Staff Engineer, Datacenter Server Lifecycle

Job Overview

As a Staff Engineer on the Datacenter Server Lifecycle team at Anthropic, you will own the end-to-end operational journey of every machine in our global facilities. This role involves defining services, tooling, standards, and processes for operating critical hardware at scale, powering frontier model development and serving.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop automation for datacenters with tens of thousands of servers.
• Define and manage the end-to-end system lifecycle strategy, including provisioning, deployment, operation, maintenance, refresh, and decommissioning.
• Collaborate with Infrastructure Security to design and enforce trusted compute standards across the server lifecycle.
• Work with the Networking team to ensure end-to-end connectivity across all sites.
• Build and maintain tooling to track machine health, configuration, and operational status.

Minimum Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with server hardware, including deployment, cabling, troubleshooting, and understanding failure modes at scale.
• Understanding of hardware lifecycle management: asset tracking, provisioning workflows, maintenance scheduling, and decommissioning practices.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language (e.g., Python, Rust, Go, Java).
• Knowledge of modern cloud infrastructure, including Kubernetes and large-scale cloud providers.
• Strong communication and consensus-building skills.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and tackle complex problems.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in datacenter infrastructure management or a related field.
• Experience with GPU or AI accelerator hardware and their operational demands.
• Familiarity with modern provisioning and OS tooling such as LinuxBoot and NixOS.
• Background in large-scale capacity planning and hardware refresh strategy.

Logistics

• Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
• Required field of study: Relevant to the role.
• Location-based hybrid policy: 25% office time.
• Visa sponsorship: Available.

Benefits

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