Everyone is welcome at Handshake. We know diverse teams build better products and we are committed to creating an inclusive culture built on a foundation of respect for all individuals. We strongly encourage candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, historically marginalized or underrepresented groups to apply.
Your impact
Handshake is hiring a Staff Machine Learning Engineer with a focus on Generative AI and Recommendations reporting to our Head of Core Relevance.
AI is the future and we are excited to further invest in providing AI resources for our users on our platform. Is it possible to thoughtfully design a responsible, AI-driven product that can help our students progress from educational aspirations to career achievements? In this role, you will work on tackling that goal as part of a lean, high-visibility team. You will be responsible for helping advance our AI product and infrastructure vision towards our mission of democratizing opportunity for millions of students on Handshake.
You will be part of a high-impact org that has already built a Data platform housing billions of data points, with cutting-edge production systems such as embedding-based retrieval, Graph Neural Networks, Fine-Tuned LLMs, and multi-stage rankers. You will level up existing ML systems and drive marketplace metrics, while also accelerating greenfield AI-based products such as Social/Feed. We’ll do all of this responsibly, with developed workstreams around Explainability, Fairness, and Quality.
Your role
- You will be a Force Multiplier - setting technical direction, shaping engineering culture, identifying and adopting industry best practices, designing effective partnerships across the company, mentoring and coaching peers, and more.
- You will be a Leader - spearheading a lean team of machine learning engineers and data scientists while enabling effective collaboration, high-quality execution, and technical excellence across the Data organization
- You will be an Innovator - developing algorithms and Machine Learning systems that connect users across the Handshake marketplace; from students looking for their first jobs and internships to employers sourcing candidates for high-priority roles.
- You will be a Collaborator - being an effective partner to product managers; you will work with product managers in driving new user experiences through Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing and build experiments that drive key product decisions and provide invaluable insights.
Your experience
You are an experienced, hands-on senior engineering leader with extensive experience identifying problems, coming up with technical solutions, and driving projects to completion. You care about culture, mentorship, and collaboration just as much as you care about coding, architecture, and technical design. You have an extreme user-focus, you are comfortable with ambiguity, you can drive alignment, and you make thoughtful data-driven decisions.
- Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related technical field or equivalent technical experience.
- 4+ years of industry ML experience as TL or TLM
- Preferred Qualifications:
- MS/Ph.D. in Machine Learning, Statistics or a related field
- 7+ years of industry ML experience as TL or TLM
- End-to-End experience building web-scale AI systems, feature stores, microservices
- Background in one or more of the following areas of machine learning: recommendations, optimization, natural language processing (NLP), deep learning, LLMs, explainable AI
- Experience building applications atop of IAAS (Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, Azure Cloud Services, etc.)
- Experience working directly with cross-functional teams such as product management, analytics, engineering, and design.
- Excellent communication skills — ability to succinctly communicate results and tell compelling stories with data to an out-of-domain audience (e.g. presenting findings and deep-dives to senior leadership).
Compensation range
$235,000-260,000
Want to learn more about what it's like to work at Handshake? Check out these interviews from our team members!
For cash compensation, we set standard ranges for all U.S.-based roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. In order to be compliant with local legislation, as well as to provide greater transparency to candidates, we share salary ranges on all job postings regardless of desired hiring location. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including geographic location as well as candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.
About us
Handshake is the career platform for Gen Z. With a community of over 17 million students, alumni, employers, and career educators, Handshake’s network is where career advice and discovery turn into first, second, and third jobs. Nearly 1 million companies use Handshake to build their future workforce—from Fortune 500 to federal agencies, school districts to startups, healthcare systems to small businesses. Handshake is built for where you’re going, not where you’ve been.
When it comes to our workforce strategy, we’ve thought deeply about how work-life should look at Handshake. With our hybrid-work model, employees benefit from collaboration and shared team experiences three days per week in our vibrant offices, and enjoy the flexibility of remote work two days per week. Handshake is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, London, and Berlin.
What we offer
At Handshake, we'll give you the tools to feel healthy, happy and secure.
Benefits below apply to employees in full-time positions.
- 💰 Equity and ownership in a fast-growing company.
- 🍼 16 Weeks of paid parental leave for birth giving parents & 10 weeks of paid parental leave for non-birth giving parents.
- 💝 Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision policies including LGTBQ+ Coverage. We also provide resources for Mental Health Assistance, Employee Assistance Programs and counseling support.
- 💻 Handshake offers $500/£360 home office stipend for you to spend during your first 3 months to create a productive and comfortable workspace at home.
- 📚 Generous learning & development opportunities and an annual $2,000/£1,500/€1,850 stipend for you to grow your skills and career.
- 💰 Financial coaching through Origin to help you through your financial journey.
- 🛜 Monthly internet stipend and a brand new MacBook to allow you to do your best work.
- 🚃 Monthly commuter stipend for you to expense your travel to the office (for office-based employees).
- 🥗 Free lunch provided twice a week across all offices.
- 🤝 Referral bonus to reward you when you bring great talent to Handshake.
(US-specific benefits, in addition to the first section)
- 🏦 401k Match: Handshake offers a dollar-for-dollar match on 1% of deferred salary, up to a maximum of $1,200 per year.
- 🏝 All full-time US-based Handshakers are eligible for our flexible time off policy to get out and see the world. In addition, we offer 8 standardized holidays, and 2 additional days of flexible holiday time off. Lastly, we have a Winter #ShakeBreak, a one-week period of Collective Time Off.
- 🍼 Family support: We partner with Milk Stork to provide comprehensive 100% employer-sponsored lactation support to traveling parents and guardians. Parental leave coaching and support provided by Parentaly.
(UK-specific benefits, in addition to the first section)
- 🏦 Pension Scheme: Handshake will provide you with a workplace pension, where you will make contributions based on 5% of your salary. Handshake will pay the equivalent of 3% towards your pension plan, subject to qualifying earnings limits.
- 🏝 Up to 25 days of vacation to encourage people to reset, recharge, and refresh, in addition to 8 bank holidays throughout the year.
- 🤝 Regular offsites each year to bring the team together + opportunity to travel to our HQ in San Francisco.
- 🛍️ Discounts across various high street retailers, cinemas and other social activities exclusively for Handshake UK employees.
(Germany-specific benefits, in addition to the first section)
- 🏝 25 days of annual leave + 5 days of a winter #ShakeBreak, a one-week period of Collective Time Off across the company.
- 🤝 Regular offsites each year to bring the team together + opportunity to travel to our HQ in San Francisco once a year.
- 🧘 Urban sports club membership offering access to a diverse network of fitness and wellness facilities.
- 🛍️ Discounts across various high street retailers, cinemas and other social activities exclusively for Handshake Germany employees.
Looking for more? Explore our mission, values and comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers.
Handshake is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at [email protected].
What We Do
Handshake is the #1 place to launch a career with no connections, experience, or luck required. The platform connects up-and-coming talent with 650,000+ employers - from Fortune 500 companies like Google, Nike, and Target to thousands of public school districts, healthcare systems, and nonprofits. Earlier this year, we announced our $200M Series F funding round. This Series F fundraise and new valuation of $3.5B will fuel Handshake’s next phase of growth and propel our mission to help more people start, restart, and jumpstart their careers.
Why Work With Us
How someone builds their career is foundational. We believe in working with the higher education community to help students build meaningful careers. We are at the nexus of universities, students and employers— and we’re able to connect the very best pieces of each side. We’re proud to create a community where students can be more successful.
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