Conventional Weapons Policy Lead

Anthropic; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 245,000 - 285,000; Full time

Job summary

Anthropic in Washington, DC is seeking a Safeguards policy expert to own our conventional weapons policy and shape how Claude is guided. You will define boundaries between prohibited and permitted research, translating technical judgment into practical guardrails.

You will collaborate with engineering, policy, and leadership, build threat models, and engage external experts and government partners to strengthen policy and enforcement.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in weapons systems; translate evidence into policy judgments.
• Experience in defense or weapons-focused R&D environments.
• Ability to explain complex topics to non-specialists.
• Knowledge of laws governing arms transfer across jurisdictions.
• Ability to perform open-source analysis of weapons systems.
• Comfort with ambiguity and novel problems.
• Motivated to prevent misuse while enabling legitimate work.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain Anthropic's conventional weapons policy, defining the boundary between activities our models should and should not support.
• Build the threat models and evaluations that measure how our models could contribute to weapons development, including software and autonomy components.
• Partner with engineering to turn the policy into model guardrails, detection systems, and enforcement tooling.
• Serve as the subject‑matter expert for escalations involving conventional weapons content, including rapid response to emerging risks.
• Build shared understanding of the policy across product, engineering, legal, and leadership, communicating its reasoning to technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Engage external experts as well as government and industry partners, and translate that engagement into stronger policy and enforcement.

Skills

Weapons systems expertise

Policy judgment translation

Open-source analysis

Legal framework knowledge

Clear policy writing

Ambiguity tolerance

Misuse prevention

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Job description

Anthropic in Washington, DC is seeking a Safeguards policy expert to own our conventional weapons policy and shape how Claude is guided. You will define boundaries between prohibited and permitted research, translating technical judgment into practical guardrails.

You will collaborate with engineering, policy, and leadership, build threat models, and engage external experts and government partners to strengthen policy and enforcement.