Manager, Strategic Projects (Safety)

Handshake; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in fast-growing company

401(k) match and financial coaching

Parental leave and fertility benefits

Medical, dental, vision, mental health

Job summary

Handshake seeks a Manager, Strategic Projects, Safety to lead a portfolio of complex human data programs powering frontier AI model training and evaluation. You will set operational and quality strategy across policy domains, designing scalable workflows and audit systems for ambiguous work.

You will coach a team of Strategic Projects Leads, partner with frontier labs and senior stakeholders, and drive improvements in safety policies, evaluations, and customer outcomes at scale.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in trust and safety, policy enforcement, risk management, operations, consulting, government, or related field, including people-management experience.
• 2+ years managing high performing teams in fast paced, execution focused environments.
• Demonstrated success leading multiple complex, high-stakes programs and managing teams in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• Deep operational judgment and the ability to make clear quality-throughput-cost tradeoffs across complex human-data workflows.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and stakeholder-management skills, with experience partnering directly with senior customers and cross-functional leaders.

Responsibilities

• Partner directly with frontier AI labs and senior stakeholde
• Lead a portfolio of complex safety and evaluation programs across policy domains and frontier risks
• Manage, coach, and develop Strategic Projects Leads; establish clear goals, accountability, and strong task-quality judgment.
• Set and establish the quality bar across programs by designing scalable annotation frameworks, taxonomies, assessments, instructions, and audit systems for complex and ambiguous policy work.
• Partner directly with frontier AI labs and senior stakeholders to shape scope, resolve high-stakes issues, identify policy and coverage gaps, and build durable customer relationships.
• Use data and first-principles reasoning to diagnose systemic quality or operational issues, make explicit tradeoffs, and drive structural improvements across the portfolio.
• Build and scale playbooks, processes, and AI-enabled workflows that improve consistency, efficiency, and delivery reliability across teams.
• Surface emerging risk patterns, labeling inconsistencies, and strategic opportunities that strengthen safety policies and evaluation coverage.

Skills

People management

Program leadership

Stakeholder management

Operational judgment

AI concepts fluency

Job description

The Role

As a Manager, Strategic Projects, Safety, you will lead a portfolio of complex, high-stakes human data programs that power frontier AI model training and evaluation. You will set the operational and quality strategy for model evaluation across frontier risks, designing scalable workflows, quality systems, and team structures across multiple policy domains.

You will manage and develop a team of Strategic Projects Leads and trusted model trainers, coaching sound judgment on nuanced safety decisions while ensuring consistent delivery across quality, throughput, and cost. As a trusted thought partner to frontier AI labs and internal leaders, you will make high-stakes calls with limited guidance, shape program scope, and translate operational insight into stronger policies, evaluations, and customer outcomes. This is a high-ownership, outcomes-driven role for operators who thrive in ambiguity, move fast with incomplete information, and are accountable for results at scale.

What you'll do:

• Partner directly with frontier AI labs and senior stakeholde
• Lead a portfolio of complex safety and evaluation programs across policy domains and frontier risks
• Manage, coach, and develop Strategic Projects Leads; establish clear goals, accountability, and strong task-quality judgment.
• Set and establish the quality bar across programs by designing scalable annotation frameworks, taxonomies, assessments, instructions, and audit systems for complex and ambiguous policy work.
• Partner directly with frontier AI labs and senior stakeholders to shape scope, resolve high-stakes issues, identify policy and coverage gaps, and build durable customer relationships.
• Use data and first-principles reasoning to diagnose systemic quality or operational issues, make explicit tradeoffs, and drive structural improvements across the portfolio.
• Build and scale playbooks, processes, and AI-enabled workflows that improve consistency, efficiency, and delivery reliability across teams.
• Surface emerging risk patterns, labeling inconsistencies, and strategic opportunities that strengthen safety policies and evaluation coverage.

You Have

• 5+ years of experience in trust and safety, policy enforcement, regulatory compliance, risk management, operations, consulting, government, or a related field, including people-management experience.
• 2+ years managing high performing teams in fast paced, execution focused environments.
• Demonstrated success leading multiple complex, high-stakes programs and managing teams in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• Deep operational judgment and the ability to make clear quality-throughput-cost tradeoffs across complex human-data workflows.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and stakeholder-management skills, with experience partnering directly with senior customers and cross-functional leaders.
• A track record of building scalable processes, developing others, and creating a high-accountability, high-quality team culture.
• Curiosity and the ability to quickly build fluency in technical AI concepts, model behavior, and industry trends.

Bonus Points

• Experience leading safety-policy, content-review, or evaluation operations across large, distributed workforces.
• Subject-matter expertise in high-severity policy harms, including violent activities, dangerous organizations or individuals, sexual activities, CBRN, cyber, or related domains.
• Experience designing and scaling AI safety evaluations, annotation taxonomies, quality systems, or adversarial-testing programs.li>
• Experience working directly with frontier AI labs or other highly technical enterprise customers.

Note: This role involves exposure to sensitive or explicit content (e.g., violent, sexual, or otherwise disturbing material) as part of safety and policy evaluation work.

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.