Skip to content
CV Rocket
Get started
How it worksThe enginePricingBlogContactSign in

Open nowPosted 34 days agoWe saw it 96 min after it went up

Senior Software Engineer, Backend Platform

Handshake85 open roles

Pay
$208,000 – $260,000 a year
Where
San Francisco, CA
Work mode
On site
Get the CV for this job

From $25 per CV, paid once. No subscription.

Your applicationOpen nowSenior Software Engineer, Backend PlatformHandshake · San Francisco, CA

  1. YouYes, apply to this one.

  2. CV RocketCV written for this posting.

  3. 25 readersRecruiter, hiring manager, skeptic. Round after round.

  4. CV RocketApplied on Handshake's own form.

The reply lands in your private mailbox

3×more interviews than doing it yourself with ChatGPT.

The clock on this job

Early applications get read.

11.5% of postings close within 7 days. Measured by our own scanner across the market. Handshake postings stay open a median of 48 days.

Share of postings closed within
  1. 2.0%1 day
  2. 4.3%3 days
  3. 11.5%7 days
  4. 18.1%14 days
  5. 35.6%30 days
  6. 44.6%60 days
This job: posted 34 days ago

Handshake median: 48 days open

The posting

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 ROLE

Handshake is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to join Backend Platform, with an initial focus on supporting Handshake AI (HAI) and internal AI initiatives.

You will build and maintain backend services, shared platform capabilities, and developer tooling that support HAI and internal AI initiatives. The work centers on core backend platform concerns—service architecture, APIs, data systems, performance, reliability, and developer experience—in an area making increasing use of LLMs and agents.

We are looking for someone who combines strong backend fundamentals with practical knowledge of LLM-powered and agentic systems.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Design, build, and operate backend services and APIs that support HAI products and internal AI initiatives, primarily within our full-stack TypeScript repository.

- Develop shared libraries, services, and architectural patterns that reduce duplicated work and make backend systems easier to extend and operate.

- Improve the performance, scalability, reliability, and observability of HAI's backend systems.

- Lead work involving database design, data access patterns, query performance, indexing, caching, and the evolution of data models as products grow.

- Identify recurring product-engineering problems and turn the right ones into reusable platform capabilities and well-understood patterns.

- Make sound architectural decisions across mature systems and new services, balancing delivery speed, performance, maintainability, and operational cost.

- Contribute directly to internal AI initiatives, including shared capabilities used to build, evaluate, and operate LLM-powered and agentic systems.

- Partner with other teams in our Developer Platform group, including ML and Cloud Engineering, on model and service integration, orchestration, evaluation, observability, and failure handling.

- Participate in technical planning, design and code reviews, operational support, and incident response.

- Mentor other engineers and help establish practical backend engineering standards across HAI and internal AI initiatives.

YOU HAVE

- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, primarily in backend or platform engineering.

- Experience designing, building, and operating production services and APIs.

- Strong understanding of distributed systems, data modeling, service boundaries, common backend architecture patterns, and reliability and performance tradeoffs.

- We strongly prefer candidates with deep TypeScript and Next.js experience. Because this work is primarily based in a full-stack TypeScript repository, you should be comfortable navigating the broader application and contributing across boundaries when necessary.

- Strong experience with relational databases, including schema design, query optimization, indexing, transactions, and diagnosing database-related performance problems. Experience with PostgreSQL is especially relevant.

- Familiarity with backend technologies such as Temporal, Redis, Elasticsearch, GraphQL, or event-driven systems.

- Experience operating services in cloud and containerized environments. Our broader platform uses technologies including GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform, and Docker.

- Practical knowledge of LLM-powered systems, including concepts such as model and tool integration, RAG, agent orchestration, prompt management, evaluation, and observability.

- A record of independently driving ambiguous projects from problem definition through production rollout.

- Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate with product engineers and other teams across Developer Platform.

- Sound technical judgment and a preference for understandable, maintainable systems over unnecessary complexity.

BONUS POINTS

- Direct production experience with product features powered by ML, LLMs, or agents.

- Experience with LLM orchestration frameworks or agent architectures involving tool use, memory, and multi-step workflows.

- Experience building internal AI tools or shared AI capabilities used by other engineers.

- Experience creating internal platforms, paved paths, or self-service tools used by other engineers.

- Experience modernizing mature backend systems while continuing to support active product development.

- Experience with event-driven architecture or high-throughput data systems.

HOW WE THINK ABOUT THIS ROLE

This is a backend platform role supporting HAI and internal AI initiatives. The strongest candidates will bring TypeScript and Next.js depth alongside experience in backend architecture, databases, and performance, plus enough practical AI knowledge to contribute directly to this work. Success does not require expertise in every model or framework, but it does require the ability to design and operate the systems around AI-powered product experiences.

WE OFFER

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, & vision, mental health support, $500 wellness stipend

📚 Growth: $2,000 learning stipend, ongoing development

💻 Remote & Office: Internet, commuting, & 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, & comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers http://joinhandshake.com/careers.

From $25, paid onceGet the CV for this job

What happens when you press

One press. We do the rest.

  1. A CV for this posting

    Written against Handshake's own wording, from every piece of relevant proof in your profile.

  2. 25 readers review it

    Recruiter, hiring manager, skeptic and more read every draft, round after round. You get the best round.

    The review screen in CV Rocket: how each CV was read, round by round.

  3. We apply on Handshake's form

    Our application engine gets through the hardest forms there are. Where a question needs you, AI suggests the best answer. Don't want us applying from our IP addresses? Use our Chrome extension: we apply straight from your own browser.

    An application in CV Rocket: every answer filled in on the employer's form.

  4. Every reply, sorted

    Handshake's answer lands in your private mailbox, and we classify it on arrival: interview, question, rejection.

    The CV Rocket inbox: each employer reply classified as an interview, an action or a rejection.

  5. Reply with AI

    AI helps you write the email, checks it and sends it. We show you whether the recruiter read it.

  6. The interview in your calendar

    Full integration with your calendar. The invitation goes straight in.

    An interview invitation in the CV Rocket inbox, added to the candidate's calendar.
Get the CV for this job

From $25 per CV, paid once. No subscription.

Why it works

3×

more interviews than doing it yourself with ChatGPT.

ChatGPT writes a CV and never learns what happened to it. We see every reply. For each CV we know:

  • How it was written, and how the review scored it
  • When we applied, and how long after the posting went up
  • Which posting, which company, which city
  • Who got the interview, and who heard nothing

That is how we know which CVs get called.

Get the CV for this job

From $25 per CV, paid once. No subscription.

The numbers game

More applications. More interviews.

Every application goes out with its own CV, written for that posting and paid once. Send enough of them and the law of large numbers finds you the job.

Get the CV for this job
By hand5–10
With CV Rocket100
applications a day

Nearby

Live postings like this one

Same employer first, then the same role elsewhere.

Before you press

Straight answers

Get the CV for this job

From $25 per CV, paid once. No subscription.

What if my background isn't good enough?

We make the most of the background you have. The CV uses every piece of relevant proof your profile holds, and one of the 25 readers reads your whole profile and flags what the CV left out.

Do you really apply for me?

Yes, on the employer's own form, the hardest ones included. Where a question needs you, you answer it right there and AI suggests the best answer. Don't want us applying from our IP addresses? Use our Chrome extension: we apply straight from your own browser.

Is it a subscription?

No. You pay once per CV, from $25. Every application goes out with its own CV, written for that posting.

One job. One CV.
Paid once.

Pick the posting you want. We write for it, apply for you and catch the reply.

Get the CV for this job

From $25 per CV, paid once. No subscription.