Senior Software Engineer, Employer

Senior Software EngineerAs a Senior Software Engineer on the Employer team, you'll help build the next generation of hiring on Handshake. How can AI help employers discover talent they would otherwise miss? How can we turn hours of manual recruiting into intuitive, effective workflows? You'll tackle these kinds of problems with real ownership—taking initiatives from an early idea through architecture, launch, and the next iteration.The team's work spans AI-powered sourcing, automated outreach, and recruiting agents, alongside the monetization and growth experiences that help employers succeed on our platform. You'll bring strong product instincts and technical judgment to a space where the opportunity goes beyond improving an existing workflow: it's about rethinking how employers find and connect with talent.This is a role for an engineer who wants to shape what gets built, not just how it's built. You'll partner closely with product, design, and data, work alongside experienced engineers, and lead meaningful initiatives end to end. You'll move quickly, run A/B tests, learn from customer feedback and real-world results, and build scalable products whose impact shows up in real hiring outcomes.This job is 5 days a week onsite in our San Francisco, CA office.Your RoleOwn high-impact full-stack initiatives from idea to launch, shaping product direction and driving technical executionBuild smarter hiring experiences, with opportunities across AI-powered sourcing, automated outreach, and recruiting integrationsRun A/B tests and use customer feedback to improve employer engagement, conversion, and hiring outcomesDevelop monetization and growth experiences that help employers get more value from HandshakeArchitect scalable, reliable systems and make pragmatic tradeoffs across frontend, backend, and integrationsPartner with product, design, and data to turn ambiguous customer needs into intuitive, effective productsElevate engineering quality through thoughtful code reviews, mentorship, and ownership of production systemsDesired CapabilitiesProven experience owning complex products from idea through launch and iterationStrong full-stack engineering skills, with proficiency in Ruby on Rails, Go, or PythonExperience designing scalable architectures and reliable distributed systemsStrong product judgment, connecting technical decisions to customer needs and business outcomesComfort with ambiguity, shifting priorities, and rapid experimentationPragmatic technical decision-making and a high bar for maintainable, production-quality codeClear communication, collaborative leadership, and confidence to challenge assumptions and surface blockersComfort using AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor and ClaudeExtra CreditExperience building AI-powered products, LLM applications, or recruiting agentsBackground in product-led growth, A/B testing, and improving activation or conversionExperience with Stripe integrations, payments, billing, or monetizationExperience building recruiting tools, SaaS integrations, or employer-facing productsFamiliarity with promoted-content systems, attribution, or customer-facing analyticsWe OfferHandshake 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 companyFinancial Wellness: 401(k) match, competitive compensation, financial coachingFamily Support: Paid parental leave, fertility benefits, parental coachingWellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision, mental health support, $500 wellness stipendGrowth: $2,000 learning stipend, ongoing developmentRemote & Office: Internet, commuting, and free lunch/gym in our SF officeTime Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex daysConnection: Team outings & referral bonuses