---
title: 'Software Engineer I, Promotions at Handshake'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-i-promotions-handshake-san-francisco-388yt20xgq0w'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-04'
---

# Software Engineer I, Promotions at Handshake

- **Company:** [Handshake](https://feeny.ai/companies/handshake)
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $140k–$170k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-04
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/handshake/c2cea12b-4dba-4782-ac2d-279c6865a4b7

## 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 the Role

As a Software Engineer I, you'll build the products and systems that help employers reach relevant talent and help job seekers discover opportunities they might otherwise miss. Promotions powers promoted content across Handshake's job search, feed, digest, inbox, and promoted messages—connecting employer investment to meaningful hiring outcomes. You'll work across the full stack, from customer-facing experiences to distributed services and the data that makes results measurable. The team's platform spans auctions, promoted-content delivery, event tracking, applicant attribution, and analytics. You'll help make these systems scalable, reliable, and understandable, so employers can see the value of their promotions and job seekers encounter relevant opportunities. This is a hands-on product engineering role with meaningful end-to-end ownership. You'll partner closely with product, design, data, and other engineering teams to turn ambiguous problems into well-scoped solutions, make pragmatic architectural decisions, and carry projects from early design through launch and iteration. You'll join an experienced team where you can shape what gets built while raising the quality of the systems behind it. This job is 5 days a week onsite in our San Francisco, CA office.

## Your Role

- Own full-stack Promotions initiatives from design through launch, partnering with product, design, and data to improve employer and job-seeker experiences.
- Build scalable, reliable systems for promoted-content delivery, auctions, event tracking, attribution, and analytics.
- Strengthen applicant attribution and customer-facing analytics so employers can understand and trust their promotion results.
- Use customer feedback and performance data to measure impact and guide product iteration.
- Raise engineering quality through production ownership, testing, observability, thoughtful code reviews, and mentorship.

Desired Capabilities

- 1-3 years of full-stack engineering experience.
- Proven ownership of complex software projects, with strong product judgment and comfort navigating ambiguity.
- Proficiency in Ruby on Rails, Go, or Python.
- Experience designing scalable distributed systems, with sound judgment around reliability, performance, and data consistency.
- Clear communication, collaborative technical leadership, and a pragmatic approach to quality and delivery.
- Strong debugging skills and attention to detail, with experience investigating production issues across services and data flows.
- Comfort using AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor and Claude while maintaining code quality and correctness.

Extra Credit

- Experience with advertising technology, auctions, marketplaces, or recommendation systems.
- Background in attribution, analytics, event-driven architectures, or data pipelines.
- Experience building employer-facing or SaaS products and using experimentation to improve customer outcomes.

## 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](http://joinhandshake.com/careers)[.](http://joinhandshake.com/careers.Your)

## About Handshake

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Handshake is the career network for the AI economy, connecting job seekers with internships, full-time roles, freelance gigs, and AI training work through a three-sided marketplace.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series F; total funding $434M across 6 rounds)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2014
- **Founders**: Garrett Lord (CEO), Ben Christensen, Scott Ringwelski

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Career platform / Job marketplace / AI workforce infrastructure
- **Target customers**: B2C (job seekers, from students to experienced professionals) and B2B (employers including 100% of Fortune 500 and all foundational AI labs; also educational institutions)
- **Mission**: Expand access and improve outcomes for job seekers, helping the workforce stay ahead in the AI economy.

## Products & Services
- **Handshake Core Platform**: A three-sided marketplace connecting 25 million knowledge workers, 1,600+ schools, and 1 million employers. Features dynamic profiles, intelligent job matching, and interactive skill-building.
- **Handshake AI Enterprise**: AI-powered tools for employers and job seekers, including AI-driven matching, safety features, and pay management.
- **AI Trainer Gigs**: Paid, flexible, remote work for individuals to train and evaluate AI models (e.g., AI Evaluation Specialist, up to $40/hr) – no prior AI experience required.
- **Handshake Network**: Community events, career advice, and networking for students, experts, and professionals in AI and other fields.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding $434M (6 rounds); annual revenue $56.5M (LinkedIn estimate)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Board includes representatives from General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, EQT Ventures, True Ventures, and Niantic. Strategic partners include 100% of the Fortune 500 and foundational AI labs.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount at 5,272 employees (+708.8% YoY per LinkedIn); 1M+ companies on platform; 25M users; expansion into AI trainer gig economy; new roles in HAI (Handshake AI Enterprise) such as Applied AI Engineer, AI Platform Engineer, and Forward Deployed Engineer.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Network effects**: The only three-sided marketplace linking students, employers, and educational institutions at scale.
- **AI-first positioning**: Deep integration of AI into job matching, skill-building, and new freelance training roles – creating a unique ecosystem for the AI economy.
- **Trusted by elite institutions**: 1,600+ partner schools and every Fortune 500 company provides unparalleled reach into early-career talent.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI economy expansion**: Building the “career network for the AI economy” – expanding beyond college students to all knowledge workers, and adding AI training gigs as a new revenue and engagement stream.
- **Product innovation**: Heavy investment in Handshake AI Enterprise (HAI), including AI matching, safety, and pay infrastructure.
- **Global scaling**: Offices in San Francisco, New York, UK, and Bangalore; operating in 32 countries.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Values include “Students first,” “Leave nothing to chance,” “Own the outcome,” “Invent and reinvent,” and “Olympic pace.” Emphasis on ownership, urgency, and constant evolution.
- **Remote/Hybrid policy**: Many roles are based in San Francisco or New York, but some positions (e.g., Trust & Safety Specialist, Support Specialist) are remote in the US. Recent openings show both office and remote options.
- **Benefits**: Health & wellness support, financial support, time off, modern offices with meals, snacks, and social activities. Strong focus on career growth and learning.
- **Career growth**: Rapid headcount growth suggests ample internal mobility; roles range from engineering (ML, AI, data) to customer success, partnerships, and product management.

## Sources
1. [joinhandshake.com/about](https://joinhandshake.com/about/)
2. [joinhandshake.com/careers](https://joinhandshake.com/careers/)
3. [linkedin.com/company/team-handshake](https://www.linkedin.com/company/team-handshake)
4. [joinhandshake.com](https://joinhandshake.com/)

## Other roles at Handshake

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