Compute & Infrastructure Counsel, Real Estate

Anthropic; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 265,000 - 335,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Equity donation matching (optional)

Generous vacation & parental leave

Flexible working hours

Office in San Francisco

Job summary

Anthropic seeks a Compute & Infrastructure Counsel, Real Estate to lead legal execution for major datacenter leases, construction agreements, and financing structures at scale. You will coordinate with outside counsel and internal teams to align legal work with Anthropic's commercial objectives and compute strategy.

You will negotiate complex long-term leases, manage design-build contracts, and oversee financing vehicles while ensuring risk management and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• JD/US bar admission required.
• Minimum 8+ years in infrastructure real estate transactions or related fields.
• In-house experience with datacenter developers or large tech firms is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Negotiate long-term datacenter leases and related construction agreements.
• Manage financing structures including sale-leasebacks and project finance.

Skills

Datacenter leases

Construction contracts

Project finance

Real estate law

Contract negotiation

Cross-functional collaboration

M&A financing structures

Risk management

Education

Juris Doctor (JD) or equivalent

Job description

About Anthropic

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.

About the role

As Compute & Infrastructure Counsel, Real Estate at Anthropic, you'll drive legal execution for Anthropic's largest physical infrastructure transactions: direct datacenter leases, construction agreements, and the financing structures that enable infrastructure investments at massive scale. This role focuses on facilities where Anthropic has direct control through ownership or long-term lease, complementing the colo & networks, and cloud compute legal teammates (facilities where Anthropic is tenant, and our hyperscaler relationships, respectively). You'll work in close partnership with specialized outside counsel on financing and real estate matters, serving as the in-house coordinator who ensures external work product aligns with Anthropic's commercial objectives and integrates with our overall compute strategy.

Responsibilities

Negotiate long-term datacenter leases with major developers, and represent some of Anthropic's largest and lengthiest capital commitments

Coordinate construction-adjacent agreements including design-build contracts, equipment procurement, and commissioning schedules

Manage legal workstreams for complex financing structures (e.g., sale-leasebacks, tax components, or project finance vehicles)

Work closely with specialized outside counsel (real estate and financing specialists), ensuring their work product aligns with Anthropic's commercial objectives

Collaborate with compute team's transaction managers who handle operational execution and project management, providing legal and risk management expertise

Coordinate with finance and corporate development on strategic deal structuring

Understand how datacenter legal structures interact with the compute capacity they will house e.g., power requirements, cooling specifications, security standards, and expansion rights all flow from decisions made elsewhere in the Compute organization

Escalate novel structures or terms that create downstream risk for Anthropic's operational flexibility to managers; ensure facility designs accommodate AI-specific requirements including high-density power, liquid cooling infrastructure, and rapid scaling capacity

JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar

Fluency in commercial real estate and construction contracting; datacenter lease structures, construction risk allocation, and financing arrangements (and how they will interact)

Experience with EPC, AIA, and design-build arrangements at scale

Comfort with project finance structures and the interplay between lease, financing, and development agreements

Ability to coordinate effectively with specialized outside counsel while maintaining strategic direction

Strong judgment about when deal terms create downstream risk for operational flexibility

Effective collaboration skills for working with business teams who handle transaction management and site selection

Communication skills that translate complex real estate and financing concepts into clear risk assessments for business stakeholders

Genuine interest in infrastructure development and appreciation for why datacenter capacity is mission-critical for frontier AI

Preferred qualifications

At least 8 years of relevant legal experience with meaningful exposure to infrastructure real estate transactions, project finance, or construction contracts

In-house experience at datacenter developers supporting leasing, project development, and financing transactions

Background at infrastructure private equity firms with exposure to datacenter or similar infrastructure investments

Experience at large technology companies with datacenter construction programs supporting development transactions from the buy side

Law firm experience at practices with infrastructure finance or project development specialization, particularly those who have worked on datacenter, power, or similar infrastructure financings

Prior involvement in transactions requiring sophisticated understanding of construction timelines, commissioning requirements, and operational handoff

Familiarity with tax structures, sale-leaseback arrangements, or other financing vehicles used in large-scale infrastructure development

Role‑specific policy: For this role, we expect all staff to be able to work from our San Francisco or Seattle office at least 3 days a week, though we encourage you to apply even if you might need some flexibility for an interim period of time.

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.

$265,000 - $335,000 USD

Logistics

Minimum 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.

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.

How we're different

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.

Come work with us!

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.

I understand and agree that both Anthropic and I waive our respective rights to trial by jury in connection with any claims covered by this agreement to arbitrate. Instead, any disputes arising out of or related to my application for employment with Anthropic shall be settled by final and binding arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act. I understand and agree that Anthropic’s employees/agents, Anthropic’s clients, and their employees/agents are third-party beneficiaries to this agreement.

The arbitration shall be conducted in accordance with the Employment Arbitration Rules & Procedures of Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc. (“JAMS Rules”), available via the internet at https://www.jamsadr.com/rules-employment-arbitration or by searching for “JAMS Employment Arbitration Rules” in an online search service such as www.google.com. To the extent the JAMS Rules are inconsistent with the terms of this Agreement, this Agreement shall govern to the extent permitted by law. The parties will select one neutral arbitrator, who will have the authority to award all relief in law or equity that is requested by the parties and supported by credible, relevant, and admissible evidence. The arbitrator shall allow adequate discovery and issue a written, signed, and reasoned award. Judgement may be entered on the arbitrator’s award in any court having jurisdiction, and the award shall be subject to correction, confirmation, or vacation as provided by the applicable law concerning judicial review of arbitration awards. Anthropic will bear the costs that are particular to the arbitration, such as the arbitrator fees. The arbitrator will apply the substantive law of the state in which I sought employment with Anthropic. The arbitrator will determine the arbitration venue, based on fairness and convenience to the parties and witnesses, unless otherwise mutually agreed upon by the parties. The Party initiating a claim under this Agreement must make a written demand for arbitration to the other Party. The demand for arbitration shall identify the claims asserted, the facts upon which such claims are based, and any relief or remedy sought. Written demand for arbitration to Anthropic must be sent to Anthropic PBC at [e-mail]. Anthropic’s demand for arbitration shall be sent to the most recent mailing address and/or email address that Anthropic has on file for you.

This agreement to arbitrate does not apply to claims for workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation benefits, claims or charges before any administrative agency having jurisdiction over such claims, or any other claim that is not subject to arbitration under federal law. If any claims are deemed non-arbitrable, then those claims will be stayed until resolution of any arbitrable claims.

I understand and agree that, except where prohibited by federal law, all claims subject to this agreement to arbitrate must be pursued on an individual basis, and that both I and Anthropic waive any right to bring or be a party to any class or collective action. I agree that any issues pertaining to the enforceability, application or validity of this agreement to arbitrate shall be decided only by a court of competent jurisdiction and not by an arbitrator. This agreement to arbitrate applies only in the United States.