| Location | San Francisco, California |
| Website | https://joinhandshake.com/ |
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.
We’re hiring an Associate Software Engineer to help build our Reinforcement Learning Environments (RLE) platform—the systems where frontier AI models learn to complete real-world work.
This is a hands-on, growth-oriented role where you’ll contribute to building core systems, learn quickly from senior engineers, and gain exposure to cutting-edge AI infrastructure.
Location: San Francisco, CA (in-office, 5 days/week)
Contribute to building RLE environments and supporting infrastructure
Implement features across backend systems and frontend interfaces
Work with senior engineers to improve system reliability and performance
Help build modular workflow domains (e.g., engineering, finance, legal)
Support data pipelines that power model training and evaluation
0–2 years of experience (internships or full-time) in software engineering
Familiarity with backend development and APIs
Working knowledge of ReactJS and TypeScript
Understanding of databases (e.g., PostgreSQL) and basic system design
Eagerness to learn and operate in fast-paced environments
Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS, GCP)
Experience with data pipelines or ML-adjacent systems
Interest in AI/ML or simulation systems
Ships reliable features that improve RLE functionality
Grows into owning small components independently
Contributes to faster iteration and better developer velocity
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 coachin
Wellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision, mental health support, $500 wellness stipend
Growth: $2,000 learning stipend, ongoing development
Office: Commuting support, free lunch, and gym in our SF office
Time Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex days
Connection: Team outings & referral bonuses