Software Engineer (Handshake AI)

• As a Software Engineer II at Handshake, you’ll own meaningful pieces of our core product—building the systems that power how millions of users discover opportunities, connect with employers, and launch their careers. You’re past the fundamentals and ready to take on more: driving features end-to-end, contributing to technical design, and raising the bar for the engineers around you
• You’ll work closely with product managers, designers, and senior engineers to ship full-stack experiences that are reliable, scalable, and user-obsessed. This is a role for someone who wants real ownership, not just tickets
• Own features end-to-end across frontend and backend, from technical design through production and iteration
• Build scalable full-stack systems powering core user journeys—search, discovery, matching, and onboarding flows
• Ship backend APIs, async workflows, and frontend experiences with a high bar for reliability and performance
• Contribute meaningfully to architecture discussions, helping establish patterns the team can build on
• Write clean, well-tested, maintainable code and actively participate in code reviews
• Partner with product and design to translate ambiguous requirements into polished user experiences
• Identify and address technical debt, system reliability gaps, and performance bottlenecks proactively

Benefits

• Health Insurance: Comprehensive medical , dental, and vision coverage
• Fertility and family forming: Through a partnership, Handshake offers comprehensive family benefits, including infertility treatments and a $15K stipend, to its employees.
• LGTBQ+ coverage: All medical plans cover transgender services.
• Mental health: Discounts on a variety of wellness apps and an Employee Assistance Program with access to five free counseling sessions.
• Tax savings: Tax-advantaged benefits to save money on healthcare, dependent care, and other expenses.
• Life & disability insurance: Essential benefits and automatic coverage with basic life insurance, plus short-term and long-term disability coverage.
• 401k match: Dollar-for-dollar match up to 1% of pay, with a max of $1,200 per year.
• Equity: Our equity program includes grants at hire, refresher grants after two years of tenure, and grants alongside promotions.
• Financial management: Handshake partners to provide free professional financial planning services.
• Learning & development: Employees are provided with an annual stipend to use towards professional development, career development workshops, manager trainings, and 1-on-1 coaching through external partnerships
• Community leader support: Employee Resource Group leaders are compensated with a quarterly bonus for the high-impact work the role requires
• Parental leave: Leaves of 16 weeks for birth-giving parents and 10 weeks for non-birth-giving parents; the policy applies to adoptions as well. Handshake also partners to provide one-on-one coaching on preparing for leave and coming back from leave
• Flexible time off: No accrued time off or waiting period to take vacation. Two paid flexible holiday days off to observe holidays that closely align with religious, cultural, and personal needs
• Sabbatical: Paid six-week sabbatical to recharge and reset beginning at six years of continuous, full-time employment, and every four years thereafter
• Volunteer time off: Two days off for social and civil activism, volunteer work, and/or any related activities, including attending and participating in protests- Strong communicator who collaborates well with product, design, and cross-functional partners
• Hands-on experience with modern web stacks (React, Next.js, GraphQL, Ruby on Rails)
• 3–5 years of professional software engineering experience building full-stack applications
• Strong proficiency in TypeScript across frontend and backend surfaces
• Solid command of relational databases (PostgreSQL) and thoughtful data modeling
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and making sound tradeoffs in a fast-paced environment
• Track record of owning features independently and driving them to completion
• Experience building AI-powered products, conversational interfaces, or agentic frameworks (e.g., OpenAI APIs)
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP) and deployment pipelines
• Exposure to marketplaces, matching systems, or multi-step onboarding flows
• Familiarity with workflow orchestration tools like Temporal or async job systems
• Background at high-growth or scaling technology companies
• Familiarity with design systems and component libraries for rapid deployment