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 alongside engineers, scientists, operators, and leaders from Palantir, Meta, Scale AI, and former YC founders

• Build one of the fastest-growing AI businesses in the world
  

About Handshake AI

Human data is the core infrastructure powering the next generation of AI. Frontier AI labs rely on high-quality human expertise to train, evaluate, and improve increasingly capable models. We believe investment in AI training data will continue to accelerate as models expand into new domains and more complex reasoning.

Handshake AI partners with every major frontier AI lab to deliver high-quality human data at massive scale. Our platform connects the world's best technical talent with the companies building the future of artificial intelligence.

About the Role

We're hiring a Senior Technical Recruiter to help build the teams powering Handshake's next stage of growth.

As part of our centralized Technical Recruiting organization, you'll partner with leaders across all three of Handshake's business lines to hire exceptional technical talent. Depending on business priorities, you'll own searches across Software Engineering, Reinforcement Learning Engineers (RLE), Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE), AI Research, Machine Learning, Infrastructure, Mobile, Product Engineering, Design, and other highly specialized technical functions.

This isn't a recruiting role where you simply fill reqs. You'll help shape hiring strategy, influence organizational growth, build talent markets from scratch, and partner directly with engineering and executive leadership on some of the company's most important hires.

• Own full-cycle recruiting for critical technical hires across engineering, AI, research, product, and design organizations

• Partner with engineering leaders and executives to define hiring strategy, prioritize headcount, and build world-class technical teams

• Build and execute sourcing strategies for highly competitive technical talent, including passive candidates in niche markets

• Advise hiring teams on talent market trends, interview design, hiring calibration, and closing strategy

• Deliver an exceptional candidate experience from first outreach through offer acceptance

• Use recruiting data and funnel metrics to identify bottlenecks, improve hiring velocity, and raise the quality bar across the organization

Location: San Francisco, CA. This is an in-office role, 5 days/week (no remote/hybrid).

You Have

Must-Haves:

• 6+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting experience hiring exceptional engineering and technical talent at high-growth technology companies

• Experience recruiting across multiple technical disciplines such as software engineering, infrastructure, AI, machine learning, research, mobile, distributed systems, or developer platforms

• Proven success partnering directly with Engineering leaders and executives on hiring strategy, organizational planning, and talent decisions

• Exceptional sourcing skills with a track record of identifying and engaging difficult-to-reach technical talent

• Strong ability to manage multiple complex searches while maintaining a high bar for quality and candidate experience

• Excellent communication, prioritization, and stakeholder management skills in fast-paced environments

What We're Looking For

• Strategic talent partner: You influence hiring managers, challenge assumptions, and help leaders make better hiring decisions—not just fill open roles

• Elite technical recruiter: You're comfortable hiring across a wide range of technical domains, from software engineering and infrastructure to AI research, Reinforcement Learning Engineers (RLE), and Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE)

• Exceptional sourcer: You know how to find and engage talent that isn't actively looking, and you've built creative sourcing strategies for competitive technical markets

• Builder mentality: You enjoy creating scalable recruiting processes, improving interview quality, and helping build recruiting functions that grow with the business

• High ownership: You thrive in ambiguity, move with urgency, and consistently deliver results while balancing multiple priorities

Bonus Points:

• Experience recruiting for frontier AI companies or organizations building AI products and infrastructure

• Experience hiring Product Managers, Product Designers, or Research teams in addition to Engineering

• Experience with modern recruiting technology including Ashby, Gem, LinkedIn Recruiter, BrightHire, and AI-powered sourcing tools

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 and ongoing development

Office Experience: Free lunch, gym, commuter benefits, and a collaborative headquarters in San Francisco

Time Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex days

Connection: Team outings, referral bonuses, and opportunities to help shape one of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world

Explore our mission, values, and comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers .

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