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
As Handshake AI rapidly expands in the generative AI space, we're looking for a Growth Operations Lead to architect and scale strategic growth initiatives that drive revenue, product adoption, and long-term market leadership. This role is both hands-on and strategic — you'll own our growth roadmap end-to-end, shaping how students, employers, and institutions experience our next generation of AI-driven products.
Own critical growth initiatives from strategy through execution, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, and GTM.
Design and run scalable growth systems and data-driven experiments, optimizing the funnel from acquisition to activation.
Synthesize product, market, and operational data to surface opportunities and drive prioritization.
Work directly with leadership to define success metrics and drive accountability across growth workstreams.
Solve ambiguous, high-priority problems with a structured, data-first approach, building playbooks and systems from zero to one as we scale.
This role requires close collaboration with our San Francisco–based team and availability during core U.S. business hours.
You Have
3-4+ years in growth, product, strategy, or operations at a fast-paced tech company, ideally in strategy/ops-heavy environments (marketplaces, logistics, on-demand, or AI products) at early-stage or high-growth startups.
A track record of owning growth initiatives end-to-end, including designing experiments with measurable outcomes.
Advanced data skills (SQL or Python) and familiarity with BI tools, funnel metrics, and KPI tracking.
Strong problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to operate autonomously and influence cross-functionally without direct authority.
An entrepreneurial, bias-for-action mindset - comfortable with ambiguity and building from scratch.
Bachelor's degree required; engineering background strongly preferred, top-20 university or MBA a plus.
Extra Credit:
Experience launching or scaling AI/ML products (B2B or B2C).
Familiarity with technical GTM motions, customer segmentation, or developer-facing onboarding flows.
A history of building scalable systems or pods from scratch in high-growth environments, with a high bar for execution quality.
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
Premium medical insurance coverage
Food credit for every in-person day