Forward Deployed Engineer I

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.

About the Role

We're hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer I to join our Forward Deployed Engineering team, building production software that helps frontier AI labs solve real-world problems.

You'll partner with senior engineers to develop, deploy, and iterate on customer-facing solutions while working across the full software stack. As part of our growing engineering organization in India, you'll collaborate closely with teammates across India and have opportunities to work alongside Engineering, Research, Product, and Operations teams in the US on high-impact customer initiatives.

This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy solving challenging technical problems, learning quickly, and building software in a fast-moving, highly collaborative environment.

Location

Bengaluru, India. This is an in-office role.

What You'll Do

• Build and maintain production software supporting customer deployments
• Partner with senior engineers to design and deliver customer-facing solutions
• Collaborate with Engineering, Research, Product, and Operations teams to build scalable production systems
• Develop full-stack applications using React, TypeScript, and modern backend technologies
• Help translate customer requirements into reliable, scalable software solutions
• Improve system reliability, performance, and maintainability
• Continuously learn, grow, and contribute to a rapidly evolving engineering organization

What We're Looking For

• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong programming skills using TypeScript, React, Python, Golang and modern backend development
• Solid understanding of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL), APIs, and software engineering fundamentals
• Experience building and maintaining production software
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS or GCP
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to thrive in fast-moving, ambiguous environments
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to thrive in fast-moving, ambiguous environments under tight deadlines
• Strong proficiency in AI Coding tools & practices

Nice to Have

• Experience collaborating with globally distributed engineering teams, including teams based in the US
• Experience working on customer-facing products or implementation projects
• Experience with AI-powered applications or machine learning infrastructure
• Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines
• Experience working in a fast-growing startup or high-growth engineering organization

What Success Looks Like

• Customer deployments launch successfully and deliver measurable value
• Production systems are reliable, scalable, and maintainable
• Engineering work helps accelerate customer adoption and platform growth
• You become a trusted contributor across engineering teams in both India and the US
• You continue to grow technically while helping build Handshake AI's engineering organization in India

You’ll Thrive Here If You

• Are motivated by solving operational problems that have direct, measurable impact.
• Want to be part of a company shaping the future of AI through human data.
• Can navigate ambiguity, act with urgency, and keep multiple workstreams moving in parallel.

Perks

• Generous Equity Grant vested over 4 years
• Housing Bonus: 1.3 Lakhs spread throughout the first year
• Well Defined Performance Bonus ranging between 10 - 100% of base
• Medical Insurance Coverage
• Food credit for every in person day.