Strategic Projects Lead, Handshake
Handshake AI
$125-180k
+ Equity
In-office Monday-Friday
5 days a week in office
The career platform for Gen Z
Open for applications
The career platform for Gen Z
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$125-180k
+ Equity
In-office Monday-Friday
5 days a week in office
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
- 4+ years of experience in a generalist or operational role, such as strategy & operations, product, management consulting, finance, or startups.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience tackling operational and scaling challenges
- Ability to manage multiple high-priority projects simultaneously, balancing execution speed with quality
- Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with experience interfacing with technical teams and customers
- Entrepreneurial mindset - comfortable with ambiguity, self-directed, and excited to build and iterate quickly
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Strong sense of ownership and pride in their work
- Ability to learn complex concepts rather quickly, bonus points for learning technical concepts
- High degree of agency - ideal candidate can thrive in ambiguity
- Passionate about / interested in AI (super user of LLMs, up-to-date on latest AI trends)
- Critical thinker / first principles approach to solving problems
- Data driven decision maker
- Thoughtful about making decisions - doesn’t jump to conclusions without considering all potential variables/curve balls
Desirable
- Technical background (CS degree or proficiency in SQL/Python for analytics)
- Experience in AI, ML, or data operations, particularly in workforce management, data labeling, or model evaluation
- Previous experience in a high-growth startup or an AI-focused company
What the job involves
- We’re looking for a Strategic Projects Lead to drive high-impact initiatives, working across product, operations, and customer engagement to scale and optimize our expert workforce
- This is a unique opportunity to play a pivotal role in a fast-growing space, working directly with leading AI labs and tech companies to deliver high-quality data solutions
- You will work cross-functionally to execute large-scale projects, improve internal processes, and drive revenue growth by ensuring a seamless experience for both customers and Fellows
- Develop and implement operational strategies to recruit, manage, and deploy high-skill talent (PhDs, domain experts) across AI data projects
- Own and drive large-scale projects for AI labs and tech companies, ensuring exceptional execution and customer satisfaction
- Partner with product and engineering teams to optimize and enhance our workforce platform for scalability and efficiency
- Manage customer relationships, understanding their evolving needs and expanding project scope where possible
- Provide regular progress updates and strategic insights to Handshake’s leadership team to refine our long-term data strategy
- Identify opportunities for process automation and workflow improvements to increase efficiency in expert recruitment and deployment
- Lead cross-functional projects, collaborating with Engineering, Operations, and Go-to-Market teams to execute high-priority initiatives
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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