Senior Software Engineer

Handshake•San Francisco, CA

8h•Onsite

About The Position

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will drive the design and development of the systems and experiences that power Handshake’s core product surfaces—from search and discovery to user acquisition, onboarding, and AI-powered tools. You’ll lead large projects end-to-end, make high-impact architectural decisions, and set the technical standard for your team. This is a high-ownership role where you’ll collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and analytics partners to define, build, and ship products that deliver measurable business impact. You’ll also mentor engineers, shape the team’s roadmap, and balance product innovation with operational excellence—quality, reliability, and on-call health.

Requirements

5+ years of experience as a full-stack engineer, confident driving architectural decisions across both frontend and backend.
Strong proficiency in TypeScript, React, Ruby on Rails, SQL, and PostgreSQL.
Demonstrated success collaborating with partners in product, design, and analytics to define, build, and ship great products and experiences.
Experience leading large-scale projects from idea through high-quality delivery.
A track record of implementing complex, scalable, and highly available services that power high-traffic platforms.
Skilled at balancing technical trade-offs with product and business priorities, demonstrating sound judgment and product sense.
Empathetic mentor and teammate, proactive in giving and receiving feedback to drive individual and team growth.
Excellent communicator, able to clearly articulate technical decisions and business rationale to audiences of varying technical knowledge levels.

Nice To Haves

Experience with AI-powered products, agentic frameworks, conversational interfaces, or real-time APIs (e.g., OpenAI).
Background building platform systems for user acquisition, identity, authentication, or fraud prevention.
Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Temporal, or matching/marketplace systems.
Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP) and deployment pipelines at scale.
Ownership mentality with a high degree of accountability for delivering outcomes that move both the product and business forward.
Background in consumer SaaS products at scale, particularly in growth or monetization.

Responsibilities

Lead large projects through all stages—from brainstorming and requirements, through architectural design and experimentation, to execution and release.
Architect and build scalable, high-quality full-stack systems powering core user journeys including search, discovery, matching, onboarding, and identity infrastructure.
Drive technical decisions across frontend and backend, balancing trade-offs between product goals, user experience, and system reliability.
Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, designers, data analysts, and other engineers to ensure products align with business goals and user needs.
Lead by example in maintaining high standards of quality in your own work and in the feedback you provide during code reviews and architecture discussions.
Use both technical expertise and business acumen to influence the team’s roadmap, prioritizing product innovation alongside operational health initiatives like quality control and on-call reliability.
Mentor and unblock teammates to accelerate delivery and elevate the team’s overall effectiveness.
Take ownership of significant initiatives, including projects that require coordination across multiple engineers and stakeholders.
Contribute to organization-level technical enhancements and help establish engineering best practices.

Benefits

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, $500 wellness stipend
Growth: $2,000 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

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