Software Engineer I, RLE
Skills
About the role
About Handshake
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.
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
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
About Handshake AI
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.
About The Role
We’re hiring a Software Engineer to build our Reinforcement Learning Environments (RLE) platform—the interactive systems where frontier AI models learn to complete real-world work.
This role owns meaningful components end-to-end and plays a key part in scaling systems that power model training and evaluation.
Location: San Francisco, CA (in-office, 5 days/week)
What You’ll Do
Build and scale core components of RLE environments and infrastructure
Design and implement backend systems and data pipelines
Translate ambiguous product and research needs into production systems
Develop modular, reusable workflow domains
Improve reliability, observability, and system performance
What We’re Looking For
2–4 years of experience in backend, distributed systems, or ML-adjacent infrastructure
Strong proficiency in ReactJS and TypeScript
Solid experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL) and data modeling
Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP) and CI/CD
Ability to independently drive projects from design to production
Nice to Have
Experience with simulation systems or evaluation platforms
Exposure to ML systems or working with research teams
Experience in fast-moving, operations-heavy environments
What Success Looks Like
Owns and delivers key RLE components end-to-end
Improves system scalability and developer velocity
Enables faster launch of new domains with high-quality data
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
💻 Office: Commuting support, free lunch, and gym in our SF office
🏝 Time Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex days
🤝 Connection: Team outings & referral bonuses
Compensation Range: $157.5K - $175K
Compensation
This Software Engineer role pays $175k/yr. Within typical range for software engineer roles in United States.
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