Software Engineer I, Quality

re-zoo-me; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 136,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

401(k) match

Parental leave

Wellbeing benefits

Wellness stipend

Learning stipend

Remote & SF Office

Flexible PTO

Team outings

Job summary

Handshake is hiring a Software Engineer to join our Quality team in San Francisco. You will help build backend systems that evaluate and improve the quality of data and evaluations delivered to AI labs, with real-time feedback and pre-delivery checks.

You’ll design scalable data pipelines, APIs, and platform capabilities, collaborating with engineers, researchers, and operations to turn ambiguous quality problems into reliable solutions in a fast-growing startup.

Qualifications

• 2+ years building backend applications or data-intensive systems.
• Strong fundamentals in system design, testing, debugging, and operational reliability.
• Data-oriented approach to solving problems and measuring outcomes.
• Experience with APIs, databases, data pipelines, or distributed systems.
• Ability to navigate ambiguous problems and break them into pieces.
• Strong communication across technical and non-technical teams.
• Quality-focused mindset for rigorous outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Build and scale backend systems that evaluate data quality for frontier AI labs.
• Develop real-time quality checks and pre-delivery validation workflows.
• Design recommendation systems to select effective quality checks.
• Create data pipelines and metrics to surface quality signals.
• Develop APIs and platform capabilities for internal team usage.
• Collaborate with engineers, researchers, and operators to solve quality problems.
• Improve reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of workflows.

Skills

Backend systems

System design

APIs

Databases

Data pipelines

Distributed systems

Testing & debugging

Operational reliability

Communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Collaboration

Tools

CI/CD pipelines

Cloud services

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

We’re hiring a Software Engineer to join our Quality team. The team builds the systems that define, select, and enforce quality standards across the data and evaluations we deliver to leading AI labs.

You’ll work on infrastructure that evaluates complex outputs submitted by fellows, such as coding tasks designed to challenge advanced AI models. These quality checks run throughout the production process: providing real-time feedback to fellows, supporting internal operators, and validating outputs before they reach customers.

Location: San Francisco, CA. This is an in-office role five days per week.

What You’ll Do

• Build and scale backend systems that evaluate and improve the quality of data delivered to frontier AI labs
• Develop infrastructure for running quality checks in real time and before final customer delivery
• Help design recommendation systems that select the most effective quality checks for each project
• Build data pipelines and measurement systems that make complex, subjective quality signals more observable and actionable
• Develop APIs and platform capabilities that allow other teams and tools to use the Quality platform
• Help surface Quality capabilities through MCP and other AI-native interfaces used by internal operators
• Partner with engineers, researchers, product teams, and operations stakeholders to turn ambiguous quality problems into scalable technical solutions
• Improve the reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of quality workflows as the business grows

Desired Capabilities

• 2+ years of experience building and maintaining backend applications, services, or data-intensive systems
• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including system design, testing, debugging, and operational reliability
• A data-oriented approach to solving problems and measuring whether a system is working
• Experience working with APIs, databases, data pipelines, or distributed systems
• The ability to navigate ambiguous problems, break them into manageable pieces, and deliver iteratively
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical teams
• A quality-focused mindset and an interest in building systems that make difficult-to-measure outcomes more rigorous

Extra Credit

• Experience with machine learning, applied AI, or AI-enabled products
• Familiarity with model evaluation, experimentation, recommendation systems, or ranking systems
• Experience with annotation, data-labeling, tasking, or workflow-orchestration platforms
• Experience building developer platforms, internal tools, or extensible APIs
• Familiarity with MCP, agentic systems, or AI-native development tools
• Experience working in a fast-moving startup or similarly ambiguous environment

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.

Compensation Range: $136K - $170K