fast toward useful results
• Thrives in collaborative environments
• Cares deeply about AI safety and wants your work to have real-world impact on how humanity navigates advanced AI systems
• Comfortable working on sensitive projects that require discretion and integrity
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional security initiatives and navigate complex organizational dynamics

Skills

• Experience with offensive security research, vulnerability research, or exploit development
• Research or professional experience applying LLMs to security problems
• Track record in competitive CTFs, bug bounties, or other security-related competitions
• Experience building security tools or automation
• Track record of building demos or prototypes that communicate complex technical ideas
• Experience working with external stakeholders (policymakers, government, researchers)
• Familiarity with AI safety research and threat modeling for advanced AI systems

Pay

The annual compensation range for this role is $320,000—$485,000 USD.

Benefits

Anthropic offers competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and a lovely office space in which to collaborate with colleagues.

Guidance on Candidates' AI Usage

We believe that the highest-impact AI research will be big science. At Anthropic we work as a single cohesive team on just a few large-scale research efforts. And we value impact — advancing our long-term goals of steerable, trustworthy AI — rather than work on smaller and more specific puzzles. We view AI research as an empirical science, which has as much in common with physics and biology as with traditional efforts in computer science. We're an extremely collaborative group, and we host frequent research discussions to ensure that we are pursuing the highest-impact work at any given time.

How We're Different

This is early-stage, high-conviction research with the potential for outsized impact. Glasswing is one example. Note: We are exclusively hiring in SF. We support relocation, but all hires must relocate before starting.