Machine Learning Engineer I, Growth Relevance

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 1600 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. Weve 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 worlds 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

Handshake is hiring a Machine Learning Engineer I for the Growth Relevance team. AI is transforming how students navigate their careers and were committed to providing innovative responsible AI-powered solutions that guide students from educational aspirations to meaningful career this role you will contribute directly to this mission by developing deploying and enhancing machine learning systems focused on lifecycle optimization personalized notifications and monetization strategies.

Youll join a high-impact team leveraging cutting-edge ML infrastructure including embedding-based retrieval Graph Neural Networks and multi-stage rankers built upon a robust data platform with billions of data points. Your work will drive critical marketplace metrics enhance user engagement and contribute to responsible AI practices around explainability fairness and quality.

What Youll Do

• 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.

Desired Capabilities

• Bachelors 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

• Masters degree or currently pursuing an advanced degree in a relevant field

• 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 supportedand 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: $2000 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 Experience:

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