Software Engineer I, RLE

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

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