Handshake is the career network for the AI economy. 20 million knowledge workers, 1,600 educational institutions, 1 million employers (including 100% of the Fortune 50), and every foundational AI lab trust Handshake to power career discovery, hiring, and upskilling, from freelance AI training gigs to first internships to full-time careers and beyond. This unique value is leading to unparalleled growth; in 2025, we tripled our ARR at scale.
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
Work hand-in-hand with world-class AI labs, Fortune 500 partners and the world’s top educational institutions
Join a team with leadership from Scale AI, Meta, xAI, Notion, Coinbase, and Palantir, among others
Build a massive, fast-growing business with billions in revenue
As a Senior Software Engineer, you will drive the design and development of the systems and experiences that power Handshake’s core product surfaces—from search and discovery to user acquisition, onboarding, and AI-powered tools. You’ll lead large projects end-to-end, make high-impact architectural decisions, and set the technical standard for your team.
This is a high-ownership role where you’ll collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and analytics partners to define, build, and ship products that deliver measurable business impact. You’ll also mentor engineers, shape the team’s roadmap, and balance product innovation with operational excellence—quality, reliability, and on-call health.
Location: San Francisco, CA | 5 days/week in-office
Lead large projects through all stages—from brainstorming and requirements, through architectural design and experimentation, to execution and release.
Architect and build scalable, high-quality full-stack systems powering core user journeys including search, discovery, matching, onboarding, and identity infrastructure.
Drive technical decisions across frontend and backend, balancing trade-offs between product goals, user experience, and system reliability.
Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, designers, data analysts, and other engineers to ensure products align with business goals and user needs.
Lead by example in maintaining high standards of quality in your own work and in the feedback you provide during code reviews and architecture discussions.
Use both technical expertise and business acumen to influence the team’s roadmap, prioritizing product innovation alongside operational health initiatives like quality control and on-call reliability.
Mentor and unblock teammates to accelerate delivery and elevate the team’s overall effectiveness.
Take ownership of significant initiatives, including projects that require coordination across multiple engineers and stakeholders.
Contribute to organization-level technical enhancements and help establish engineering best practices.
Desired Capabilities
5+ years of experience as a full-stack engineer, confident driving architectural decisions across both frontend and backend.
Strong proficiency in TypeScript, React, Ruby on Rails, SQL, and PostgreSQL.
Demonstrated success collaborating with partners in product, design, and analytics to define, build, and ship great products and experiences.
Experience leading large-scale projects from idea through high-quality delivery.
A track record of implementing complex, scalable, and highly available services that power high-traffic platforms.
Skilled at balancing technical trade-offs with product and business priorities, demonstrating sound judgment and product sense.
Empathetic mentor and teammate, proactive in giving and receiving feedback to drive individual and team growth.
Excellent communicator, able to clearly articulate technical decisions and business rationale to audiences of varying technical knowledge levels.
Extra Credit
Experience with AI-powered products, agentic frameworks, conversational interfaces, or real-time APIs (e.g., OpenAI).
Background building platform systems for user acquisition, identity, authentication, or fraud prevention.
Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Temporal, or matching/marketplace systems.
Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP) and deployment pipelines at scale.
Ownership mentality with a high degree of accountability for delivering outcomes that move both the product and business forward.
Background in consumer SaaS products at scale, particularly in growth or monetization.
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.
Top Skills
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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