Software Engineer I, Quality
Handshake · On-site
MeritLog read this listing from Handshake's Ashby job board and last checked it on September 12, 2026.
Source: the employer's Ashby job board. Open the original listing for current details.
Job details
- Work model
- On-site
- Salary
- $136K - $170K
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
Hiring context
How this role compares at Handshake
Handshake has 68 live roles in MeritLog’s catalog across 10 job families, and 22 of them are in engineering. 54 of those listings publish a pay range, a disclosure rate of 79%.
This role's posted range of $136K - $170K sits above 11% of the 46 other Handshake roles quoted over the same currency and period.
Handshake concentrates this hiring in:
Counted across the job boards MeritLog tracks, at the time this page was served. Pay comparisons use only listings that publish a complete range in the same currency and period.
What the role asks for
What you'd do
- Build and scale backend systems that evaluate and improve the quality of data delivered to frontier AI labs
- Develop infrastructure for running quality checks in real time and before final customer delivery
- Help design recommendation systems that select the most effective quality checks for each project
- Build data pipelines and measurement systems that make complex, subjective quality signals more observable and actionable
- Develop APIs and platform capabilities that allow other teams and tools to use the Quality platform
- Help surface Quality capabilities through MCP and other AI-native interfaces used by internal operators
- Partner with engineers, researchers, product teams, and operations stakeholders to turn ambiguous quality problems into scalable technical solutions
- Improve the reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of quality workflows as the business grows
- 2+ years of experience building and maintaining backend applications, services, or data-intensive systems
- Strong software engineering fundamentals, including system design, testing, debugging, and operational reliability
- A data-oriented approach to solving problems and measuring whether a system is working
- Experience working with APIs, databases, data pipelines, or distributed systems
- The ability to navigate ambiguous problems, break them into manageable pieces, and deliver iteratively
- Strong communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical teams
- A quality-focused mindset and an interest in building systems that make difficult-to-measure outcomes more rigorous
What they're asking for
- Experience with machine learning, applied AI, or AI-enabled productsSkillPreferred
- Familiarity with model evaluation, experimentation, recommendation systems, or ranking systemsSkillPreferred
- Experience with annotation, data-labeling, tasking, or workflow-orchestration platformsSkillPreferred
- Experience building developer platforms, internal tools, or extensible APIsSkillPreferred
- Familiarity with MCP, agentic systems, or AI-native development toolsSkillPreferred
- Experience working in a fast-moving startup or similarly ambiguous environmentSkillPreferred
Parsed by MeritLog from the employer’s own posting. The full description follows below.
Job description
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 Software Engineer to join our Quality team. The team builds the systems that define, select, and enforce quality standards across the data and evaluations we deliver to leading AI labs. You’ll work on infrastructure that evaluates complex outputs submitted by fellows, such as coding tasks designed to challenge advanced AI models. These quality checks run throughout the production process: providing real-time feedback to fellows, supporting internal operators, and validating outputs before they reach customers. Location: San Francisco, CA. This is an in-office role five days per week. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Build and scale backend systems that evaluate and improve the quality of data delivered to frontier AI labs - Develop infrastructure for running quality checks in real time and before final customer delivery - Help design recommendation systems that select the most effective quality checks for each project - Build data pipelines and measurement systems that make complex, subjective quality signals more observable and actionable - Develop APIs and platform capabilities that allow other teams and tools to use the Quality platform - Help surface Quality capabilities through MCP and other AI-native interfaces used by internal operators - Partner with engineers, researchers, product teams, and operations stakeholders to turn ambiguous quality problems into scalable technical solutions - Improve the reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of quality workflows as the business grows DESIRED CAPABILITIES - 2+ years of experience building and maintaining backend applications, services, or data-intensive systems - Strong software engineering fundamentals, including system design, testing, debugging, and operational reliability - A data-oriented approach to solving problems and measuring whether a system is working - Experience working with APIs, databases, data pipelines, or distributed systems - The ability to navigate ambiguous problems, break them into manageable pieces, and deliver iteratively - Strong communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical teams - A quality-focused mindset and an interest in building systems that make difficult-to-measure outcomes more rigorous EXTRA CREDIT - Experience with machine learning, applied AI, or AI-enabled products - Familiarity with model evaluation, experimentation, recommendation systems, or ranking systems - Experience with annotation, data-labeling, tasking, or workflow-orchestration platforms - Experience building developer platforms, internal tools, or extensible APIs - Familiarity with MCP, agentic systems, or AI-native development tools - Experience working in a fast-moving startup or similarly ambiguous environment 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, wellness stipend 📚 Growth: 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 joinhandshake.com/careers http://joinhandshake.com/careers.
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