TL;DR
Welcome back to Dev Opportunity Radar.
This is a weekly series where I share opportunities, resources, communities, and interesting finds that I come across, with the goal of helping people discover things they might otherwise miss.
This week's edition includes Anthropic's Fellows Program, LeapYear for aspiring founders, the AWS She Builds Mentorship Program, and two free books on building AI agents that are worth adding to your reading list.
If you've come across an opportunity, resource, community, program, or event that deserves more attention, feel free to share it in the comments.
If I feature it in a future edition, I'll make sure to credit you. If you discovered it, that recognition belongs to you.
Table of Contents
⚡ Quick Scan
Opportunities
| Opportunity | Organization | Type | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic Fellows Program | Anthropic | AI Research Fellowship | Rolling |
| LeapYear | LeapYear | Founder Program | July 9 |
| AWS She Builds Mentorship Program | AWS | Mentorship Program | June 30 |
Resource Highlight
| Resource | Type |
|---|---|
| Principles & Patterns of Building AI Agents | Free AI agent books (digital + printed copy available) |
Community Finds
| Status | Notes |
|---|---|
| No new Community Finds this week | AI Tinkerers, Claude Corps, and MLH's Hacking for Good were featured in Edition #3 |
🔄 Still Open From Previous Editions
A few opportunities from previous editions are still accepting applications.
I've already covered these in detail, so I won't repeat everything here. If any of them catch your attention, check the original edition for the full overview, eligibility details, and application links.
| Opportunity | Organization | Type | Deadline | Featured In |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR8 | FR8 | Builder Residency | Rolling | Edition #2 |
| Gemini × XPRIZE AI Business Challenge | Google & XPRIZE | AI Business Challenge | Aug 18, 2026 | Edition #3 |
📍 This Week's Opportunities
Here are a few opportunities I came across this week that I thought were worth sharing.
📌 Anthropic Fellows Program
Who it's for: Technical builders, researchers, engineers, students, and self-directed learners interested in AI research, safety, security, systems, reinforcement learning, or AI policy.
What stands out: Anthropic provides funding, mentorship, compute resources, and direct access to researchers while fellows spend four months working on an empirical research project.
One thing I found particularly interesting is that the program explicitly welcomes promising technical talent regardless of previous research experience. The focus seems much more on your ability to learn, build, and contribute than on having a traditional research background.
Fellows are matched with mentors and projects across areas including AI Safety, AI Security, ML Systems, Reinforcement Learning, and Economics & Policy.
The program includes mentorship from Anthropic researchers, research funding, compute support, and the opportunity to produce a public research output. Anthropic notes that more than 80% of fellows in an earlier cohort produced papers.
For anyone interested in AI research but unsure how to break into the field, this feels like one of the more accessible pathways I've come across.
Duration: 4 months (full-time)
Compensation: $3,850 USD / $2,310 GBP / $4,300 CAD per week + research funding and compute support
Eligibility: Must have work authorization in the United States, United Kingdom, or Canada
Applications: Rolling
Important: Anthropic lists the Fellows Program on its careers page, but applicants are evaluated through the separate Constellation application form.
The careers page itself notes that you will not be considered unless you complete the Constellation application.
If you're applying, make sure you fill out the Constellation form rather than relying only on the careers page submission.
🔗 Program Overview
🔗 Constellation Application Form (Required)
📌 LeapYear
Who it's for: Students, dropouts, recent graduates, and ambitious builders who want to spend a year working on a startup.
What stands out: LeapYear backs people very early, often before revenue, and doesn't require founders to relocate or drop out of school.
Funding: $30,000 for 1.5% equity.
I wanted to include this because a lot of startup programs assume you're already working full-time on a company or ready to move somewhere. LeapYear seems much more focused on helping people get started wherever they are.
Teams receive funding, mentorship, and support while continuing to build from their current city. New cohorts are funded every three months, allowing founders to focus on building rather than waiting for a once-a-year application cycle.
One thing I particularly liked is that the emphasis seems to be on commitment, curiosity, and the willingness to spend a year building something ambitious rather than on credentials or previous startup success.
Whether you're exploring an idea, building a side project, or taking your first serious step toward starting a company, this feels like one of the more approachable founder programs I've come across.
Application Deadline: July 9, 2026 (July 2026 cohort)
🔗 Learn More | Apply
📌 AWS She Builds Mentorship Program
Who it's for: Women in technology looking for mentorship, professional growth, and community support.
What stands out: Participants are matched with an AWS mentor based on their goals, experience, and location, then spend 12 weeks working through guided professional development activities alongside a global cohort.
I wanted to include this because mentorship can be difficult to find, especially early in your career. Programs like this provide not only access to experienced professionals but also a community of people navigating similar challenges and goals.
Participants also gain access to events featuring AWS leaders, networking opportunities, and a broader community of builders and technologists.
Whether you're a student, early-career professional, career changer, or someone looking to take the next step in tech, this seems like a great opportunity to learn from people who've already walked that path.
Cost: Free
Program Dates: September 1 - November 30, 2026
Application Deadline: June 30, 2026
Requirements: AWS Builder ID required to apply
🔗 Learn More | Apply
📚 Resources Worth Checking Out
Not every useful find comes with an application deadline.
Here's one resource worth checking out this week.
Principles & Patterns of Building AI Agents
If you've been following the recent wave of AI agents and wondering where to start, these two free books from Sam Bhagwat (CEO of Mastra) are worth checking out.
Principles of Building AI Agents focuses on the foundations. It covers topics such as agents, tool calling, memory, workflows, RAG, MCP, multi-agent systems, evals, deployment, and observability.
Patterns of Building AI Agents builds on those foundations and focuses on taking agents from prototype to production. Topics include context engineering, evaluation workflows, security, human-in-the-loop systems, and production-ready agent architectures.
I wanted to include these because a lot of AI content online is either too introductory or too framework-specific. These books do a good job of explaining the underlying concepts and patterns that apply regardless of which tools you use.
Both books are available digitally for free.
You can also request a free printed copy. I was able to get mine shipped to India, and the process was straightforward.
After entering your email on the website, you'll receive the digital version along with instructions for requesting a physical copy if it's available in your region.
If you're interested in building AI agents, I'd recommend starting with Principles and then moving on to Patterns.
Cost: Free
Formats: Digital edition + free printed copy (availability varies by region)
🔗 Principles of Building AI Agents
🔗 Patterns of Building AI Agents
🌟 Community Finds
No new Community Finds this week.
That's completely okay.
Last week's edition featured AI Tinkerers and Claude Corps, both shared by readers, along with a last-minute addition about MLH's Global Hack Week: Hacking for Good.
Seeing people contribute opportunities, communities, and resources for others to discover has honestly been one of my favorite parts of this series so far.
If you missed those finds, they're worth checking out. Claude Corps is also still accepting applications. You can find all the details in Edition #3.
If you've come across an opportunity, fellowship, grant, hackathon, conference, community, resource, or anything else you think more people should know about, feel free to share it in the comments.
If I feature it in a future edition, I'll make sure to credit you. If you discovered it, that recognition belongs to you.
One small request: If you're sharing an opportunity, please avoid posting raw URLs directly in the comments. DEV sometimes filters them before I get a chance to see them.
A short description alongside the link makes it much easier for me to review and potentially feature it in a future edition.
👋 Until Next Friday
Before I go, I just want to say thank you.
A few weeks ago, this was just an experiment.
Now people are discovering opportunities through the radar, applying to them, and sharing opportunities, resources, and communities back with the rest of us.
Last week's edition featured three Community Finds shared by readers. We didn't have any new submissions this week, and that's completely okay.
The Community Finds section isn't going anywhere.
I'd love to see it continue growing over time into a place where people can share opportunities, communities, resources, and interesting finds that others might benefit from discovering too.
The goal of this series hasn't changed:
Help people discover opportunities they otherwise might have missed.
My hope is that this slowly becomes our radar, not just mine.
So if you come across an opportunity, fellowship, grant, hackathon, conference, community, resource, or anything else you think more people should know about, feel free to share it in the comments.
And as always, if I feature it in a future edition, I'll make sure to credit you. If you discovered it, that recognition belongs to you.
If you end up applying to any of the opportunities featured here, I'd love to hear about it.
Thank you for reading, thank you for sharing, and thank you for being part of this.
If you'd like to catch future editions, consider following me on DEV and bookmarking the series.
I'll be back next Friday with more opportunities, resources, and community finds.
See you next Friday 👋
🗂️ Dev Opportunity Radar Archive
If this is your first time discovering the series, you can browse previous editions and Community Finds here:
👉 Dev Opportunity Radar Archive
Every edition is collected in one place so it's easier to explore past opportunities, resources, and community recommendations.
