Director, Applied Machine Learning

Handshake; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity ownership

401(k) match

Parental leave

Medical/dental/vision

Learning stipend

Commuting support

Job summary

Handshake is seeking a Director of Applied ML to lead the interface between frontier AI research and enterprise-ready delivery. You will own post-training and RL environments, scalable post-training infrastructure, and strategic project support across lab partnerships, while balancing technical depth with client-facing strategy.

You’ll build and grow a team, set standards for collaboration with frontier labs, and shape the roadmap as we scale.

Qualifications

• Experience leading and growing technical teams, ideally with a research background in applied ML or AI.
• Deep understanding of applied AI systems design and post-training work (GRPO/PPO, or similar).
• Experience building and scaling teams or infrastructure in production environments.
• Strong cross-functional leadership across engineering and operations.
• Excellent client-facing communication translating technical work into business impact.

Responsibilities

• Lead post-training and RL environment strategy with lab experience guidance.
• Build and scale post-training infrastructure across use cases.
• Own strategic project support across lab engagements and evolving roadmap.
• Manage and grow AI Engineers, Researchers, and AI Forward Deployed Engineers.
• Partner with AI lab researchers and internal stakeholders to translate priorities.
• Maintain direct customer relationships, communicating progress and building trust.

Skills

Applied ML

Team leadership

Cross-functional leadership

Client-facing communication

Production systems

Tools

PPO

Post-training infrastructure

Evaluation tooling

Job description

About the Role

As Director of Applied ML, you'll lead the function that sits at the intersection of frontier AI research and enterprise-scale delivery. You'll own three core pillars: post‑training and RL environments, scaled post‑training infrastructure, and strategic project support across our lab partnerships. You think like an applied researcher, lead like an operator, and move fluidly between technical depth and client‑facing strategy.

You’ll build and grow a team, set the technical standards for how the team engages with frontier labs, and help shape the roadmap as we scale, not just execute against it. This is a rare opportunity to lead at the frontier of gen‑AI, with direct visibility into where model training is headed before the rest of the world sees it.

Location

San Francisco, CA | Hybrid, 3× a week in office

What you’ll do

• Lead post‑training and RL environment strategy – you don’t need to be the deepest technical expert, but your team needs to be able to lean on you for real guidance grounded in lab experience
• Build and scale the infrastructure and team needed to run post‑training at scale across multiple applied use cases
• Own strategic project support across lab engagements – leading your team through a dynamic, evolving roadmap rather than executing the work solo
• Manage and grow a team including AI Engineers, Research Scientists and AI Forward Deployed Engineers, with a path toward managing managers as the org scales
• Partner directly with AI lab researchers and internal stakeholders across engineering and operations, translating ambiguous priorities into clear direction for your team
• Maintain direct customer relationships, following up, communicating progress, and building trust with technical partners
• Bring organizational maturity to a fast‑growing team: solve today’s problems with today’s resources while planning several steps ahead
• Stay current on the frontier: RL, post‑training, and evaluation methods, bringing relevant insight into both team strategy and customer conversations

What we’re looking for

• Experience leading and growing technical teams, ideally with a research background in applied ML or AI
• Technical depth in applied AI systems design and model post‑training (GRPO/PPO, SFT, or similar) enough to support a research‑leaning team, though you don’t need to have trained frontier models yourself
• Experience building and scaling teams or infrastructure in an applied, production environment
• Strong cross‑functional leadership, comfortable working across engineering and operations, and managing shifting timelines with a team in tow
• Excellent client‑facing communication skills – you can translate technical work into business impact and hold your own with both researchers and customers
• Organizational maturity and comfort with ambiguity – you’ll need to be creative in solving problems as they arrive

Extra Credit

• Prior lab experience deploying or training agents for applied, real‑world use cases
• Experience managing managers or scaling a team through multiple growth stages
• Familiarity with evaluation frameworks, annotation tooling, or human feedback collection at scale

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, and vision, mental health support, $500 wellness stipend
• Growth: $2,000 learning stipend, ongoing development
• Office: Commuting support, free lunch, and gym in our SF office
• Time Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex days
• Connection: Team outings & referral bonuses

Equal Opportunity Employer

Handshake is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.