Senior Product Manager, Payments, Handshake AI

Handshake; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Handshake is seeking a Senior Product Manager to lead the development of their pay infrastructure, crucial for ensuring accurate and transparent payments. This role involves building a compliant pay system, defining new flexible roles, and driving product execution in a fast-paced environment. The position offers a competitive salary range of $200K to $250K, along with comprehensive benefits.

Benefits

Equity and ownership

16 Weeks paid parental leave

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision policies

Generous learning & development opportunities

$2,000 annual skills stipend

Monthly internet stipend

Free lunch provided 5x a week

Free gym access

401k Match

$500 home office stipend

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in product management or software development.
• Experience with regulated financial systems.
• Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Develop and scale a pay system compliant with global regulations.
• Drive end-to-end product execution from discovery to launch.
• Lead cross-functional efforts to bring innovative payment solutions to life.

Skills

Data-driven

User-focused

Stakeholder alignment

Job description

Everyone is welcome at Handshake. We know diverse teams build better products and we are committed to creating an inclusive culture built on a foundation of respect for all individuals. We strongly encourage candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, historically marginalized or underrepresented groups to apply.

Your impact

We’re looking for a Senior Product Manager to lead the development and evolution of our pay infrastructure. This platform is central to our marketplace — ensuring accurate, timely, and transparent payments for our community of expert fellows. You'll play a pivotal role in designing fair compensation mechanisms that attract and retain top talent while aligning incentives with quality and efficiency.

This will be at our San Francisco location and this team is traditionally in the office five days a week.

Your role

• Build the foundation: Develop and scale a pay system that functions as a system of record, compliant with global regulations and capable of supporting complex payout structures.
• Define a new category of work: Help establish a new class of flexible, high-paying roles for experts around the world.
• Drive end-to-end product execution: From deep discovery and user research through to launch, own the product lifecycle with precision and impact.
• Lead cross-functional efforts: Collaborate across engineering, design, operations, finance, and GTM to bring innovative payment solutions to life.
• Influence product strategy: Partner with executive stakeholders to define and drive the strategic roadmap for workforce compensation.

Your experience

• You have 4+ years of experience in product management or software development with a strong record of delivering systems at scale.
• You’ve built or owned regulated financial systems or platforms involving complex transaction flows.
• You’re data-driven, deeply user-focused, and skilled at making tradeoffs to deliver value quickly.
• You thrive in high-growth, fast-paced environments, especially those where scaling and experimentation are key.
• You communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical audiences and excel at aligning stakeholders.
• You’re energized by working at the intersection ofAI and real-world systems, and ideally have some experience with AI-enabled products.

Compensation range

• $200-$250K

For cash compensation, we set standard ranges for all U.S.-based roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. In order to be compliant with local legislation, as well as to provide greater transparency to candidates, we share salary ranges on all job postings regardless of desired hiring location. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including geographic location as well as candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.

About us

Handshake is building the future of human data for AI.

We partner directly with top AI labs to power large language model (LLM) training and evaluation with high-quality, expert-generated data. As AI models become more sophisticated, the demand for specialized human input continues to grow—and Handshake is uniquely positioned to meet it. We power career platforms at 92% of the top U.S. universities, giving us direct access to verified expert talent across a wide range of domains.

Our AI team is rapidly building a new generation of human data products—from expert annotation platforms to AI interviewers and seamless payout infrastructure—all designed to accelerate research and improve model performance.

We’ve assembled a world-class team from YC, Notion, Scale, Coinbase, Palantir, and more, and we’re working directly with many of the world’s leading AI research labs. This is a unique opportunity to join a fast-growing team shaping the future of AI through better data, better tools, and better systems—for experts, by experts.

What we offer

At Handshake, we'll give you the tools to feel healthy, happy and secure.

Benefits below apply to US employees in full-time positions.

• Equity and ownership in a fast-growing company.
• 16 Weeks of paid parental leave for birth giving parents & 10 weeks of paid parental leave for non-birth giving parents.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision policies including LGTBQ+ Coverage. We also provide resources for Mental Health Assistance, Employee Assistance Programs and counseling support.
• Generous learning & development opportunities and an annual $2,000 stipend for you to grow your skills and career.
• Financial coaching through Origin to help you through your financial journey.
• Monthly internet stipend and a brand new MacBook to allow you to do your best work.
• Monthly commuter stipend for you to expense your travel to the office (for office-based employees).
• Free lunch provided 5x a week across all offices.
• ️ Free gym access in San Francisco office building.
• Referral bonus to reward you when you bring great talent to Handshake.
• Team outings throughout the year to stay connected to each other.

• 401k Match: Handshake offers a dollar-for-dollar match on 1% of deferred salary, up to a maximum of $1,200 per year.
• All full-time US-based Handshakers are eligible for our flexible time off policy to get out and see the world. In addition, we offer 13 standardized holidays, and 2 additional days of flexible holiday time off. Lastly, we have a Winter #ShakeBreak, a one-week period of Collective Time Off.
• Handshake offers $500 home office stipend for you to spend during your first 3 months to create a productive and comfortable workspace at home.
• Family support: Parental leave coaching and support provided by Parentaly. We partner with Maven Clinic to provide a lifetime coverage up to $15K for expenses related to fertility and family forming!
• Lifestyle Savings Account: We offer you an annual stipend of $500 to use for purchases such as fitness classes, gym memberships, work-from-home setup, and more.

Looking for more? Explore our mission, values and comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers.

Handshake is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or reasonable accommodation, please let your recruiter know during initial communications.