---
title: 'Strategic Insights Lead at Handshake'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/strategic-insights-lead-handshake-san-francisco-b22enpvc91qw'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-28'
---

# Strategic Insights Lead at Handshake

- **Company:** [Handshake](https://feeny.ai/companies/handshake)
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-28
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-28
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/handshake/94c7e55d-41ba-46c0-b89b-3537c9e1b793

## 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

Operations group. You act as the data expert and strategist for our go-to-market (GTM) teams and corporate employer customers. You partner with Sales, Account Management, and Customer Success to turn Handshake’s proprietary data on jobseekers, employers, and universities into bespoke narratives and strategic recommendations for customers. You own the full arc of an insights project, from understanding a customer’s challenge to presenting a polished, client-ready deliverable to the customer. Examples of what you’ll do

- Deliver Insights Pro engagements: Insights Pro is Handshake’s premium offering for custom data engagements that help employers shape early-career hiring strategy. You work with enterprise customers on strategic priorities such as which schools they should recruit from, how they can build pipelines in hard-to-fill locations, and what the hiring landscape looks like for their emerging roles.
- Expand Insights Pro with existing customers: Help account managers and account executives show what Insights Pro can do, with examples of how we partner with other employers.
- Tell the ROI story for existing customers: Support account managers and customer success managers for business reviews, on-site customer meetings, and at-risk renewals.
- Support new business: Build data-led examples around a prospect’s use case to help AEs win enterprise deals.

Desired Capabilities

- 6+ years in a client-facing advisory, consulting, or quantitative strategy role, with experience presenting to senior-level audiences
- Strong data fluency: you gather context, pull and analyze data, and turn the results into a clear story. The topic might be employer strategy, the value of a partnership with Handshake, or keeping a customer at renewal
- You own deliverables from start to finish, including decks and HTML reports, and hold them to a client-ready standard for accuracy, data integrity, and polish
- You use AI tools, such as Claude, to speed up and improve your work, and can automate workflows that repeat or need to scale
- You can lead working sessions with senior leaders and earn their trust as a strategic advisor
- Strong cross-functional partnership across GTM: you lead with empathy, understand the goals of the teams you support, help them use data, and guide them to the right data resources for what they’re trying to achieve
- You are curious about how AI is changing hiring and workforce strategy
- You structure open-ended problems into clear steps, learn quickly, and are comfortable pivoting when priorities shift

Extra Credit

- Experience in HR tech or recruiting technology

## 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, $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).

## 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

- [Senior Enterprise Customer Success Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-enterprise-customer-success-manager-handshake-new-york-q5m58yt5zhgh) — New York, NY
- [Senior Recruiter, India](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-recruiter-india-handshake-india-90f737k03hp3) — India
- [Senior Sales Compensation Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-sales-compensation-analyst-handshake-san-francisco-hq1nq8rdmvjj) — San Francisco, CA
- [Workplace Experience Coordinator, India (Contract)](https://feeny.ai/job/workplace-experience-coordinator-india-contract-handshake-india-ns5vj37d2txc) — India
- [Manager, Strategic Projects (Safety)](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-strategic-projects-safety-handshake-seattle-bbhcp3bp3txa) — Seattle, WA
- [Strategic Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/strategic-account-executive-handshake-united-states-1nyc1b80454d) — United States
- [Director of Communications, Careers](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-communications-careers-handshake-san-francisco-66qa3155e7wg) — San Francisco, CA
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