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.
Partner with product, engineering, data, research, and operations to define and build the vision for operator independence and self-serve tooling.
Develop strategic product visions and collaborate with partners to sequence them into pragmatic phases.
Collaborate closely with Model Enablement and Fellow Experience squads—your work enables theirs.
Partner with operations leaders and stay close to operators’ workflows. Run pilots, shadow users, uncover pain points, and translate insights into prioritized investments.
Tackle complex, ambiguous human-centered problems and translate them into clear, simple solutions.
Own design end-to-end—from concept through production—iterating quickly through research, user journeys, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs with a strong point of view on craft.
Raise the bar for design culture and execution through systems thinking, product reasoning, pixel-level precision, facilitation, and mentoring.
7+ years of product design experience, ideally working on enterprise products, operations tooling, or internal platforms.
Strong communicator who clearly articulates design decisions, tradeoffs, and the thinking behind them to partners and leadership.
Deep visual and interaction design expertise, with a proven track record of shipped work and measurable impact.
Experience designing complex systems, workflows, or platforms with many moving parts and stakeholders.
Highly collaborative, valuing diverse perspectives and incorporating them into the design process to achieve better outcomes.
Design-led thinker who raises the bar by embedding design thinking into day-to-day work and helping others grow.
Impact-driven, with the ability to prioritize ruthlessly and focus on the work that matters most.
Hands-on, willing to roll up your sleeves and take ownership—nothing is “someone else’s problem”.
Deeply motivated by Handshake’s mission. Humble, kind, and curious, with a desire to keep learning and help others grow.
Bonus if you have experience in operator or driver management, workflow or task management systems, or building internal tools for operations teams at a high-growth company.
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
- 7+ years of product design experience
- Experience with enterprise products or internal platforms
- Strong communication skills
- Experience designing complex systems
- Hands-on and ownership attitude
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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