Staff Fiber Network Engineer

<div class="content-intro"><h2><strong>About Anthropic</strong></h2> <p>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.</p></div><h2 class="heading"><strong>About the role</strong></h2> <p>Anthropic is building Anternet — a private, global dark-fiber backbone connecting our data centers, cloud regions, and partners. We light our own glass: long-haul and metro DWDM over leased dark fiber and IRU pairs terminating on our own optical line systems and routers.</p> <p>We're looking for a Staff Fiber Network Engineer to own the physical layer of this network end-to-end. You'll be the person who decides where the fiber goes and then makes sure it actually shows up, splices clean, and tests to spec. This is equal parts route engineering, vendor management, and field-delivery program management — the connective tissue between "we need N×Tbps between these two metros" and "the span is lit and carrying traffic."</p> <p>This is a foundational role building Anternet's fiber program from the ground up. You'll define the inventory system, set acceptance standards, and establish the vendor bench yourself.</p> <p>You'll work closely with our optical/transport engineers (who design the line systems on top of your fiber), our backbone routing team, and our data center and capacity planning teams.</p> <h2 class="heading"><strong>Key responsibilities</strong></h2> <ul> <li> <p>Route engineering and design — Plan terrestrial fiber routes between Anternet PoPs and data centers. Evaluate diversity (SRLG, conduit, ROW, landing-station separation), latency, and OSNR/loss budgets. Produce route KMZs, splice diagrams, and as-built documentation</p> </li> <li> <p>Fiber acquisition — Source and qualify dark fiber, IRU, and wav