Job Specifications
About Handshake
Handshake is the career network for the AI economy. 20 million knowledge workers, 1,600 educational institutions, 1 million employers (including 100% of the Fortune 50), and every foundational AI lab trust Handshake to power career discovery, hiring, and upskilling, from freelance AI training gigs to first internships to full-time careers and beyond. This unique value is leading to unparalleled growth; in 2025, we tripled our ARR at scale.
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
Work hand-in-hand with world-class AI labs, Fortune 500 partners and the world’s top educational institutions
Join a team with leadership from Scale AI, Meta, xAI, Notion, Coinbase, and Palantir, among others
Build a massive, fast-growing business with billions in revenue
About The Role
As a Software Engineer on the Fellow Experience team, you will build and scale full-stack systems that power the middle-of-funnel experience for fellows, from project discovery through successful onboarding.
You’ll work across frontend and backend surfaces to improve how fellows discover projects, apply, get matched, and onboard successfully. Your work will directly impact fellow volume, match quality, and conversion as we scale toward more intelligent automatic allocations.
This is a product-focused, full-stack role with real customer impact, close collaboration with product and design, and clear growth paths toward senior technical ownership.
The Fellow Experience team owns critical user journeys including the landing page experience for project invitations and applications, onboarding flows (confidentiality agreements, video/camera checks, educational programs, reading materials), project-specific assessments and recordings, and the internal tools that support manual matching.
In This Role, You Will
Build and iterate on full-stack features that support fellow matching, onboarding, and readiness for project work
Contribute to the evolution of our automatic allocations system by implementing matching logic, workflows, and product improvements with guidance from senior engineers
Design and ship backend APIs, asynchronous workflows, and frontend user experiences that are reliable, scalable, and intuitive
Partner closely with product managers and designers to deliver polished, end-to-end user experiences
Write high-quality, maintainable code while balancing speed and correctness
Debug and resolve issues related to onboarding flows, matching outcomes, and system reliability
Participate in code reviews and contribute to improving engineering standards and best practices
Grow toward increased technical ownership by learning from senior engineers on the team
Desired Capabilities
2+ years of professional software engineering experience
Experience building full-stack applications, with comfort working across frontend and backend
Strong proficiency in TypeScript
Experience with modern web stacks (Next.js, tRPC, GraphQL, PostgreSQL)
Familiarity with asynchronous workflows or background job systems
Product-oriented mindset with a focus on user experience and business outcomes
Strong communication skills and comfort collaborating cross-functionally
Growth mindset and eagerness to take on increasing responsibility
Extra Credit
Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Temporal
Exposure to matching systems, marketplaces, or multi-step onboarding flows
Background at high-growth or scaling technology companies
Interest in AI-driven products, human-in-the-loop systems, or data platforms
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, wellness stipend
Growth: 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.
Compensation Range: $145K - $170K
About the Company
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.
Know more