Applied AI Engineer, Handshake AI Enterprise

Cacheflow; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 157,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in a fast-growing company

401(k) match

Paid parental leave

Mental health support

$2,000 learning stipend

Flexible PTO

Team outings

Job summary

Cacheflow is seeking an Applied AI Engineer based in San Francisco, CA. In this role, you will develop production-grade AI agents and collaborate with a small team to deeply understand customer workflows and optimize deployments.

Successful candidates will have engineering experience, familiarity with AI/ML systems, and a hands-on approach to software development. The position offers equity, competitive compensation, and flexible PTO.

Qualifications

• 2-5 years of engineering experience, with backend depth.
• Hands-on experience building and shipping software.
• Familiarity with LLM-based systems and agent architectures.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to customer deployments, understanding their workflows.
• Build and deploy production-grade AI agents.
• Design and run evaluations to measure performance.

Skills

Engineering experience

AI/ML systems knowledge

Software shipping experience

Strong communication skills

Ownership mentality

Job description

Location

San Francisco, CA

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On‑site

Department

Engineering

Compensation

• $157K – $175K

About the Role

As an Applied AI Engineer at Handshake AI Enterprise, you'll be part of a small, expert team embedded directly inside enterprise customer environments. You'll develop a deep understanding of each customer's business, their workflows, their bottlenecks, where the real leverage is, and help translate that understanding into production‑grade AI agents that measurably change how they operate.

This isn't an implementation or consulting role. You'll own meaningful parts of the full stack: building and deploying agents, running evals, and iterating until performance actually moves. You'll be supported by senior teammates but expected to bring real craft and ownership to everything you touch.

If you've built AI that works in the real world and want to do it at higher stakes, with better data, closer lab relationships, and a founding team that moves fast, this is the role.

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

What You'll Do

• Contribute to customer deployments as part of a small team, developing genuine understanding of their business and workflows
• Build and deploy production‑grade agents tailored to specific customer use cases
• Design and run evals to measure agent performance; iterate and hill‑climb until results move
• Work closely with Senior Engineers, Product, and Platform teammates to ship cohesive, reliable solutions
• Contribute to engineering best practices, agent patterns, and reusable frameworks as the team scales
• Surface insights from deployments that inform Handshake's platform and product roadmap

What We're Looking For

• 2-5 years of engineering experience, with backend depth and some exposure to AI or ML systems in production
• Hands‑on experience building and shipping software in production, you care about whether it actually works
• Familiarity with agent architectures or LLM‑based systems, and curiosity to go deeper
• Comfort with ambiguity, you don't need a perfect spec to start making progress
• Strong communication skills, you'll interact with customers regularly and need to represent the team well
• High ownership mentality, you care about outcomes, not just closing tickets

Extra Credit

• Any experience building or shipping AI applications in production
• Exposure to enterprise environments or customer‑facing engineering roles
• Familiarity with evals, prompt engineering, or AI quality measurement
• Domain knowledge in a specific enterprise vertical (recruiting, finance, ops, legal, etc.)

Perks

• 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, 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.

Compensation Range: $157K - $175K