Handshake was founded on a simple belief that everyone deserves a path to a great career, regardless of where they went to school or who they know. Today, we power 25 million job seekers, 1 million+ employers, and 1,600 educational institutions.
In 2025, we started Handshake AI and built the fastest-growing AI data business in history. We work directly with frontier AI lab researchers to create evaluations, publish benchmarks, and push the boundary of data. We’ve grown from $0 to ~$1B run rate and pay ~$60M to over 30K individuals every month.
Why join Handshake now:
Shape how every career evolves in the AI economy, at global scale, with impact your friends, family and peers can see and feel
Partner hand-in-hand with world-class AI labs, Fortune 500 partners and the world’s top educational institutions
Work together with engineers, scientists, operators, and more from Palantir, Meta, Scale AI, and former YC founders
Build a massive, fast-growing business with billions in revenue
About Handshake AI
Human data is the core infrastructure to AI advancement. Frontier AI labs currently improve model capabilities with various data-intensive post-training techniques. We believe that data spend for AI training will increase by 3-5x in the next few years and continue for much longer as models take on new domains. Handshake AI supports all of the frontier AI labs, working on their most complex data at the largest scale.
We're hiring a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer to work directly with frontier AI labs to solve their most complex engineering challenges.
As a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, you'll own the end-to-end lifecycle of customer deployments—from understanding technical requirements to architecting, building, and scaling production systems that improve customer workflows and model performance. You'll operate across the stack, partnering closely with Engineering, Research, Product, and Operations teams in both India and the US to deliver solutions for our most strategic customers.
This is a unique opportunity to combine deep software engineering with customer partnership, helping shape how Handshake AI delivers solutions to the world's leading AI labs.
Location: Bengaluru, India. This is an in-office role.
What You'll DoPartner directly with frontier AI labs to understand complex technical challenges and translate them into scalable engineering solutions
Partner closely with Engineering, Research, Product, and Operations teams in the US to execute against a shared roadmap
Design, build, and deploy production-grade applications that solve high-impact customer problems
Own technical architecture for customer deployments with a focus on reliability, scalability, security, and maintainability
Rapidly prototype, test, and iterate on solutions based on customer feedback
Build reusable tools, frameworks, and deployment patterns that improve delivery across customer engagements
Mentor engineers through technical leadership, code reviews, and engineering best practices
Help establish a strong engineering culture as we continue building our India engineering organization
6+ years of professional software engineering experience
Experience leading technically complex customer-facing, solutions engineering, or forward deployed engineering projects
Strong proficiency with TypeScript, React, and modern backend architectures
Deep understanding of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL), system design, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure
Experience building and operating production systems on AWS or GCP
Strong technical judgment and the ability to solve complex engineering problems in fast-moving, ambiguous environments
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
Experience collaborating effectively with globally distributed engineering teams, including teams based in the US
Experience building AI-powered products, LLM infrastructure, or machine learning platforms
Experience working directly with enterprise customers or strategic technical partners
Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines
Experience supporting applied AI or ML research teams
Experience working in a fast-growing startup or high-growth engineering organization
Customer deployments launch successfully and deliver measurable value
Technical solutions become reusable across multiple customer engagements
Deployments are reliable, scalable, and easy to maintain
Customer feedback directly informs platform improvements and future product capabilities
You become a trusted technical partner across customers and engineering teams in both India and the US
Are motivated by solving operational problems that have direct, measurable impact.
Want to be part of a company shaping the future of AI through human data.
Can navigate ambiguity, act with urgency, and keep multiple workstreams moving in parallel.
Perks:
Generous Equity Grant vested over 4 years
Housing Bonus: 1.3 Lakhs spread throughout the first year
Well Defined Performance Bonus ranging between 10 - 100% of base
Medical Insurance Coverage
Food credit for every in person day.
Skills Required
- 6+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Experience leading technically complex customer-facing or forward deployed engineering projects
- Strong proficiency with TypeScript
- Strong proficiency with React
- Deep understanding of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL)
- Experience with system design, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure
- Experience building and operating production systems on AWS or GCP
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
- Experience collaborating with globally distributed engineering teams
- Experience building AI-powered products, LLM infrastructure, or machine learning platforms
- Experience working directly with enterprise customers or strategic technical partners
- Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines
- Experience supporting applied AI or ML research teams
- Experience in fast-growing startup or high-growth engineering organization
Handshake Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Handshake and has not been reviewed or approved by Handshake.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off practices include flexible/unlimited PTO, companywide recharge weeks in summer and winter, plus additional volunteer and personal holiday time. Feedback suggests sabbaticals and coordinated breaks help people actually use rest time.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental leave is described as extended for primary and secondary caregivers, and family-oriented policies are highlighted. Fertility and family-support resources are referenced in public materials.
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Healthcare Strength — Core coverage spans medical, dental, and vision, with added mental-health resources and wellness programming. Feedback suggests these supports contribute meaningfully to overall wellbeing.
Handshake Insights
What We Do
Handshake is the #1 place to launch a career with no connections, experience, or luck required. The platform connects up-and-coming talent with 650,000+ employers - from Fortune 500 companies like Google, Nike, and Target to thousands of public school districts, healthcare systems, and nonprofits. Earlier this year, we announced our $200M Series F funding round. This Series F fundraise and new valuation of $3.5B will fuel Handshake’s next phase of growth and propel our mission to help more people start, restart, and jumpstart their careers.
Why Work With Us
How someone builds their career is foundational. We believe in working with the higher education community to help students build meaningful careers. We are at the nexus of universities, students and employers— and we’re able to connect the very best pieces of each side. We’re proud to create a community where students can be more successful.
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