Senior Software Engineer, Employer

Handshake; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in a fast-growing company

401(k) match

Financial coaching

Parental leave

Fertility benefits

Mental health support

Wellbeing stipend

Learning stipend

Remote & Office support (SF office)

Job summary

Handshake is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for the Employer team in San Francisco. You will own end-to-end initiatives, shaping product direction and leading technical execution on AI-powered sourcing, outreach, and integrations.

Collaborate with product, design, and data to deliver scalable, production-ready systems and measurable hiring outcomes. You will partner with engineers across levels, run A/B tests, and leverage customer feedback to improve engagement and monetization.

Qualifications

• Proven experience owning complex products from idea through launch and iteration.
• Strong full-stack engineering skills, with proficiency in Ruby on Rails, Go, or Python.
• Experience designing scalable architectures and reliable distributed systems.
• Strong product judgment, connecting technical decisions to customer needs and business outcomes.
• Comfort with ambiguity, shifting priorities, and rapid experimentation.
• Pragmatic technical decision-making and a high bar for maintainable, production-quality code.
• Clear communication, collaborative leadership, and confidence to challenge assumptions and surface blockers.
• Comfort using AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor and Claude.

Responsibilities

• Own high-impact full-stack initiatives from idea to launch, shaping product direction and driving technical execution.
• Build smarter hiring experiences, with opportunities across AI-powered sourcing, automated outreach, and recruiting integrations.
• Run A/B tests and use customer feedback to improve employer engagement, conversion, and hiring outcomes.
• Develop monetization and growth experiences that help employers get more value from Handshake.
• Architect scalable, reliable systems and make pragmatic tradeoffs across frontend, backend, and integrations.
• Partner with product, design, and data to turn ambiguous customer needs into intuitive, effective products.
• Elevate engineering quality through thoughtful code reviews, mentorship, and ownership of production systems.

Skills

Full-stack engineering

Ruby on Rails

Go

Python

Product ownership

A/B testing

Distributed systems

Product judgment

AI tooling

Tools

Cursor

Claude

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. Weâve 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 the Role

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Employer team, you'll help build the next generation of hiring on Handshake. How can AI help employers discover talent they would otherwise miss? How can we turn hours of manual recruiting into intuitive, effective workflows? You'll tackle these kinds of problems with real ownershipâ­taking initiatives from an early idea through architecture, launch, and the next iteration.

The team's work spans AI-powered sourcing, automated outreach, and recruiting agents, alongside the monetization and growth experiences that help employers succeed on our platform. You'll bring strong product instincts and technical judgment to a space where the opportunity goes beyond improving an existing workflow: it's about rethinking how employers find and connect with talent.

This is a role for an engineer who wants to shape what gets built, not just how it's built. You'll partner closely with product, design, and data, work alongside experienced engineers, and lead meaningful initiatives end to end. You'll move quickly, run A/B tests, learn from customer feedback and real-world results, and build scalable products whose impact shows up in real hiring outcomes.

This job is 5 days a week onsite in our San Francisco, CA office.

Your Role

• Own high-impact full-stack initiatives from idea to launch, shaping product direction and driving technical execution

• Build smarter hiring experiences, with opportunities across AI-powered sourcing, automated outreach, and recruiting integrations

• Run A/B tests and use customer feedback to improve employer engagement, conversion, and hiring outcomes

• Develop monetization and growth experiences that help employers get more value from Handshake

• Architect scalable, reliable systems and make pragmatic tradeoffs across frontend, backend, and integrations

• Partner with product, design, and data to turn ambiguous customer needs into intuitive, effective products

• Elevate engineering quality through thoughtful code reviews, mentorship, and ownership of production systems

Desired Capabilities

• Proven experience owning complex products from idea through launch and iteration

• Strong full-stack engineering skills, with proficiency in Ruby on Rails, Go, or Python

• Experience designing scalable architectures and reliable distributed systems

• Strong product judgment, connecting technical decisions to customer needs and business outcomes

• Comfort with ambiguity, shifting priorities, and rapid experimentation

• Pragmatic technical decision-making and a high bar for maintainable, production-quality code

• Clear communication, collaborative leadership, and confidence to challenge assumptions and surface blockers

• Comfort using AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor and Claude

Extra Credit

• Experience building AI-powered products, LLM applications, or recruiting agents

• Background in product-led growth, A/B testing, and improving activation or conversion

• Experience with Stripe integrations, payments, billing, or monetization

• Experience building recruiting tools, SaaS integrations, or employer-facing products

• Familiarity with promoted-content systems, attribution, or customer-facing analytics

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.