Strategic Projects Associate

Handshake was founded on a simple belief that everyone deserves a path to a great career, regardless of where they went to school or who they know. Today, we power 25 million job seekers, 1 million+ employers, and 1,600 educational institutions.

In 2025, we started Handshake AI and built the fastest-growing AI data business in history. We work directly with frontier AI lab researchers to create evaluations, publish benchmarks, and push the boundary of data. We’ve grown from $0 to ~$1B run rate and pay ~$60M to over 30K individuals every month.

Human data is the core infrastructure to AI advancement. Frontier AI labs currently improve model capabilities with various data-intensive post-training techniques. We believe that data spend for AI training will increase by 3-5x in the next few years and continue for much longer as models take on new domains. Handshake AI supports all of the frontier AI labs, working on their most complex data at the largest scale.

Handshake is expanding into cutting-edge AI research and development. We're building a world-class network of expert Fellows — including PhDs, researchers, and specialists — who drive forward the next generation of AI through domain-specific applications, model evaluations, and specialized research. Our work is deeply rooted in Human Data — high-quality, human-labeled datasets that power the development and evaluation of frontier models. We partner with the world’s leading AI labs on their most ambitious research, helping shape the future of artificial intelligence.

We're looking for several highly motivated Strategic Projects Associates to join our team and support high-impact initiatives across product, operations, and customer success. This is a unique opportunity for a recent graduate to dive into strategic work, gain hands-on experience across teams, and grow in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.

This will be at our San Francisco location and this team is traditionally in the office five days a week.

• You'll get to work on meaningful AI projects that impact real-world applications

• You’ll be part of a small, dynamic team where your ideas and work matter from day one

• You’ll gain exposure to multiple business functions and grow into a high-impact operator

• You’ll work directly with leaders in AI, tech, and data strategy

• Curiosity about AI and emerging technologies (maybe you’re already a ChatGPT power user!)

• High agency and a bias toward action — you take ownership and move things forward

• Ability to learn complex concepts quickly and think critically under pressure

• A thoughtful, data-driven decision maker who’s comfortable navigating ambiguity