J-1 Visa Database Engineer Jobs
Database Engineer roles in the United States are accessible to international professionals through the J-1 visa under the Trainee or Research Scholar category, depending on your career stage. Designated sponsors issue the DS-2019 and oversee compliance, while the hiring organization serves as your host. Finding the right host employer is where sponsorship begins.
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Get Access To All JobsAbout 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
We're looking for experienced engineers to build and scale the database infrastructure that powers both Claude's product offerings and Anthropic's research initiatives. As a Software Engineer on the Databases team, you will architect and operate database systems that both enable millions of users to interact with Claude and support cutting-edge AI research. This is a unique opportunity to tackle database challenges at unprecedented scale. You'll develop the database strategy for Anthropic, design systems that handle billions of API requests, create storage solutions that work seamlessly across GCP, AWS, and diverse deployment models, and build the reliable data layer that accelerates research experimentation.
Responsibilities
- Drive the technical direction for database solutions used across Product and Research
- Design and implement database solutions that scale to support millions of users across Claude's product ecosystem
- Build and scale database systems through 100x+ growth while maintaining reliability and performance
- Architect data storage solutions that work seamlessly across GCP, AWS, first-party deployments, third-party deployments, and other environments
- Develop database infrastructure that serves both product and research workloads with different performance characteristics
- Partner with product and research teams to understand data requirements and build infrastructure that accelerates innovation
- Optimize database performance, reliability, and cost efficiency at massive scale
- Make critical build vs. buy decisions for database technologies
You Might Be a Good Fit If You
- Have 10+ years (not including internships or co-ops) of experience in a Software Engineer role, building and scaling database systems
- Have 3+ years (not including internships or co-ops) of experience leading large scale, complex projects or teams as an engineer or tech lead
- Possess deep expertise in distributed database architectures and OLTP systems at scale
- Have successfully scaled databases through massive growth at high-growth companies
- Can balance the speed of a startup environment with the reliability needs of production systems
- Excel at technical leadership and cross-functional collaboration
- Are passionate about building the data layer that enables next-generation AI capabilities
Strong Candidates May Also Have
- Deep expertise scaling PostgreSQL, MySQL, DynamoDB, or similar database systems
- Experience with Redis, Temporal, vector databases, or async job processing frameworks
- Experience building multi-cloud or hybrid cloud database solutions
- Knowledge of database orchestration and automation at scale
- Background at companies known for database excellence
Note: Prior AI/ML infrastructure experience is not required. We value deep infrastructure/databases expertise from any domain.
Deadline to apply:
None. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
The annual compensation range for this role is listed below. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role.
Annual Salary
$320,000—$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. 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.
How We're Different
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.
Come work with us!
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.
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
We're looking for experienced engineers to build and scale the database infrastructure that powers both Claude's product offerings and Anthropic's research initiatives. As a Software Engineer on the Databases team, you will architect and operate database systems that both enable millions of users to interact with Claude and support cutting-edge AI research. This is a unique opportunity to tackle database challenges at unprecedented scale. You'll develop the database strategy for Anthropic, design systems that handle billions of API requests, create storage solutions that work seamlessly across GCP, AWS, and diverse deployment models, and build the reliable data layer that accelerates research experimentation.
Responsibilities
- Drive the technical direction for database solutions used across Product and Research
- Design and implement database solutions that scale to support millions of users across Claude's product ecosystem
- Build and scale database systems through 100x+ growth while maintaining reliability and performance
- Architect data storage solutions that work seamlessly across GCP, AWS, first-party deployments, third-party deployments, and other environments
- Develop database infrastructure that serves both product and research workloads with different performance characteristics
- Partner with product and research teams to understand data requirements and build infrastructure that accelerates innovation
- Optimize database performance, reliability, and cost efficiency at massive scale
- Make critical build vs. buy decisions for database technologies
You Might Be a Good Fit If You
- Have 10+ years (not including internships or co-ops) of experience in a Software Engineer role, building and scaling database systems
- Have 3+ years (not including internships or co-ops) of experience leading large scale, complex projects or teams as an engineer or tech lead
- Possess deep expertise in distributed database architectures and OLTP systems at scale
- Have successfully scaled databases through massive growth at high-growth companies
- Can balance the speed of a startup environment with the reliability needs of production systems
- Excel at technical leadership and cross-functional collaboration
- Are passionate about building the data layer that enables next-generation AI capabilities
Strong Candidates May Also Have
- Deep expertise scaling PostgreSQL, MySQL, DynamoDB, or similar database systems
- Experience with Redis, Temporal, vector databases, or async job processing frameworks
- Experience building multi-cloud or hybrid cloud database solutions
- Knowledge of database orchestration and automation at scale
- Background at companies known for database excellence
Note: Prior AI/ML infrastructure experience is not required. We value deep infrastructure/databases expertise from any domain.
Deadline to apply:
None. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
The annual compensation range for this role is listed below. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role.
Annual Salary
$320,000—$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. 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.
How We're Different
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.
Come work with us!
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.
See all 6+ Database Engineer jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Database Engineer roles.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding J-1 Visa Sponsorship as a Database Engineer
Align your credentials with specialty occupation standards
Before applying, confirm your database engineering degree and experience map to SOC code 15-1242 on O*NET. Gaps between your documented qualifications and the role's technical requirements are a common reason sponsors decline to issue a DS-2019.
Target host employers with existing J-1 relationships
Search Migrate Mate to filter for U.S. employers actively hiring database engineers with J-1 sponsorship history. Hosts already familiar with training plan requirements and sponsor coordination move faster and drop out less often.
Build a training plan before the offer stage
J-1 Trainee sponsorship requires a detailed training plan outlining your learning objectives, supervision structure, and phase timelines. Draft this before negotiating your offer so the host understands exactly what they're agreeing to administer.
Check whether your home country triggers the two-year rule
If your database engineering role is government-funded or your country appears on the Exchange Visitor Skills List, you may face a two-year home residency requirement after your J-1 ends. Confirm your status with your designated sponsor before accepting a position.
Clarify which J-1 category fits your career stage
Current students with under 12 months of post-graduation experience typically qualify under the Intern category. Professionals with more experience use the Trainee category. Mismatching your category to your career stage can trigger a sponsor rejection during DS-2019 issuance.
Verify your host employer's SEVIS compliance capacity
Not every company is equipped to fulfill reporting obligations to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). Ask prospective host employers whether they've previously hosted J-1 exchange visitors and whether your designated sponsor has already vetted their site.
Database Engineer jobs are hiring across the US. Find yours.
Find Database Engineer JobsDatabase Engineer J-1 Visa: Frequently Asked Questions
Which J-1 program category applies to database engineer roles?
It depends on your career stage. If you're a current student or recent graduate with fewer than 12 months of post-graduation work experience, the Intern category applies. If you're an early-to-mid career professional seeking structured on-the-job training in database engineering, you fall under the Trainee category. Research Scholar applies only if your role is research-focused at an accredited institution.
Who actually sponsors the J-1 visa for a database engineering position?
The visa sponsor is a U.S. Department of State-designated organization, not your employer. Examples include CIEE, Cultural Vistas, and AIPT. These organizations issue your DS-2019, monitor your training plan compliance, and report your status to SEVIS. The company hiring you is your host organization, not your sponsor. This distinction matters because your host must be approved by the designated sponsor before your visa can be issued.
How do I find U.S. employers open to hosting J-1 database engineers?
Most employers don't advertise J-1 host positions explicitly, so filtering by visa type is the most efficient method. Migrate Mate lets you search for database engineering roles with J-1 sponsorship alignment, surfacing employers already familiar with the host process. That saves time compared to cold-applying to companies that have never worked with a designated sponsor before.
Does a database engineer on J-1 face the two-year home residency requirement?
Possibly. The two-year home residency requirement applies if your exchange program is government-funded, if you receive graduate medical education, or if your home country is on the Exchange Visitor Skills List published by the State Department. Database engineering itself doesn't automatically trigger the requirement, but your specific funding source and nationality can. Confirm with your designated sponsor before committing to a host offer.
What does the training plan requirement mean for a database engineer on J-1?
The J-1 Trainee category requires a formal Training/Internship Placement Plan that your host employer and designated sponsor both sign. For database engineers, this means documenting specific technical objectives, such as learning a particular database architecture or migration methodology, the supervision structure, and how each phase builds on the last. Vague plans are a common reason sponsors decline to issue the DS-2019, so specificity about tools, technologies, and milestones is essential.
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