Software Engineer, Fellow Experience
Handshake
Location
San Francisco, CA
Employment Type
Full time
Location Type
On-site
Department
Engineering
Compensation
- $145K – $170K • Offers Equity
For cash compensation, we set standard ranges for all U.S.-based roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. In order to be compliant with local legislation, as well as to provide greater transparency to candidates, we share salary ranges on all job postings regardless of desired hiring location. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including geographic location as well as candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.
About Handshake
Handshake is the career network for the AI economy. 20 million knowledge workers, 1,600 educational institutions, 1 million employers (including 100% of the Fortune 50), and every foundational AI lab trust Handshake to power career discovery, hiring, and upskilling, from freelance AI training gigs to first internships to full-time careers and beyond. This unique value is leading to unparalleled growth; in 2025, we tripled our ARR at scale.
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
Work hand-in-hand with world-class AI labs, Fortune 500 partners and the world’s top educational institutions
Join a team with leadership from Scale AI, Meta, xAI, Notion, Coinbase, and Palantir, among others
Build a massive, fast-growing business with billions in revenue
About the Role
As a Software Engineer on the Fellow Experience team, you will build and scale full-stack systems that power the middle-of-funnel experience for fellows, from project discovery through successful onboarding.
You’ll work across frontend and backend surfaces to improve how fellows discover projects, apply, get matched, and onboard successfully. Your work will directly impact fellow volume, match quality, and conversion as we scale toward more intelligent automatic allocations.
This is a product-focused, full-stack role with real customer impact, close collaboration with product and design, and clear growth paths toward senior technical ownership.
The Fellow Experience team owns critical user journeys including the landing page experience for project invitations and applications, onboarding flows (confidentiality agreements, video/camera checks, educational programs, reading materials), project-specific assessments and recordings, and the internal tools that support manual matching.
In this role, you will:
Build and iterate on full-stack features that support fellow matching, onboarding, and readiness for project work
Contribute to the evolution of our automatic allocations system by implementing matching logic, workflows, and product improvements with guidance from senior engineers
Design and ship backend APIs, asynchronous workflows, and frontend user experiences that are reliable, scalable, and intuitive
Partner closely with product managers and designers to deliver polished, end-to-end user experiences
Write high-quality, maintainable code while balancing speed and correctness
Debug and resolve issues related to onboarding flows, matching outcomes, and system reliability
Participate in code reviews and contribute to improving engineering standards and best practices
Grow toward increased technical ownership by learning from senior engineers on the team
Desired Capabilities
2+ years of professional software engineering experience
Experience building full-stack applications, with comfort working across frontend and backend
Strong proficiency in TypeScript
Experience with modern web stacks (Next.js, tRPC, GraphQL, PostgreSQL)
Familiarity with asynchronous workflows or background job systems
Product-oriented mindset with a focus on user experience and business outcomes
Strong communication skills and comfort collaborating cross-functionally
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Growth mindset and eagerness to take on increasing responsibility
Extra Credit
Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Temporal
Exposure to matching systems, marketplaces, or multi-step onboarding flows
Background at high-growth or scaling technology companies
Interest in AI-driven products, human-in-the-loop systems, or data platforms
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.
Compensation Range: $145K - $170K