Everyone is welcome at Handshake. We know diverse teams build better products and we are committed to creating an inclusive culture built on a foundation of respect for all individuals. We strongly encourage candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, historically marginalized or underrepresented groups to apply.

Your impact

Handshake is building the future of human data for AI.

We partner directly with top AI labs to power large language model (LLM) training and evaluation with high-quality, expert-generated data. As AI models become more sophisticated, the demand for specialized human input continues to grow—and Handshake is uniquely positioned to meet it. We power career platforms at 92% of the top U.S. universities, giving us direct access to verified expert talent across a wide range of domains.

Our AI team is rapidly building a new generation of human data products—from expert annotation platforms to AI interviewers and seamless payout infrastructure—all designed to accelerate research and improve model performance.

We’ve assembled a world-class team from YC, Notion, Scale, Coinbase, Palantir, and more, and we’re working directly with many of the world’s leading AI research labs. This is a unique opportunity to join a fast-growing team shaping the future of AI through better data, better tools, and better systems—for experts, by experts.

We’re growing our team and looking for Software Engineers to build high-impact products that support our Fellows in their work, ensuring they have the tools and infrastructure needed to drive AI innovation. This is a unique opportunity to play a pivotal role in a fast-growing space, working directly with leading AI labs and tech companies to develop solutions that enhance research workflows, model evaluation processes, and domain-specific AI applications. You will build critical features for products from the ground up, collaborating closely with product, design, and engineering teams to create seamless and effective experiences.

Location: San Francisco, CA | 5 days/week in-office

Your role

• Day-to-day work will feature regular collaboration on a cross-functional team with a designer, product manager and other engineers. You will also engage frequently with engineers, support, marketing and data analysts across the organization.
• Lead by example in maintaining a high standard of quality in your own work and in the feedback provided to peers in code review and architecture discussions.
• Lend your technical knowledge and experience to influence the team’s roadmap and prioritization of innovation and operational health initiatives such as quality control and on-call.
• Provide mentorship to engineers and unblock and support your team to meet deliverables.
• Lead sizable individual projects and projects that require multiple engineers.

Your experience

• Strong experience as a fullstack engineer, with a focus on frontend development.
• Worked with ReactJS, Typescript and PostgreSQL.
• Comfortable working across the stack, from crafting performant frontend interfaces to designing and consuming backend APIs.
• Thrive in a high-velocity environment and can execute quickly while maintaining high standards, adapting seamlessly as priorities shift and new challenges emerge.
• Demonstrate ownership-mentality and maintain a high degree of accountability for your work.
• Demonstrated success collaborating with partners in product, design and analytics to define, build, and ship great products and experiences.
• Experience leading large projects from idea to high quality delivery.
• Act with empathy when working with fellow engineers and coworkers, and enjoy providing mentorship and guidance to enable and support your team.
• Strive for individual and team growth, proactively seeking feedback and identifying areas of the code, processes or procedures that need improvement.
• Strong communicator and can articulate technical concepts and rationale to audiences of varying technical knowledge levels.

Bonus areas of expertise

• Worked on LLM products in production.

Compensation range

$200K-$240K
Compensation and level will be based on experience.  

For cash compensation, we set standard ranges for all U.S.-based roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. In order to be compliant with local legislation, as well as to provide greater transparency to candidates, we share salary ranges on all job postings regardless of desired hiring location. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, incl