Fast Facts

Join Handshake as a Senior Software Engineer to lead the development of innovative features that enhance the marketplace experience for users, while collaborating with cross-functional teams and mentoring fellow engineers.

Responsibilities: You will design and implement key marketplace features, engage in code reviews, and lead projects while mentoring other engineers.

Skills: Strong full-stack engineering background with an emphasis on backend development, and experience in communication and collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Qualifications: 5+ years of experience in software engineering, particularly as a full-stack developer, with experience in leading projects and mentoring teammates.

Location: This role is located in San Francisco, California with some remote work flexibility.

Compensation: $180000 - $220000 / Annually

About Handshake

Handshake is building the career network for the AI economy, backed by the largest and most trusted job network on the internet. As the only three-sided job marketplace connecting 18 million knowledge workers, 1,500 educational institutions, and 1 million employers, Handshake powers career discovery, hiring, and upskilling—from first internships to full-time roles, freelance work to gig work, and beyond.

Founded in 2014, we’ve built the most trusted platform for early talent—owning the college-to-career market and powering nearly every career center. Today we’re building on that foundation to help students and early professionals upskill or reskill for the future.

Now’s a great time to join Handshake. Here’s why:

• Category Leader: Over 92% coverage across US universities & 77% of total US university student population.
• Proven Market Demand: Deep employer partnerships across Fortune 500s and the world’s leading AI research labs.
• World-Class Team: Leadership from Scale AI, Open AI, xAI, Notion, Coinbase, and Palantir, just to name a few.
• Capitalized & Scaling: $434M raised with a $175M+ run rate.

About the Role:

• Your day-to-day work will feature regular collaboration on a cross-functional team with a designer, product manager and other engineers. You will also engage frequently with engineers, support, marketing and data analysts across the organization.
• You will own, architect, and build features that shape the marketplace experience end-to-end—driving user engagement, improving trust, and unlocking growth across the platform.
• You will lead by example in maintaining a high standard of quality in your own work and in the feedback provided to peers in code review and architecture discussions.
• You will lend your technical knowledge and experience to influence the team’s roadmap and prioritization of innovation and operational health initiatives such as quality control and on-call.
• You will provide mentorship to engineers and unblock and support your team to meet deliverables.
• You will lead sizable individual projects and projects that require multiple engineers. 

Desired Capabilities

• 5 years of experience as a full-stack engineer with a focus on backend, and am confident in driving architectural decisions on both frontend and backend.
• You have demonstrated success collaborating with partners in product, design and analytics to define, build, and ship great products and experiences.
• You have experience leading large projects from idea to high quality delivery.
• You act with empathy when working with fellow engineers and coworkers, and enjoy providing mentorship and guidance to enable and support your team.
• You strive for individual and team growth, proactively seeking feedback and identifying areas of the code, processes or procedures that need improvement.
• You are a strong communicator and can articulate technical concepts and rationale to audiences of varying technical knowledge levels.

Extra Credit

• You have worked with Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Typescript, ReactJS, and PostgreSQL.
• You have worked on SMB SAAS products at scale.
• You demonstrate ownership-mentality and maintain a high degree of accountability for your work. 

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: Stipends for home office setup, internet, commuting, and free lunch/gym in our SF office
• 🏝 Time Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex days, winter #ShakeBreak where our whole office closes for a week!
• 🤝 Connection: Team outings & referral bonuses

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