Research Counsel (AI)

Location: San Francisco, CA or New York City, NY. Candidates are preferred to work from one of these offices at least 3 days per week; all staff are currently expected to be in an office at least 25% of the time. Other locations may be considered for the right candidate.

Annual salary: $265,000–$335,000 USD

Company

Anthropic develops reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems intended to be safe and beneficial for users and society.

What you will do

• Advise research and data teams on data sourcing, licensing, partnerships, and data-use strategy.
• Coordinate regulatory readiness and model launches, including model documentation, system cards, regulatory inquiries, and pre-release models.
• Support Responsible Scaling Policy work involving biological and chemical risk, capability evaluations, biosecurity research access, and dual-use questions.
• Counsel research teams on study design, data collection and sharing, external collaborations, program launches, and publication review.
• Monitor global developments in AI regulation, privacy, copyright, and export controls and turn them into practical internal guidance.
• Engage with academics, regulators, industry groups, and civil society on responsible AI development and data governance.

Requirements

• JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar required; California or New York preferred.
• Experience applying legal requirements to fast-changing, technically complex research and product-development environments.
• Strong communication, analytical, and technical-fluency skills, including the ability to advise on ambiguous legal issues.
• Familiarity with the EU AI Act, U.S. AI legislation and frameworks, GDPR, CCPA, and comparable global regimes.
• At least 8 years of legal experience is preferred, particularly advising technology companies on copyright, privacy, data, AI regulation, and related product or policy matters.
• Ability to make high-stakes, risk-calibrated decisions and collaborate effectively with researchers, engineers, product, policy, and legal stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience working in-house or advising on AI/ML products and services.
• Direct experience with regulators or standards bodies.
• Academic, publishing, copyright, open-source, or data-licensing experience.
• Experience with biosecurity, dual-use research, export controls, safety frameworks, academic research, publications, data sharing, or human-subjects and consent questions.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative research environment focused on a small number of large-scale AI research efforts.
• Frequent research discussions and emphasis on communication and long-term impact.
• Competitive compensation with optional equity donation matching.
• Generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and an office designed for collaboration.
• Visa sponsorship is available, with an immigration lawyer supporting eligible offers.