Research Engineer, Cybersecurity RL
Anthropic · San Francisco, CA · Cybersecurity · posted yesterday
Anthropic · San Francisco, CA · posted 20 days ago
By AtiveSite · Published 07/11/2026 · Updated 09/11/2026 · Every figure is linked to its source below.
| Employer | Anthropic |
|---|---|
| Location | San Francisco, California |
| Field | Technology › Cybersecurity |
| Level | not stated |
| Source category | AI Research & Engineering |
| Posted | 2026-10-20 (20 days ago) |
| Work arrangement | On-site at the location listed |
| Pay | Not published in the source listing |
Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.
Reinforcement learning is how Claude learns to reason, write code, and act autonomously over long horizons. At frontier scale, an RL run is a large distributed system: training, sampling, and environment execution run concurrently across a large fleet of accelerators and hosts. As an engineer in RL Engineering, you'll work on keeping that system secure as it scales.
This is a hands-on engineering role. You'll work in the RL codebase and the infrastructure underneath it, alongside the engineers and researchers who build and use it. The system is large and changes as fast as the research does, so security work here has to keep up with that pace without costing performance or velocity.
We're hiring from two backgrounds: security engineers who want to work on large-scale ML systems, and ML systems or research engineers who want to work on security. Strong candidates have depth in one and real interest in the other.
Design, build, and operate security controls for RL training systems and the infrastructure they run on
Work across the stack (orchestration, environments, training, inference) wherever the work is needed
Review designs and code across the RL stack, find security problems, and fix them
Build shared libraries and tooling that other RL engineers and researchers build on
Build the observability needed to understand what these systems are doing
Work with researchers and performance engineers to make sure security changes preserve training correctness and performance
Write clear design documents for what you build
Strong software engineering skills in Python and at least one systems language such as Rust, C++, or Go
Experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems or security systems in production
Strong understanding of security fundamentals
Working knowledge of Linux, containers, and cloud infrastructure
Experience debugging complex problems across many hosts and services
Ability to reason about tradeoffs between security, performance, and reliability
Strong written communication, including design documents
Experience running ML training or inference infrastructure at scale
Experience with infrastructure security, such as isolation, access control, networking, or identity
Experience with container orchestration such as Kubernetes, and with sandboxed or virtualized code execution at scale
Experience building observability for large fleets
Experience supporting research teams or other fast-moving internal users
Familiarity with reinforcement learning or large language model training workloads
The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.
For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role.
Annual Salary:$320,000—$405,000 USDMinimum education: Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience
Required field of study: A field relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience
Minimum years of experience: Years of experience required will correlate with the internal job level requirements for the position
Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.
Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.
For roles performing work in California: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records or criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act.
We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification. Not all strong candidates will meet every single qualification as listed. Research shows that people who identify as being from underrepresented groups are more prone to experiencing imposter syndrome and doubting the strength of their candidacy, so we urge you not to exclude yourself prematurely and to submit an application if you're interested in this work. We think AI systems like the ones we're building have enormous social and ethical implications. We think this makes representation even more important, and we strive to include a range of diverse perspectives on our team.
Your safety matters to us. To protect yourself from potential scams, remember that Anthropic recruiters only contact you from @anthropic.com email addresses. In some cases, we may partner with vetted recruiting agencies who will identify themselves as working on behalf of Anthropic. Be cautious of emails from other domains. Legitimate Anthropic recruiters will never ask for money, fees, or banking information before your first day. If you're ever unsure about a communication, don't click any links—visit anthropic.com/careers directly for confirmed position openings.
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. As such, we greatly value communication skills.
The easiest way to understand our research directions is to read our recent research. This research continues many of the directions our team worked on prior to Anthropic, including: GPT-3, Circuit-Based Interpretability, Multimodal Neurons, Scaling Laws, AI & Compute, Concrete Problems in AI Safety, and Learning from Human Preferences.
Anthropic is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco. We offer 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: Learn about our policy for using AI in our application process.
Field: Technology Sub-niche: Cybersecurity All jobs at Anthropic Jobs in California Jobs in San Francisco, CA San Francisco city guide California state guide San Francisco County economy
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This is a — role in the Technology field (Cybersecurity) at Anthropic.
We could not match this job title to one occupation in the official wage statistics, so no pay estimate is shown. Pay is not in the source listing; ask the employer for the range and compare in the 240 job niches.
Estimate for a wage earner: 2026 federal brackets and standard deduction (IRS), Social Security 6.2% up to $184,500, Medicare 1.45% (+0.9% above $200,000 single / $250,000 married), and a state rate you set; set your own state tax rate. It ignores credits, pre-tax deductions, local taxes and benefits. Sources: IRS: tax year 2026 inflation adjustments · SSA wage base per Federal Register notice 2025-19763.
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The job is in San Francisco, CA. Below is what the official statistics say about living and working there.
How San Francisco compares. Among the 145 largest places in California, San Francisco is #4 by population, #139 for homeownership (#1 = highest), #20 for remote work (#1 = most), #25 for college degrees (#1 = most). Its county, San Francisco County, is #3 of 58 counties for average pay ($174,103).
San Francisco has 830,235 residents (ACS 2020–2024), about 2.1% of the population of California. It covers 47 square miles of land, which works out to roughly 17,784 people per square mile. The median age is 40.0, 6% older than the state median (40.0 against 37.9).
The median gross rent is $2,476 a month (rent plus utilities), 22% above the state median ($2,476 against $2,036). Over a year that is 21.1% of the median household income. US housing guidance treats housing as affordable when it takes 30% of income or less, so the typical household is under that line. The median home value is $1,394,500, which is 9.9 times the median household income ($140,970); a ratio above 5 usually means buying is out of reach without savings or a second income. 38.2% of households own their home, 32% below the state average (38.2% against 55.9%). A low ownership share points to a rental-heavy market with more apartments and shorter stays.
The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA metropolitan area has 2,373,920 jobs in the BLS wage survey, and the median pay across all occupations is $74,260 a year, 46% above the national median ($74,260 against $50,980). The biggest occupation groups are office and administrative support (226,320 jobs, median $62,120); management (223,100 jobs, median $176,340); business and financial operations (207,030 jobs, median $112,960). The area is most specialised in computer and mathematical (1.9 times) and life, physical, and social science (1.8 times), where the share of workers is well above the national share. The best-paying groups with at least 5,000 jobs are management ($176,340) and computer and mathematical ($167,770). In 2026M09 the unemployment rate of San Francisco County was 4.0%. 69.6% of residents aged 16 and over are in the labour force. The city lies in San Francisco County; its jobs, pay by industry and GDP are on the county page.
Among workers, 28.6% drive alone, 18.7% use public transit, 9.3% walk, 31.0% work from home. 21.6% of workers commute 45 minutes or more, 11% above the state average (21.6% against 19.4%). Remote work is more common than in the state as a whole, which widens the set of employers a resident can work for without moving.
60.3% of adults aged 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 63% above the state share (60.3% against 37.1%). 34.0% of residents were born outside the United States, 26% above the state share (34.0% against 27.0%). The poverty rate is 11.2%, 7% below the state rate (11.2% against 12.0%).
The warmest month is Sep, averaging 59°F (14.9°C), and the coolest is Apr at 53°F (11.6°C). About 515 mm (20 inches) of precipitation falls in a year; Dec is the wettest month (112 mm) and Jul the driest (2 mm). These values come from NASA satellite-based climatology on a grid of about 50 km, so they describe the wider area, not a weather station in the city.
Closest cities in this guide: Daly City (31 miles, rent 3% higher); Pacifica (31 miles, rent 25% higher); San Bruno (34 miles, rent 12% higher); Millbrae (36 miles, rent 32% higher). Rent differences are against San Francisco; use the Compare tab to put any two cities side by side.
Full guide to San Francisco →California guideAll jobs in San Francisco
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Places within 50 miles (straight line) of San Francisco, CA that have a guide, with what living there costs. No pay estimate is shown because the title did not match one occupation.
| Place ⇅ | Distance from the job city ⇅ | Median rent ⇅ | Median home value ⇅ | Median household income ⇅ | Commute 45+ min ⇅ | Rent as % of occupation pay ⇅ | Open jobs there ⇅ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | 0 mi | $2,476 | $1,394,500 | $140,970 | 21.6% | n/a | Jobs |
| Daly City, CA | 31 mi | $2,551 | $1,115,000 | $123,547 | 19.6% | n/a | Jobs |
| Pacifica, CA | 31 mi | $3,098 | $1,249,800 | $160,523 | 15.5% | n/a | — |
| San Bruno, CA | 34 mi | $2,773 | $1,207,500 | $141,272 | 12.2% | n/a | — |
| Millbrae, CA | 36 mi | $3,272 | $1,934,900 | $163,476 | 21.8% | n/a | Jobs |
| Brisbane, CA | 36 mi | $2,574 | $1,232,200 | $156,169 | 29.8% | n/a | — |
| South San Francisco, CA | 36 mi | $2,802 | $1,188,800 | $136,578 | 15.2% | n/a | Jobs |
| Half Moon Bay, CA | 37 mi | $2,433 | $1,549,500 | $157,884 | 26.7% | n/a | — |
| Burlingame, CA | 38 mi | $2,785 | $2,000,001 | $174,000 | 23.1% | n/a | Jobs |
| Richmond, CA | 40 mi | $1,960 | $668,200 | $95,391 | 28.8% | n/a | — |
| San Mateo, CA | 41 mi | $3,077 | $1,618,700 | $153,504 | 15.8% | n/a | Jobs |
| Berkeley, CA | 41 mi | $2,133 | $1,413,900 | $108,092 | 20.8% | n/a | Jobs |
| Alameda, CA | 42 mi | $2,474 | $1,235,700 | $137,697 | 27.3% | n/a | Jobs |
| Belmont, CA | 43 mi | $2,875 | $2,000,001 | $205,297 | 18.6% | n/a | Jobs |
| Oakland, CA | 44 mi | $1,979 | $929,900 | $101,600 | 21.9% | n/a | Jobs |
| Foster City, CA | 44 mi | $3,501 | $1,838,200 | $199,143 | 20.6% | n/a | Jobs |
| San Carlos, CA | 45 mi | $2,854 | $2,000,001 | $237,470 | 14.9% | n/a | Jobs |
| Redwood City, CA | 47 mi | $2,968 | $1,801,700 | $157,814 | 10.2% | n/a | Jobs |
| San Leandro, CA | 48 mi | $2,186 | $844,200 | $101,420 | 23.7% | n/a | — |
| Atherton, CA | 49 mi | $3,501 | $2,000,001 | $250,001 | 7.0% | n/a | — |
We could not match this title to one occupation, so here are the other sub-niches in Technology, where your skills may carry over:
Data, analytics and AI (3366) Software engineering (4089) Cloud, IT and infrastructure (1040) Product management (836)
How far San Francisco, CA is from the 20 largest US cities, in straight-line miles (not driving distance). Click a column to sort.
| From ⇅ | Straight-line distance (miles) ⇅ | Population of that city ⇅ |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | 0 mi | 830,235 |
| San Jose, CA | 73 mi | 990,138 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 364 mi | 3,857,263 |
| San Diego, CA | 475 mi | 1,389,526 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 678 mi | 1,642,323 |
| Seattle, WA | 684 mi | 754,195 |
| Denver, CO | 986 mi | 718,877 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 1,420 mi | 697,125 |
| Fort Worth, TX | 1,484 mi | 963,194 |
| Dallas, TX | 1,515 mi | 1,307,930 |
| San Antonio, TX | 1,516 mi | 1,479,835 |
| Austin, TX | 1,530 mi | 979,539 |
| Houston, TX | 1,673 mi | 2,328,253 |
| Chicago, IL | 1,885 mi | 2,711,226 |
| Indianapolis, IN | 1,979 mi | 885,860 |
| Columbus, OH | 2,142 mi | 914,802 |
| Charlotte, NC | 2,332 mi | 903,844 |
| Jacksonville, FL | 2,403 mi | 977,670 |
| Philadelphia, PA | 2,550 mi | 1,579,706 |
| New York, NY | 2,602 mi | 8,483,844 |
| City ⇅ | Straight-line distance ⇅ | Open jobs ⇅ |
|---|---|---|
| Alameda, CA | 42 mi | 38 |
| Belmont, CA | 43 mi | 2 |
| Redwood City, CA | 47 mi | 45 |
| Palo Alto, CA | 54 mi | 298 |
| Sunnyvale, CA | 60 mi | 83 |
| Fremont, CA | 62 mi | 6 |
| Pleasanton, CA | 63 mi | 6 |
| Milpitas, CA | 66 mi | 2 |
| Campbell, CA | 67 mi | 7 |
| San Jose, CA | 73 mi | 698 |
| Capitola, CA | 79 mi | 1 |
| Sacramento, CA | 103 mi | 53 |
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A private-sector role in technology (cybersecurity) listed 20 days ago. The full description is on this page and on the employer's page.
San Francisco, CA.
Use the "View this job and apply on the employer's page" button. AtiveSite does not receive applications.
The listing does not publish pay, and we could not match the title to one official occupation.
Median rent in San Francisco is $2,476 a month and median household income $140,970 (ACS 2020–2024).
It was posted on 2026-10-20 (20 days ago). Jobs older than 90 days are not shown.
Yes: browse cybersecurity jobs in California.
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