Job Archetypes for the AI Era: How Anthropic Sees Roles Merging
Boris Cherny, creator of Claude Code, has outlined a model of five job archetypes that he believes could replace traditional domain-specific roles in the AI era.
According to Cherny, roles in engineering, product, and design are merging. His team at Anthropic exemplifies this shift with the following five archetypes:
The Five Archetypes
- Prototyper: Creates new ideas, many of which do not ship.
- Builder: Turns prototypes into production-grade products.
- Sweeper: Cleans, simplifies, and optimizes performance.
- Grower: Expands and iterates on existing products to better fit the market.
- Maintainer: Keeps existing products secure, reliable, fast, and efficient as they scale.
A Healthy Mix
Cherny noted that many employees span multiple archetypes, and a healthy team includes a mix of all five. The balance depends on product maturity and scale.
The Industry Trend
Figma CEO Dylan Field stated in October that job titles are merging and everyone is becoming a "product builder." Other leaders are replacing the term "manager" with roles like "player-coaches" and "org leads."
Addressing Concerns
In response to a comment from Kun Chen (Meta and Microsoft alum) who argued that archetypes could limit flexibility, Cherny agreed that roles change over time and projects.
When asked whether AI could replace the "builder" and "sweeper" roles, Cherny replied that Claude can assist with all archetypes to varying extents and will improve over time.