Manager, R&D Strategy & Operations

Handshake

San Francisco (CA)

On-site

USD 180,000 - 230,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Equity in the company

401(k) match

Parental leave

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Wellbeing stipend

Learning stipend

Free lunch and gym in SF office

Flexible PTO and holidays

Team outings and referral bonuses

Job summary

Handshake is seeking a Strategy & Operations Manager for R&D to extend Handshake's S&O function into frontier AI development. You will work at the intersection of scalable reinforcement learning environments and large-scale coding projects to push AI capabilities in real-world problems.

This role is a force multiplier, deploying to urgent business problems, building self-sustaining operating systems, and collaborating with the R&D S&O leader across two units to elevate how teams use AI in their

Qualifications

6–8+ years in strategy & operations or related roles in fast-moving R&D environments.
Proven track record deploying across complex, multi-team organizations and building durable operating systems.
AI-fluent operator who uses the latest tools and can build agentification playbooks.

Responsibilities

Deploy to high-priority initiatives across R&D and build sprint operating structures.
Develop trusted relationships with engineering and product leads and push back when needed.
Identify process friction across R&D and own playbooks, including agentification of workflows.
Run org-wide operating rhythms: quarterly planning, execution rhythms, org comms, and cross-team reporting.
Escalate to the S&O lead with context, and a plan.

Skills

Strategy & operations

Cross-functional leadership

Executive presence

AI fluency

Relationship building

Operating systems

Ambiguity handling

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

The Strategy & Operations Manager for R&D will extend Handshake's S&O function into the frontier of AI development. Primarily deployed in Handshake AI (HAI), this person works at the intersection of the most consequential and fast-moving work in the company: scalable reinforcement learning environments, systematic quality frameworks for training frontier models, and large-scale coding projects pushing the boundaries of what AI can do on a massive, real-world problem set.

This is not a program management role and it's not a permanent execution owner. It's a force multiplier: someone who deploys to wherever the business problem is most urgent, builds the operating system to make it self-sustaining, and moves on. They work alongside the R&D S&O leader to extend strategic reach across two business units with different operational needs and up level how teams across R&D operate with AI in their toolkit.

Your Role

Deploy to the highest-priority initiatives across R&D, build the operating structure for each sprint, and hand off when it's self-sustaining
Build trusted relationships with engineering and product leads; be informed enough to push back and credible enough to be heard
Identify process and tooling friction across R&D and own the playbooks to fix it, including agentification of manual workflows
Run org-wide operating rhythms, including quarterly planning, execution rhythms, org comms, and cross-team reporting
Escalate to the S&O lead with context and a point of view, and a plan

Desired Capabilities

6–8+ years in strategy & operations, chief of staff, or a hybrid role in a fast-moving R&D driven environment
Proven track record deploying across complex, multi-team organizations and building operating systems that outlast their involvement
Strategic range to move fluidly between a technical AI research environment and a consumer marketplace without losing effectiveness
High judgment under ambiguity: goes to where the problem is, not where the job description points
Executive presence to operate alongside senior leaders and push back when something is at risk
AI-fluent operator who uses the latest tools and is excited to build the agentification playbook for others
Relationship-builder who earns trust quickly across engineering, product, and design stakeholders

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.