Hardware Lab Manager

About the Role

Your mission is to ensure our hardware labs are functional, useful, and ready to support the growing number of teams and projects that need access to physical hardware. You’d own what shows up, how it’s powered, cooled, cabled, tracked, set up, and made functional.

Responsibilities

• Run the physical lab across both sites: receiving and staging, rack-and-stack, cabling, power distribution and load planning, cooling, floor layout
• Bring up new server and accelerator platforms as they arrive, from crate to a machine someone can SSH into: firmware and BIOS/UEFI setup, out-of-band management, OS install, network provisioning
• Own hardware procurement for the lab: work with teams on what's coming, order ahead of need, chase quotes and lead times, keep receiving and inventory in order
• Own RMA processes end-to-end for lab hardware: triage, swap, ship, track, close; drive vendor escalations
• Build the one-off setups engineers ask for: debug and programming harnesses (JTAG/SWD/UART), remote power switching, console and KVM access, and the occasional improvised fix for hardware running outside the conditions it was designed for
• Oversee smarthands and contractor work on-site (electricians, cabling crews, riggers, integrators, OEM field engineers): scope it, dispatch it, validate the quality
• Handle physical access, asset auditing, and lifecycle tracking for hardware that is expensive and sometimes pre-release
• Write it down: build the playbooks and lightweight tooling (inventory, remote power, console access) so remote teams can use the lab without pinging you for every step

Requirements

• Hands-on experience running a hardware, systems, or datacenter lab, or a similar physical compute environment: rack-and-stack, copper and fiber cabling, power distribution (PDUs, circuits, phase balancing)
• Working knowledge of server hardware and its management plane: BMC/IPMI/Redfish, BIOS/UEFI configuration, serial console, PXE/network boot, firmware updates
• Enough Linux and networking (VLANs, DHCP, DNS, basic switch config) to take a bare machine to a state a remote engineer can use
• Have managed vendors, contractors, quotes, and freight for physical equipment
• Comfortable and safe with power tools, bench power supplies, and a wiring or rack elevation diagram
• Work independently with minimal supervision , and know when to ask
• Bias toward action and comfort with ambiguity: you'd rather move and adjust than wait for perfect information
• Communicate clearly and directly, especially when flagging risks or blockers

Location

This role is based in our San Francisco office (500 Howard St). Travel to nearby lab spaces is required so expect to be in-office more frequently than Anthropic's standard 25% hybrid baseline.

Compensation

The annual compensation range for this role is $320,000-$405,000 USD.