Jobs with Startups
JobsStartupsInvestorsMCP
JobsHandshake

Strategic Projects Lead, Coding

Handshake logo

Handshake

HR

Strategic Projects Lead, Coding

On-site
Full-time
Posted Mar 12, 2026
Apply on company site

Opens the original job posting

On-site
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

The Role

As a Strategic Projects Lead, Coding you’ll run multi-week to multi-month coding data initiatives for leading AI and platform teams. You’ll coordinate hundreds to thousands of highly skilled SWE Fellows, design and own technical evaluation and annotation workflows, and be accountable for delivery, margins, quality and customer relationships.

You’ll write and validate coding assessments, build rubric-driven code review processes, instrument quality signals, and quickly adapt workflows when systems and people need to flex to meet deadlines. This role bridges ML/product/engineering and operations — hands-on with code, fluent with metrics, and ruthless about data quality. What you'll do:

  • Multi-million ARR-equivalent program scope and delivery metrics.

  • End-to-end delivery of coding-data programs: scoping → assessment design → Fellow selection → annotation → QA → customer feedback.

  • Design and run technical screens (take-homes, unit-test driven tasks, live coding) that populate the SWE Talent Bench

  • Create rubrics, audit processes and tooling to ensure code annotations/model labels meet production quality.

  • Create scripts/infrastructure (Python/TypeScript/SQL) to automate QA, analytics and reporting.

You Have
  • 2+ years of experience in technical or analytical roles such as software engineering, data, analytics, or technical product. We are also open to people who come out of non technical jobs that have a coding background or degree.

  • A technical degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or similar and/or hands-on experience with coding (Python, SQL, or similar).

  • Strong coding skills (Python, TypeScript/Node, Java or equivalent) and practical experience with unit tests, CI, version control, and basic infra.

  • Strong analytical and data driven problem solver, with a first principles approach to scaling and operational challenges.

  • Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, able to work closely with technical teams and customers while juggling multiple high priority projects.

  • Entrepreneurial, high ownership mindset, with a high degree of agency, comfort with ambiguity, and pride in end to end outcomes.

  • Fast learner with deep curiosity about AI, able to quickly pick up complex and technical concepts and stay up to date on LLMs and AI trends.

You don’t need to be a full-time engineer in this role, but you should be technical enough to reason deeply about systems, data quality, and tradeoffs, and to earn credibility with technical stakeholders.

We Offer

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, $500 wellness stipend
📚 Growth: $2,000 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.

Apply for this role
Handshake logo

Handshake

Company profile

Career platform connecting students with employers.

View Handshake

Headquarters

San Francisco, CA, USA

Keep exploring

More roles at Handshake

View all roles

Senior Software Engineer, Agentic Infrastructure

Engineering · San Francisco, CA; San Francisco, California, United States

Staff Product Designer, Autonomous Recruiting

Design · San Francisco, CA; San Francisco, California, United States

Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, Enterprise AI

Engineering · San Francisco, CA; San Francisco, California, United States

Strategic Projects Associate, Safety

HAI Delivery Ops · Seattle, WA; Seattle, Washington, United States

Strategic Projects Lead, Safety

HAI Delivery Ops · New York, NY; New York City, New York, United States

Jobs with Startups © 2026

Browse startupsBrowse jobsMCP guideAboutPowered by Supabase