About the Role

We’re looking for a gritty, detail-oriented operator who can lead a team of Strategic Project Leads (SPLs) and deliver on complex, high-velocity data projects. You’ll be responsible for ensuring operational excellence, aligning with researchers and procurement teams, and driving systems-level improvements to scale quality and throughput. This is a high-impact leadership role at the heart of our AI operations.

This position is located in either our San Francisco or New York locations.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and manage a team of SPLs across multiple high-stakes AI data projects
• Drive delivery across custom data pipelines and expert labeling workflows
• Collaborate with researchers and procurement partners to define and execute on their data strategies
• Ensure a top-tier experience for Handshake Fellows and enable them to generate high-quality, scalable data
• Partner with Product and Engineering to evolve our internal tooling and operational systems
• Own performance metrics and delivery outcomes across a dynamic set of project scopes and timelines

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of professional experience inoperationally intensive settings, ideally within marketplace or data operations
• 1+ year of experience in AI data operations, such as at Scale AI, Surge, Snorkel, Invisible, or Turing
• Demonstrated success leading high-performing teams in fast-paced, execution-focused environments
• Metrics-driven leader with a strong ability to raise performance through data and accountability
• Systems thinker who excels in ambiguity and brings structure and clarity to complex problems
• Hands-on operator who’s willing to dive deep and do what it takes to deliver outcomes
• STEM background or technical fluency is a strong plus

About Handshake AI

Handshake AI is building the future of human data for AI. As leading labs race to train the next generation of language models, the bottleneck is no longer compute—it’s high-quality, expert-generated data. That’s where we come in.

Leveraging our reach across 1,500+ colleges and universities—including 92% of the top 500 U.S. institutions—we’re uniquely positioned to mobilize expert contributors at scale. Our platform powers custom annotation pipelines, RLHF programs, and fine-tuning projects for some of the world’s top model companies.

We’re backed by Handshake’s trusted network of 15M+ students and alumni, and we’re building cutting-edge human data infrastructure—from expert annotation platforms to AI interviewers and seamless payout tooling. If you're excited to help shape how the next generation of AI gets trained, we’d love to meet you.

What we offer

At Handshake, we'll give you the tools to feel healthy, happy and secure.

Benefits below apply to US employees in full-time positions.

• 💰 Equity and ownership in a fast-growing company.
• 🍼 16 Weeks of paid parental leave for birth giving parents & 10 weeks of paid parental leave for non-birth giving parents.
• 💝 Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision policies including LGTBQ+ Coverage. We also provide resources for Mental Health Assistance, Employee Assistance Programs and counseling support.
• 📚 Generous learning & development opportunities and an annual $2,000 stipend for you to grow your skills and career.
• 💰 Financial coaching through Origin to help you through your financial journey.
• 🛜 Monthly internet stipend and a brand new MacBook to allow you to do your best work.
• 🚃 Monthly commuter stipend for you to expense your travel to the office (for office-based employees).
• 🥗 Free lunch provided 5x a week.
• 🏋️ Free gym access in San Francisco office building.
• 🤝 Referral bonus to reward you when you bring great talent to Handshake.
• 🧗🏼Team outings throughout the year to stay connected to each other.
• 🏦 401k Match: Handshake offers a dollar-for-dollar match on 1% of deferred salary, up to a maximum of $1,200 per year.
• 🏝 All full-time US-based Handshakers are eligible for our flexible time off policy to get out and see the world. In addition, we offer 13 standardized holidays, and 2 additional days of flexible holiday time off. Lastly, we have a Winter #ShakeBreak, a one-week period of Collective Time Off.
• 💻 Handshake offers $500 home office stipend for you to spend during your first 3 months to create a productive and comfortable workspace at home.
• 🍼 Family support: Parental leave coaching and support provided by Parentaly. We partner with Maven Clinic to provide a lifetime coverage up to $15K for expenses related to fertility and family forming!
• 💰 Lifestyle Savings Account: We offer you an annual stipend of $500 to use for purchases such as fitness classes, gym memberships, work-from-home setup, and more.

Looking for more? Explore our mission, values and comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers.

Handshake is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or reasonable accommodation, please let your recruiter know during initial communications.