Associate Software Engineer, Operator Experience

Apply; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity (ownership)

401(k) match

Parental leave

Medical, dental, vision

Learning stipend

Remote & Office perks

Flexible PTO

Job summary

Handshake is hiring a Software Engineer on Operating Tooling to build internal products and automation that improve Handshake's operators’ throughput and speed. You will work closely with operators to translate workflows into reliable, well-built systems.

This role emphasizes collaboration, strong fundamentals, and the ability to turn operational needs into actionable technical designs, with guidance from senior engineers.

Qualifications

• 0-2 years of software engineering experience with ownership of features or small projects from implementation through production support.
• Good communication skills and comfort working with non-engineering stakeholders.
• Exposure to building internal tools, workflow systems, or automation is a plus.
• Growing engineering judgment: write clean, scalable code with guidance and good design tradeoffs.
• Curiosity and adaptability in ambiguous environments with a track record of shipping incremental improvements.

Responsibilities

• Understand processes and pain points with operators and translate into technical requirements.
• Build internal tools, automations, and workflows to improve throughput, accuracy, and visibility.
• Own well-scoped projects end-to-end: implementation, testing, rollout, and iteration.
• Write maintainable, well-tested code following internal tooling standards.
• Collaborate with operators, engineering, and product to drive adoption of the tools you build.
• Seek feedback and grow technical judgment through code reviews and pairing with seniors.

Skills

Software Eng

Communication

Internal tools

Automation

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

About Handshake

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 Role

As a Software Engineer on Operating Tooling, you'll build internal products and automation that help Handshake's operators run the business at high quality and speed. This team functions like an embedded/consulting engineering group: you'll partner directly with operators, learn their workflows, and help ship new operational capabilities.

This role is collaborative and communication-heavy. Success requires solid technical fundamentals plus good EQ—someone who can take clearly-scoped operational needs and turn them into reliable, well-built systems, iterating based on feedback from operators and senior engineers.

In this role, you will:

• Work with operators (with support from senior engineers) to understand processes and pain points, and help translate them into technical requirements.




• Build internal tools, automations, and workflows that improve operational throughput, accuracy, and visibility.




• Own well-scoped projects or features end-to-end: implementation, testing, rollout, and iteration, with guidance on discovery and technical design.




• Write maintainable, well-tested code and follow established engineering practices for the internal-tools environment.




• Collaborate with cross-functional partners (operators, engineering, product) to gather feedback and drive adoption of the tools you build.




• Seek feedback proactively and grow your technical judgment through code review and pairing with more senior engineers.

Desired Capabilities

• 0-2 years of software engineering experience, with some experience owning features or small projects from implementation through production support.




• Good communication skills and comfort working with non-engineering stakeholders.




• Exposure to building internal tools, workflow systems, or automation (through internships, previous roles, or side projects) is a plus.




• Growing engineering judgment: able to write clean, scalable code with guidance, and eager to learn how to make good abstraction and design tradeoffs.




• Curiosity and adaptability in ambiguous environments, with a track record of shipping incremental improvements.

Extra Credit

• Exposure to workflow/backlog systems, intake processes, or operational analytics (instrumentation, dashboards, QA).




• Interest in operating in a fast-paced, embedded-engineering environment.




• Coursework, projects, or prior experience touching knowledge-work operations tooling (e.g., case management, review/approval flows, data quality tooling).

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, wellness stipend


• Growth: 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.