Staff Software Engineer, Developer Productivity (Dev Environments) - Claude Code

Job Overview

We're seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead our development environment end-to-end, focusing on speed, isolation, and validation. You will enhance the inner development loop for engineers building Claude, Anthropic's AI system.

Responsibilities

• Own the local and hosted development environment, ensuring rapid setup and seamless operation.
• Drive down cold-start times for fresh environments and maintain performance as the codebase grows.
• Design and implement an environment isolation model that allows free experimentation without risking shared systems.
• Develop and maintain pre-push validation to catch issues locally, reducing CI failures.
• Collaborate with platform and infrastructure teams to optimize repository and service topology.
• Lead technically across teams, gathering requirements and advocating for optimal solutions.

Requirements

• Significant experience in software engineering, particularly in backend or developer infrastructure.
• Proficiency in Python.
• Hands-on experience with containers (Docker), Kubernetes, and pod operations.
• Prior experience owning developer environments or workflows in a multi-team setting.
• Daily use of AI coding assistants in your development workflow.

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in backend or developer infrastructure engineering.
• Experience with Rust or Go.
• Track record of reducing cold-start times in complex stacks.
• Experience with environment isolation models or monorepo management.
• Familiarity with hermetic build systems like Bazel or Buck.

Compensation

The annual salary range for this role is $405,000 - $485,000 USD.

Benefits

Competitive compensation, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and a lovely office space.

Logistics

• Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
• Location-based hybrid policy: 25% office time.
• Visa sponsorship available.

About Anthropic

Anthropic aims to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems for safe and beneficial use.