Manager, Engineering

joinhandshake.com; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

401(k) match

Parental leave

Medical, dental, and vision

Wellness stipend

Learning stipend

Free lunch in SF office

Job summary

Handshake is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead a high-impact team building an agent-first recruiting product in San Francisco. You will own end-to-end engineering—from sign-up and onboarding to search, calibration, and outreach—shaping architecture and delivering on ambitious timelines.

You'll manage a mix of senior and mid-level engineers, partner with product and design, and establish the team culture, processes, and operating rhythm from day one.

Qualifications

• 3+ years experience managing engineering teams, including teams with senior and staff engineers.
• Strong people management, EQ, and career growth for engineers.
• Deep technical background; able to contribute to architecture and evaluate trade-offs.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a new engineering team in San Francisco.
• Own end-to-end product engineering from onboarding to outreach.
• Shape architecture early and set direction.
• Drive execution on ambitious timelines with product/design trade-offs.
• Partner with product, design, and AI/ML teams.
• Establish engineering culture, processes, and operating rhythm.

Skills

People management

Architecture & design

Cross-functional leadership

Technical mentorship

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

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

About the Role

We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead a high-impact engineering team within Handshake Careers. You’ll own the engineering of a new, agent-first product for industry recruiting: the future of how companies find, evaluate, and reach experienced talent.

Recruiting teams work through hours of manual searching, filtering, and outreach. Our product replaces that with an agent. A recruiter describes who they need, or uploads a job description, and the agent builds an ideal candidate profile, finds matches, refines results from feedback, and drafts and sends personalized outreach.

You’ll lead the founding team, a mix of senior, staff, principal, and mid-level engineers. The product is self-serve from day one, starting free and growing into paid and enterprise tiers.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Lead and grow a new engineering team, including senior, staff, and principal engineers, through hiring, coaching, and career development
• Own the end-to-end product: sign-up and onboarding, agent-driven search and calibration, shortlists, analytics, and tiering
• Shape the architecture early. Review technical designs and proposals and set direction
• Drive execution on an ambitious timeline across a large project, and make clear trade-offs with product and design on scope versus speed
• Partner closely with product and design, and with the teams behind outreach, candidate data, and AI/ML search and retrieval
• Establish the team’s engineering culture, processes, and operating rhythm from the ground up

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• 3+ years experience managing engineering teams, including teams that include senior and staff engineers
• Strong people management: high EQ, empathy, and a record of growing engineers’ careers
• Deep technical background. You can contribute to architecture and evaluate trade-offs on a new system, even if you no longer code day to day
• A track record of delivering large, cross-functional projects on aggressive timelines, with good judgment about what to cut

BONUS

• Zero-to-one experience: building a new product or major surface from scratch, ideally at a startup, a mid-size company, or a product-led team inside a larger one
• Experience with AI/LLM-powered products, agents, or evaluation systems
• Experience with self-serve or product-led growth products (free-to-paid, usage-based limits) is a plus

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 http://joinhandshake.com/careers.