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.
Anthropic's mission is the responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity. We are a safety-focused AI company working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. As our compute infrastructure scales to support frontier model training and deployment, we are building a world-class team to design, deliver, and operate the physical facilities that make that possible.
We are looking for a Principal Data Center Architect with deep expertise in Civil, Structural, and Architectural (CSA) design to join our growing infrastructure team. This role is the technical owner for the physical building fabric of Anthropic's AI compute facilities — from the earliest site feasibility studies and test fits through reference design development, design partner oversight, and construction delivery.
As Anthropic scales its data center program across multiple sites in the United States and internationally, you will set the civil, structural, and architectural standards that govern how our facilities are designed and built. You will work directly with design-build partners, AE firms, and internal mechanical, electrical, and IT infrastructure teams to ensure our facilities are optimized for high-density AI workloads, constructable on aggressive timelines, and replicable across a growing portfolio.
This is an owner's engineer role — you are the technical authority, not a consultant. You will be expected to make binding design decisions, identify problems before they reach the field, and drive standardization across a pipeline of concurrent projects globally.
Own the civil, structural, and architectural reference design standards for Anthropic's data center portfolio, establishing repeatable design elements deployable across multiple sites and jurisdictions
Lead front-end test fits and site feasibility studies, evaluating structural approaches, site constraints, utility interfaces, and code compliance to inform site selection and design direction
Review and approve CSA deliverables from design-build partners and AE firms at each design stage (SD, DD, CD, IFC), including drawings, structural calculations, specifications, and geotechnical reports
Integrate CSA design with mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and IT infrastructure teams to produce coordinated designs that support high-density AI compute and direct liquid-cooling systems
Drive site and campus planning to maximize compute density, optimize construction phasing, and align physical layout with IT and operational requirements
Partner with the construction and delivery team to provide technical oversight during construction, resolve field issues, and support commissioning activities
Evaluate and develop relationships with design partners, structural engineering subconsultants, and prefabrication / modular vendors; define qualification and performance standards
Establish and maintain facility support area standards — logistics staging, loading, maintenance access, and operational support spaces — scaled for hyperscale deployments
Identify modular and prefabricated construction opportunities that reduce schedule, cost, and design risk across the project pipeline
Manage review cycles and coordinate across internal and external stakeholders to resolve design conflicts and keep projects moving on aggressive timelines
Travel to project sites globally for design reviews, construction audits, and commissioning milestones (up to 40%)
Required
10+ years delivering mission-critical facility infrastructure, with at least 6 years directly in hyperscale or large-scale data center CSA design
Deep technical expertise across civil site development, structural design, and architectural programming for industrial or mission-critical facilities
Demonstrated experience as an owner's engineer or lead technical authority — setting standards, approving deliverables, and managing external design teams
Proficiency with applicable building codes and standards including IBC, IFC, ASCE 7, ACI 318, AISC, FM Global, and local jurisdictional requirements across multiple geographies
Experience with high-density compute environments, including structural and architectural accommodation of direct liquid-cooling systems, overhead busway, and dense rack deployments
Track record of driving design standardization and developing repeatable reference designs across a multi-site portfolio
Ability to evaluate and red-line structural calculations, civil site plans, and architectural construction documents for accuracy, completeness, and constructability
Experience coordinating across MEP disciplines and IT infrastructure teams in a fast-paced, multi-project environment
Clear and direct communication with both technical and non-technical audiences; ability to make and defend design decisions with incomplete information
Preferred
Licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in civil or structural engineering, or licensed architect (AIA / RA)
Experience with prefabricated and modular construction strategies for data center applications
Familiarity with geotechnical risk assessment and foundation design for large industrial facilities
LEED accreditation, Uptime Institute AOS/M&O certification, or equivalent mission-critical credentials
International project delivery experience (Europe, Asia-Pacific, or other regions)
Experience reviewing design packages in Autodesk Construction Cloud, Revit, or Navisworks
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.
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.
