Senior AI Forward Deployed Engineer
AI summary of the role
This role sits at the intersection of applied AI research and customer delivery, embedded with frontier AI labs.
What you’ll do
- Partner directly with AI lab researchers to translate ambiguous research questions into scoped, executable projects
- Design and deliver evaluation frameworks, annotation pipelines, and benchmark infrastructure tailored to each lab's training methodology
- Prototype and iterate fast: stand up lightweight experiments, run evals, and interpret results in tight feedback loops with research partners
- Mentor and uplevel other engineers and researchers, establishing technical standards for forward-deployed AI work
What you’ll bring
- 6+ years of experience in applied ML, AI research engineering, or closely related field with exposure to model training workflows and post-training techniques
- Strong Python skills and comfort across the ML stack: data processing, model evaluation, experiment tracking, pipeline tooling
- Solid working knowledge of reinforcement learning and post-training concepts (RLHF, DPO, PPO, etc.)
- Hands-on experience fine-tuning or lightweight optimization of ML models (Tinker, LoRA, PEFT, or similar)
Technologies
Python · RLHF · DPO · PPO · LoRA · PEFT · ML data pipelines · evaluation frameworks · annotation pipelines · benchmark infrastructure
About Handshake (AI training)
Career network and AI-work marketplace connecting verified students, graduates, employers, and frontier AI labs for hiring, upskilling, and expert model training.
Series F
Source and classification
Production engineering · Evidence for this classification:
from Palantir, Meta, Scale AI, and former YC founders Build a massive, fast-growing business with billions in revenue About Handshake AI 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. About the Role As a Senior Forward Deployed AI Engineer, you'll sit at the intersection of applied AI research and customer delivery embedded with our most strategic partners, including leading frontier AI labs. You think like a researcher and ship like an engineer. You speak the language of the labs. You default to action and figure
More from the job description
About Handshake 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. 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 Partner hand-in-hand with world-class AI labs, Fortune 500 partners and the world's top educational institutions Work together with engineers, scientists, operators, and more from Palantir, Meta, Scale AI, and former YC founders Build a massive, fast-growing business with billions in revenue About Handshake AI 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, [... source excerpt omitted ...] luding leading frontier AI labs. You think like a researcher and ship like an engineer. You speak the language of the labs. You default to action and figure things out in motion. You'll own the full lifecycle of high-impact research engagements from translating ambiguous lab requirements into concrete evaluation frameworks to prototyping pipelines and tooling that make them run. You'll make fast decisions, lead prioritization decisions, mentor engineers, and establish the patterns and systems that others follow. Your technical credibility with researcher audiences and your ability to move quickly in shifting environments are what set you apart. This is a rare role: deep AI kn [... source excerpt omitted ...] get trained. Location: San Francisco, CA | Hybrid, 3x a week in office What you'll do: Partner directly with AI lab researchers to understand their post-training goals and data requirements, translating ambiguous research questions into scoped, executable projects Design and deliver evaluation frameworks, annotation pipelines, and benchmark infrastructure tailored to each lab's training methodology Prototype and iterate fast: stand up lightweight experiments, run evals, and interpret results in tight feedback loops with research partners Make key design decisions around data quality and evaluation design that hold up at scale Mentor and uplevel other engineers and researchers
Employer postings · Data from · Sources