Director, Central Operations

Handshake; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 224,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in company

401(k) match

Parental leave

Fertility benefits

Mental health support

Learning stipend

Free lunch and gym in SF office

Flexible PTO

Holidays + 2 flex days

Team outings

Job summary

Handshake is seeking a Director of Central Operations to lead Marketplace & Allocations, Trust & Safety, Payments, and Contractor Operations at Handshake AI. You will define the strategy, build a high-performing team, and partner with Product and Engineering to automate critical workflows.

You’ll collaborate with Legal, Finance, Data Science, Growth, and Exec Leadership to raise operational maturity, track metrics, and drive continuous improvement across the function you own.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in a fast-paced environment with decision-making responsibilities.
• Proven people management experience and team development.
• Strong analytical skills and data-driven decision making.
• Experience using SQL to pull and analyze data.
• Demonstrated ability to manage cross-functional projects and influence leaders.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous environments and driving clarity.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the strategy and roadmap for Core Central Operations functions.
• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team with coaching and performance management.
• Analyze performance data to identify trends and improvement opportunities.
• Build and optimize processes to improve efficiency, quality, and scalability.
• Partner cross-functionally to launch and iterate on operational initiatives.
• Track and report on key metrics to ensure targets are met.
• Drive continuous improvement through structured problem solving and experimentation.

Skills

Decision making

People management

Analytics

SQL

Cross-functional leadership

Ambiguity tolerance

Attention to detail

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.

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

The Director, Central Operations will help lead Central Ops — the team responsible for Marketplace & Allocations, Trust & Safety, Payments, and Contractor Operations at Handshake AI. Today, none of these four functions has a dedicated leader; a lean team of ~10 flexes across all of them based on wherever the most urgent need is. This role exists to bring structure and durable leadership to that org as it scales, while staying hands-on with the highest-priority work in the moment.

Reporting to the VP, Central Ops, you'll combine hands-on program leadership with people management, and, over time, take ownership of one or more of the four core functions as the team matures. Much of the near-term work is operational build-out — automating largely manual processes in close partnership with Product and Engineering.

You’ll partner cross-functionally with Legal, Finance, Product, Engineering, Data Science, Delivery, Growth, and Exec Leadership to bring structure to ambiguity and elevate operational maturity across the function(s) you own.

• Define and own the strategy and roadmap for core Central Operations functions
• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team, including hiring, coaching, and performance management
• Analyze performance data to identify trends, gaps, and opportunities for improvement
• Build and optimize processes to improve efficiency, quality, and scalability
• Partner cross-functionally to launch and iterate on operational initiatives
• Track and report on key metrics, ensuring programs meet performance targets
• Drive continuous improvement through structured problem-solving and experimentation

You Have

• 6+ years of experience, ideally as a decision maker in a fast-paced work environment
• Prior people management experience, with a track record of building and developing teams
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to use data to inform decisions
• Experience using SQL to pull and analyze data
• Demonstrated ability to manage cross-functional projects and influence senior stakeholders
• Comfort operating in ambiguous environments and driving clarity
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail

Bonus Points

• Experience in one of Central Operations' core functions — Marketplace & Allocations, Trust & Safety, Payments, or Contractor Operations
• Background as an engineer earlier in your career before transitioning into an operating/strategy role — useful for bridging the gap when partnering closely with Product and Engineering
• Background in Business Operations, Strategy & Operations, Management Consulting, or an MBA
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate insights and recommendations to senior stakeholders

We Offer

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.

Compensation Range: $224K - $280K