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.
About the roleHandshake AI is at the frontier of applied AI — working with world-class labs and partners on genuinely hard problems around human data, evals, and AI systems. The engineering team here ships production solutions that matter: reliable, observable, and built to scale.
As a Tech Lead Manager, you're first and foremost a builder. You'll set technical direction for a small team of engineers while staying deeply hands-on — writing production code, architecting systems, and driving work forward. This is a player-coach role, ideal for a senior engineer ready to take on their first or second management scope without leaving the craft behind.
The best person for this role leads by example, builds trust through technical credibility, and creates structure without bureaucracy.
Location: San Francisco, CA | 5 days/week in-office
What you'll do
Write production-quality code and architect systems that are reliable, observable, secure, and maintainable.
Set technical direction for a small team — define the approach, unblock engineers, and raise the bar on quality.
Manage and develop a team of 3–5 engineers: set expectations, have real feedback conversations, and help people grow.
Own end-to-end delivery across multiple concurrent workstreams — triage, prioritize, and flag scope or capacity issues early.
Design and build integrations, tooling, APIs, and internal systems in close collaboration with research, product, and operations teams.
Identify patterns across workstreams and build reusable components that scale the team's output.
Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders alike — translate tradeoffs into decisions and keep the right people informed.
Must haves
6+ years of software engineering experience, with meaningful depth in backend, fullstack, or systems work.
Experience as a tech lead or TLM — setting technical direction for a team, not just owning your own work.
1–2 years managing a small team of engineers (3–6); comfortable with feedback, growth conversations, and performance.
Must be someone who codes regularly and wants to keep coding — this is not a transition-to-management role.
Experience working closely with non-engineering stakeholders (research, product, operations, or similar) — comfortable translating between technical and business context.
Strong communication skills: clear under pressure, able to present options and recommendations to varied audiences.
Sharp instincts on triage and prioritization across multiple concurrent workstreams.
Nice to haves
Experience with AI/ML systems or production reliability in AI-adjacent environments.
Familiarity with distributed systems and backend architecture at scale.
Experience building reusable platforms or internal tooling from bespoke solutions.
Background working with or alongside research or operations-heavy organizations.
Why join now
Stay close to the craft while growing as a leader — this role is built for engineers who don't want to stop building.
Work on genuinely hard problems at the frontier of applied AI with world-class labs and partners.
Join early and help shape how the engineering org scales — your patterns become the playbook.
Direct, visible impact on Handshake AI's most important technical work and strategic relationships.
Perks
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
- 6+ years of software engineering experience
- Experience as a tech lead or TLM
- 1-2 years managing a small team of engineers (3-6)
- Must code regularly and want to keep coding
- Experience working with non-engineering stakeholders
- Strong communication skills
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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