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 looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help build the systems that power high-quality coding data and evaluations for next-generation AI models.
You’ll work on technically complex projects involving software engineering benchmarks, code review evaluation, agentic coding workflows, and developer-facing tools. You’ll combine strong engineering judgment with hands-on execution, designing reliable systems that enable teams to create, validate, and improve sophisticated coding datasets.
This is an opportunity to shape foundational infrastructure at the intersection of software development and AI. You’ll operate with significant ownership, collaborate closely with engineers and technical program leaders, and help establish the standards and tools that support our fastest-growing AI initiatives.
Design, build, and operate scalable software systems for coding evaluation, data generation, and agentic development workflows.
Develop tools and services that analyze, validate, and improve AI-generated code.
Build reliable pipelines for code execution, testing, benchmarking, and quality measurement.
Partner with engineering, research, operations, and customer-facing teams to translate complex requirements into practical systems.
Drive technical decisions across architecture, APIs, data models, observability, and operational excellence.
Improve engineering velocity through reusable frameworks, automation, and developer tooling.
Lead projects from ambiguous problem definition through design, implementation, launch, and iteration.
Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and day-to-day collaboration.
Establish high standards for maintainability, correctness, security, and reliability.
5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
Strong proficiency in Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, or another modern programming language.
Experience designing and operating production systems with meaningful scale, reliability, and performance requirements.
Strong understanding of software engineering fundamentals, including testing, APIs, data structures, distributed systems, and observability.
Experience building developer tools, infrastructure, data pipelines, evaluation systems, or other technically complex products.
Ability to work effectively in ambiguous environments and break large problems into clear, executable plans.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical partners.
A track record of taking ownership and delivering high-quality results in collaboration with
Experience with AI/ML evaluation, coding agents, LLM applications, or developer productivity tools.
Familiarity with code execution sandboxes, GitHub workflows, CI/CD systems, or benchmark infrastructure.
Experience working with containerization, cloud platforms, databases, and distributed job orchestration.
Contributions to open-source software or a demonstrated passion for improving developer tools.
Experience partnering with research teams or customers to deliver technically rigorous solutions.
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, wellness stipend
📚 Growth: 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+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Strong proficiency in Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, or another modern programming language
- Experience designing and operating production systems with scale, reliability, and performance requirements
- Strong understanding of software engineering fundamentals, including testing, APIs, data structures, distributed systems, and observability
- Experience building developer tools, infrastructure, data pipelines, evaluation systems, or technically complex products
- Ability to work effectively in ambiguous environments and create executable plans
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Track record of ownership and delivering high-quality results collaboratively
- Experience with AI/ML evaluation, coding agents, LLM applications, or developer productivity tools
- Familiarity with code execution sandboxes, GitHub workflows, CI/CD systems, or benchmark infrastructure
- Experience with containerization, cloud platforms, databases, and distributed job orchestration
- Open-source contributions or demonstrated passion for improving developer tools
- Experience partnering with research teams or customers to deliver technically rigorous solutions
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Gallery
.jpeg)





