Growth Operations Lead, Handshake
$145-160k
Offers equity
The career platform for Gen Z
Open for applications
The career platform for Gen Z
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$145-160k
Offers equity
1001+ employees
Company mission
To democratize access to opportunity and ensure any student can build a great career no matter who they know, where they live or what school they attend.
Role
Who you are
- 3-4+ years of experience in growth, product, or operations
- 1+ year of experience leading a team
- A background in strategy- and operations-heavy environments such as marketplaces, logistics, or on-demand services
- Experience in Business Operations, Strategy, or Growth teams at a tech company
- Strong technical acumen, including the ability to perform data analysis using SQL or Python
- Educational or professional background in Business Intelligence, Data Analytics, or related fields, with a strong grasp of turning data into actionable insights
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with a data-first approach to testing and decision-making
- Familiarity with BI tools and methodologies (e.g., dashboards, KPI tracking, data visualization) to support operational and strategic decisions
- An entrepreneurial mindset—comfortable with ambiguity, fast execution, and building from zero to one
What the job involves
- 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 highly strategic - you’ll lead cross-functional efforts to define and execute our growth roadmap
- Your work will directly shape how students, employers, and institutions experience our next generation of AI-driven products
- Own and lead critical growth initiatives from strategy through execution, collaborating deeply with teams across Product, Engineering, Operations, and Go-to-Market
- Design and implement scalable growth systems, pipelines, and processes tailored to evolving customer needs and market demands
- Oversee and optimize the entire growth funnel - from acquisition to activation - for key generative AI products and experiments
- Synthesize insights across product usage, market dynamics, and operational performance to surface opportunities and drive prioritization
- Partner closely with Handshake AI’s leadership to shape strategic direction, define success metrics, and drive accountability across growth workstreams
- Solve ambiguous, high-priority challenges with a structured, data-driven approach - helping define what “great” looks like as we scale new products and markets
Our take
The three founders of Handshake established their company in an attempt to eliminate inequality and make the student hiring landscape fairer. The Handshake platform acts as a LinkedIn for college students, pairing students from every walk of life with more than 650K employers, including the entire Fortune 500, which includes Google and Nike.
The graduate recruitment platform is open to any student with a valid @.edu email address, with more than 17M active users from thousands of colleges and universities. With a student-first philosophy, the company generates revenue from both universities and employers rather than students.
Valued at $3.5B, Handshake has gained traction in a competitive market, although it has strong competition from recruiting giants LinkedIn and Indeed. It stands out, however, by helping students build new relationships and skills, rather than simply making connections to people they already know.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
2% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Jan 2022
$200m
SERIES F
May 2021
$80m
SERIES E
Total funding: $434m
Company benefits
- Health Insurance: Comprehensive medical , dental, and vision coverage
- Fertility and family forming: Through a partnership, Handshake offers comprehensive family benefits, including infertility treatments and a $15K stipend, to its employees.
- LGTBQ+ coverage: All medical plans cover transgender services.
- Mental health: Discounts on a variety of wellness apps and an Employee Assistance Program with access to five free counseling sessions.
- Tax savings: Tax-advantaged benefits to save money on healthcare, dependent care, and other expenses.
- Learning & development: Employees are provided with an annual stipend to use towards professional development, career development workshops, manager trainings, and 1-on-1 coaching through external partnerships
- Community leader support: Employee Resource Group leaders are compensated with a quarterly bonus for the high-impact work the role requires
- Parental leave: Leaves of 16 weeks for birth-giving parents and 10 weeks for non-birth-giving parents; the policy applies to adoptions as well. Handshake also partners to provide one-on-one coaching on preparing for leave and coming back from leave
- Flexible time off: No accrued time off or waiting period to take vacation. Two paid flexible holiday days off to observe holidays that closely align with religious, cultural, and personal needs
- Sabbatical: Paid six-week sabbatical to recharge and reset beginning at six years of continuous, full-time employment, and every four years thereafter
- Volunteer time off: Two days off for social and civil activism, volunteer work, and/or any related activities, including attending and participating in protests
- Life & disability insurance: Essential benefits and automatic coverage with basic life insurance, plus short-term and long-term disability coverage.
- 401k match: Dollar-for-dollar match up to 1% of pay, with a max of $1,200 per year.
Company HQ
Financial District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Garrett Lord
(Co-Founder & CEO)Majored in Computer Science at Michigan Technological University. Interned at Palantir Technologies before co-founding Handshake in 2012.
Ben Christensen
(Co-Founder)Graduated from Michigan Technological University with a degree in Computer Networking & Systems Administration. Interned at Target and worked as a Developer at Up and Running Software. Was part of Arbor Networks' ASERT Security Research team.
Scott Ringwelski
(Co-Founder)Attained a degree in Computer Software Engineering from Michigan Technological University. Co-founded Handshake in 2012.
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