Machine Learning Engineer Machine Learning Engineer Engineering San Francisco, CA

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.

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.

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 together with engineers, scientists, operators, and more from Palantir, Meta, Scale AI, and former YC founders

Build a massive, fast-growing business with billions in revenue

Human data is the core infrastructure to AI advancement. Frontier AI labs currently improve model capabilities with various data-intensive post-training techniques. We believe that data spend for AI training will increase by 3-5x in the next few years and continue for much longer as models take on new domains. Handshake AI supports all of the frontier AI labs, working on their most complex data at the largest scale.

Machine Learning is at the heart of Handshake's mission to democratize access to opportunity. Every student deserves to be seen, not just by any employer, but by the right one. Machine learning is how we personalize discovery, match intent with opportunity, and drive better outcomes at scale.

End-to-end ownership: You'll work on the entire ML lifecycle, from data to deployment, not just one part

Product impact: Your ML systems directly impact millions of users and drive critical business metrics

Cutting-edge infrastructure: Work with embedding-based retrieval, Graph Neural Networks, and multi-stage rankers

Responsible AI: Contribute to explainability, fairness, and quality practices

Scale: Billions of data points powering our ML systems

World-class team: Leadership from Scale AI, OpenAI, xAI, Notion, Coinbase, and Palantir

Innovator: Develop and iterate on machine learning models and features that directly influence user experience across lifecycle, notifications, and monetization — with guidance from senior engineers.

Collaborator: Partner with senior engineers, data scientists, and product managers to develop and iterate on machine learning models that improve product features and user experience.

Learner: Grow your technical depth by working alongside experienced ML practitioners, picking up best practices in model development, experimentation, and production deployment.

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field
• 3 years of experience in machine learning, data science, or a related area
• Proficient in Python, with hands‑on experience in frameworks such as scikit-learn, PyTorch, or Tensor Flow
• Strong foundation in core ML concepts, including classification, regression, ranking, and model evaluation
• Exposure to areas such as recommendations, personalization, NLP, deep learning, LLMs, or explainable AI
• Familiarity with the ML lifecycle (e.g., experiment tracking, model monitoring, feature pipelines)
• Experience with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure)
• Clear communicator, able to translate technical work for diverse audiences
• Collaborative mindset with experience working cross-functionally with product, analytics, and engineering teams

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
• Family Support: Paid parental leave, fertility benefits, parental coaching
• Wellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision, mental health support, $500 wellness stipend
• Remote & Office: Internet, commuting, and free lunch/gym in our SF office
• Time Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex days