Senior Software Engineer, Handshake
Backend Platform, Ruby on Rails
$180-260k
+ Equity
The career platform for Gen Z
Job no longer available
The career platform for Gen Z
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
$180-260k
+ 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
- 5+ years of experience with Ruby on Rails at an expert level, including deep understanding of framework internals, performance optimization, and scaling patterns
- Strong software engineering fundamentals, including TDD, contract testing, decoupling, and clean code practices that you've applied at scale
- Experience designing, building, and maintaining GraphQL APIs
- Demonstrated expertise with Elasticsearch implementation, query optimization, and integration with Rails applications
- Experience implementing advanced caching strategies (Redis) and designing resilient background job systems (Sidekiq)
- A customer-first mindset with examples of how you've improved developer experience and productivity through platform engineering
- Established history of elevating team standards through code reviews, pair programming, and technical mentorship
- Practical knowledge of CI best practices that measurably enhance developer efficiency and code quality
Desirable
- Experience with MonoRepo architecture and implementing effective workflows within large codebases
- Deep understanding of PostgreSQL optimization, including query performance tuning and schema design
- Implementation experience with Event-Driven and Service-Oriented Architecture at scale
- Experience with GoLang microservices
- Working knowledge of GCP infrastructure and implementing security best practices in cloud environments
What the job involves
- As a Senior Software Engineer, Ruby on Rails on the Backend Platform team, you'll play a key role in simplifying backend complexity at Handshake, empowering product teams to deliver value faster and better.
- You'll build reusable backend services, improve developer workflows, and create paved paths that help product teams focus on product development while ensuring scalability, reliability, and consistency
- Architect and implement scalable backend services and developer tooling that significantly boost product team velocity and output quality
- Shape best practices for Ruby on Rails development at Handshake, establishing standards that ensure high-quality, maintainable, and well-tested code
- Create intuitive paved paths that guide product teams toward optimal technical decisions while maintaining consistency in service and API architecture
- Lead technical initiatives such as evolving our GraphQL ecosystem, strategically reducing technical debt, and driving backend performance optimization
- Improve developer experience by refining local development environments, streamlining CI pipelines, and enhancing self-service tooling
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Frontend Platform, Product Engineering, and Infrastructure to drive alignment and deliver cohesive technical solutions
- Mentor and support other engineers through thoughtful code reviews, pair programming, and knowledge-sharing 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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