Machine Learning Engineer I
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.
The ML Opportunity At Handshake
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.
What Makes This Role Unique
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
What You'll Do
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.
Desired Capabilities
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 TensorFlow
Strong foundation in core ML concepts, including classification, regression, ranking, and model evaluation
Extra Credit
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
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: 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: $151K - $189K
Compensation
This Machine Learning Engineer role pays $151k-$189k/yr. Within typical range for machine learning engineer roles in United States.
Questions about this role
Want AI Applyd to auto-apply to roles like this?
We tailor your resume per posting, fill the forms, and track replies for you.