AI Researcher, Handshake AI

Handshake is building the career network for the AI economy. Our three-sided marketplace connects 18 million students and alumni, 1,500+ academic institutions across the U.S. and Europe, and 1 million employers to power how the next generation explores careers, builds skills, and gets hired.

Handshake AI is a human data labeling business that leverages the scale of the largest early career network. We work directly with the world’s leading AI research labs to build a new generation of human data products. From PhDs in physics to undergrads fluent in LLMs, Handshake AI is the trusted partner for domain-specific data and evaluation at scale.

This is a unique opportunity to join a fast-growing team shaping the future of AI through better data, better tools, and better systems—for experts, by experts.

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

• Leading the AI Career Revolution: Be part of the team redefining work in the AI economy for millions worldwide.

• Proven Market Demand: Deep employer partnerships across Fortune 500s and the world’s leading AI research labs.

• World-Class Team: Leadership from Scale AI, Meta, xAI, Notion, Coinbase, and Palantir, just to name a few.

• Capitalized & Scaling: $3.5B valuation from top investors including Kleiner Perkins, True Ventures, Notable Capital, and more.

• Be the Lab’s First Call: You’ll be a point of contact for researchers at the most advanced AI labs. By building deep, trust-based relationships, you’ll stay ahead of their emerging needs—so when a new challenge arises, we’re already in the room.

• Scope and Launch New Research-Driven Initiatives: You’ll partner directly with labs to uncover unarticulated data and evaluation needs—across reasoning, multi-agent systems, tool use, and beyond. Then you’ll help shape these ideas into concrete, scoped projects we can execute on.

• Prototype and Bring New Offerings to Market: You’ll lead the 0→1 work of designing new data types, spinning up lightweight pilots with engineering and ops, and collaborating with business teams to turn promising experiments into scalable offerings.

• AI/ML Research Depth: You’ve conducted meaningful research—whether in academia or industry—and can speak fluently about LLMs, agent-based systems, and emerging evaluation methods. You’ve likely published at top venues or shipped work that mattered in production.

• Strategic, Customer-Obsessed Mindset: You know how to talk to technical buyers and senior researchers, uncover their real pain points, and turn that into action. You’re not afraid of a blank whiteboard and thrive in messy, fast-moving environments.

• Builder’s DNA: You move quickly, prototype often, and aren’t precious about titles or playbooks. You’re comfortable sitting between research, product, and GTM—and know how to ship.

• Technical Fluency: You’re comfortable debugging models, evaluating outputs, and collaborating with engineers. You’ve likely worked with frameworks like PyTorch or JAX, and you understand how modern ML stacks fit together.

• Experience with RL, agent modeling, or AI alignment

• Familiarity with data-centric AI approaches, synthetic data generation, or human-in-the-loop systems

• Understanding of the challenges in scaling foundation models (e.g., training stability, safety, inference efficiency)

• Contributions to open-source AI libraries or research tooling

• Interest in shaping the societal impact, deployment ethics, and governance of frontier models

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.