Senior Staff Software Engineer, API

Menlo Ventures; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 405,000 - 485,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Flexible working hours

Generous vacation and parental leave

Equity donation matching

Collaboration-friendly office space

Job summary

A prominent AI organization is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to shape the technical direction of its Claude API. This high-impact role involves leading complex engineering initiatives, mentoring teams, and collaborating across various functions to ensure the API's reliability and growth. Candidates should have over 12 years of engineering experience with strong expertise in distributed systems and a proven ability to influence and lead technical outcomes. The position encourages flexible working and is based in New York or San Francisco.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of engineering experience with track record at Staff or Senior Staff level.
• Experience shaping technical strategy for large-scale API or distributed systems.
• Proven ability to lead high-leverage technical outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive multi-year technical strategy for the Claude API.
• Lead complex engineering initiatives across multiple teams.
• Serve as primary technical decision-maker for major architectural decisions.
• Mentor and develop Staff-level engineers.

Skills

Distributed systems expertise

API architecture

Influencing and leadership skills

Effective communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a related field

Tools

Python

TypeScript

FastAPI

React

Job description

Remote-Friendly (Travel-Required) | San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY

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

Anthropic is seeking an exceptional Senior Staff Software Engineer to join the Claude Developer Platform team and serve as the senior‑most individual contributor across API Engineering. Since launch, the Claude API has seen rapid growth and adoption by companies of all sizes to build AI applications with our industry‑leading models. The API serves as the primary channel for safely and broadly distributing AI’s benefits across all sectors of the economy.

This role sets the technical direction for the systems that make Claude accessible to developers, enterprises, and partners at scale. You will operate at the intersection of technical strategy and execution, partnering closely with Research, Inference, Platform, Infrastructure, and Safeguards to ensure the Claude API is reliable, capable, and positioned to grow with Anthropic’s ambitions.

This is a high‑agency role that spans all API Engineering teams: API Core owns the foundational reliability and performance of the Claude API; API Capabilities ships frontier model capabilities—vision, tool use, computer use—directly to developers; API Knowledge builds retrieval and grounding systems that let Claude reason over external data; API Distributability ensures Claude reaches customers wherever they need it, with the enterprise‑ready infrastructure to support it; and API Agents builds the infrastructure for long‑horizon agentic workflows in production.

Responsibilities

Define and drive multi‑year technical strategy for the Claude API, setting direction across API Core, Capabilities, Knowledge, Distributability, and Agents.

Identify and personally lead the highest‑complexity, highest‑impact engineering initiatives spanning multiple teams.

Serve as the primary technical decision‑maker for major architectural decisions with org‑wide scope.

Partner with Research to evaluate and integrate frontier capabilities; work with Inference and Platform for reliable delivery at scale; collaborate with Infrastructure and Safeguards for reliability, security, and responsible deployment.

Mentor and develop Staff‑level engineers across the org.

Drive alignment across Product, GTM, Safety, and beyond while proactively identifying and addressing systemic technical risks.

You may be a good fit if you:

Have 12+ years of engineering experience with a clear track record operating at Staff or Senior Staff level.

Have demonstrably shaped technical strategy for large‑scale API or distributed systems platforms.

Drive the highest‑leverage technical outcomes without formal authority—you lead through influence, quality of thinking, and trust.

Have deep expertise in distributed systems and API architecture, and are effective writing design docs, making architectural calls, and coding in critical paths.

Are highly effective across org boundaries—you build trust with Research, Inference, Infrastructure, Safeguards, and business stakeholders alike.

Bring strong product instincts and a craftsperson’s approach to API design; you communicate clearly with both technical and non‑technical audiences.

Technical Stack

Languages: Python, TypeScript

Frameworks: FastAPI, React

Application Information

Deadline to apply: None. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Location Preference: Preference will be given to candidates based in New York or the San Francisco Bay Area as these positions are part of an SF‑ or NY‑based team.

The annual compensation range for this role is $405,000 – $485,000 USD.

Logistics

Education requirements: We require at least a Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience.

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. 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.

Equal Employment Opportunity

As set forth in Anthropic’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Benefits

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.