Staff Forward Deployed Engineer Job at Handshake (San Francisco)

Staff Forward Deployed Engineer

Handshake

Location:
United States , San Francisco

Category:
IT - Software Development

Contract Type:
Not provided

Salary:

235000.00 - 275000.00 USD / Year

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Job Description:

As a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, you'll define and drive the technical strategy for how Handshake delivers engineered solutions to our most strategic customers, including leading AI labs. You'll operate as a trusted technical partner to both customers and internal leadership—owning the vision for how forward-deployed engineering scales as a function, while remaining deeply hands-on in solving our hardest deployment challenges. Your work will directly shape product direction, influence platform architecture, and set the technical bar for the entire forward-deployed engineering team. This is a unique opportunity to pair organization-wide technical influence with direct customer impact—establishing the playbook for how Handshake's most critical partnerships are built, delivered, and scaled.

Job Responsibility:

Define the technical strategy and architectural vision for forward-deployed engineering, ensuring solutions are scalable, repeatable, and aligned with Handshake's platform roadmap
Serve as the senior technical point of contact for our most complex and highest-value customer engagements, including leading AI labs, translating strategic business needs into engineering direction
Drive cross-functional alignment between forward-deployed engineering, product, platform, and customer-facing teams to ensure deployed solutions inform and improve the core product
Architect and deliver production-grade systems for novel, high-ambiguity customer challenges—setting the standard for quality, reliability, and performance
Establish engineering best practices, design patterns, and reusable frameworks that enable the forward-deployed team to scale output without sacrificing quality
Mentor and develop senior and mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and customer empathy across the team
Identify systemic gaps in tooling, infrastructure, or process and lead initiatives to address them, reducing friction for future deployments

Requirements:

8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant time in customer-facing, solutions-oriented, or forward-deployed roles at high-growth companies
Proven ability to set technical direction and drive architectural decisions that span multiple teams or systems
Expert-level proficiency with ReactJS and TypeScript, with deep knowledge of frontend performance, component architecture, and design systems
Strong command of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL), data modeling, system design, and distributed systems principles
Extensive experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP), CI/CD pipelines, and operating production systems at scale
Track record of leading ambiguous, high-stakes technical initiatives from zero-to-one with minimal direction
Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence senior leadership, external partners, and cross-functional teams
Demonstrated impact in mentoring engineers, shaping team culture, and elevating engineering standards across an organization

Nice to have:

Experience defining the technical strategy for LLM-powered or AI-native products deployed in production, customer-facing environments
Background in building and scaling forward-deployed, solutions engineering, or professional services engineering functions from the ground up
History of contributing to or driving platform/infrastructure decisions that improved developer velocity or deployment reliability across teams
Experience partnering directly with C-level or VP-level stakeholders at customer organizations to scope and deliver technical solutions

What we offer:

Equity in a fast-growing company
401(k) match, competitive compensation, financial coaching
Paid parental leave, fertility benefits, parental coaching
Medical, dental, and vision, mental health support, $500 wellness stipend
$2,000 learning stipend, ongoing development
Internet, commuting, and free lunch/gym in our SF office
Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex days
Team outings & referral bonuses

Additional Information:

Job Posted:
February 20, 2026

Employment Type:

Fulltime

Work Type:

On-site work

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