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
Handshake AI Enterprise is a new business unit building AI-powered applications for the world's largest companies. We deploy small, expert teams directly into enterprise environments — deeply learning each customer's business, defining where AI can drive real impact, and building and iterating on agents that automate their most critical workflows. We're not a consulting firm and we're not selling software. We're building and deploying AI that measurably changes how enterprises operate.
We're looking for a Senior Frontend Engineer who wants to architect the foundation — not just build on top of it.
As our first senior frontend hire, you'll define how we build UI across the entire team. That means establishing the component system, design language, and engineering patterns that every engineer who comes after you will rely on. You'll set the technical bar, make the foundational decisions, and build in a way that scales — so others can move fast without sacrificing quality.
This is a rare opportunity to own the frontend architecture of a new product from zero, at a company with the data, lab relationships, and momentum to win.
Location: San Francisco, CA | 5 days/week in-office
Architect the frontend foundation for Handshake AI Enterprise — component system, design tokens, patterns, and engineering conventions that the whole team builds on
Make foundational technology decisions: framework choices, state management, rendering strategy, performance budgets
Build shared libraries and abstractions that let other engineers move fast without reinventing the wheel or sacrificing quality
Establish code standards, review practices, and documentation that scale as the team grows
Collaborate closely with Applied AI and Platform engineers to define clean API contracts and integration patterns
Ship production-grade UI for enterprise customer deployments alongside building the foundation
Evolve the architecture over time as the team, product, and customer base scales
5–6+ years of frontend engineering experience with a strong architectural track record
Deep expertise in ReactJS and TypeScript — you understand the tradeoffs, not just the syntax
Proven experience building and maintaining shared component libraries or design systems used by other engineers
Strong opinions on frontend architecture — state management, rendering patterns, performance, accessibility — and the ability to defend and evolve them
Experience making technology decisions that others depend on, with an eye toward long-term maintainability
Comfort working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where the right answer isn't always obvious
Strong communication skills — you'll need to align engineers, product, and design on how things get built
Experience building frontend architecture for AI-powered or data-intensive applications
Background at a company known for high craft — you've seen what a great design system looks like from the inside
History of writing technical documentation or guides that helped other engineers ramp quickly
Experience with performance optimization, accessibility standards, or cross-platform rendering at scale
Familiarity with enterprise deployment environments or security constraints
Handshake delivers benefits that help you feel supported—and thrive at work and in life.
The below benefits are for full-time US employees.
🎯 Ownership: Equity in a fast-growing company
💰 Financial Wellness: 401(k) match, competitive compensation, financial coaching
🍼 Family Support: Paid parental leave, fertility benefits, parental coaching
💝 Wellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision, mental health support, $500 wellness stipend
📚 Growth: $2,000 learning stipend, ongoing development
💻 Remote & Office: Internet, commuting, and free lunch/gym in our SF office
🏝 Time Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex days
🤝 Connection: Team outings & referral bonuses
Explore our mission, values, and comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers.
Skills Required
- 5-6+ years of frontend engineering experience with architectural leadership
- Deep expertise in ReactJS and TypeScript
- Proven experience building and maintaining shared component libraries or design systems
- Strong frontend architecture knowledge (state management, rendering patterns, performance, accessibility)
- Experience making long-term technology decisions and establishing engineering conventions
- Ability to collaborate with product, design, Applied AI, and Platform engineers on API contracts and integration patterns
- Comfort working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
- Strong communication skills to align engineers, product, and design
- On-site presence in San Francisco, CA 5 days/week
- Experience building frontend architecture for AI-powered or data-intensive applications
- Background at a company known for high craft or large-scale design systems
- History of writing technical documentation or onboarding guides
- Experience with performance optimization, accessibility standards, or cross-platform rendering at scale
- Familiarity with enterprise deployment environments or security constraints
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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