Everyone is welcome at Handshake. We know diverse teams build better products and we are committed to creating an inclusive culture built on a foundation of respect for all individuals. We strongly encourage candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, historically marginalized or underrepresented groups to apply.
Want to learn more about what it’s like to work at Handshake? Check out these interviews from our team members!

YOUR EXPERIENCE

We’re looking for someone with:

• 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.

ABOUT US

Handshake is the career platform for Gen Z. With a community of over 17 million students, alumni, employers, and career educators, Handshake’s network is where career advice and discovery turn into first, second, and third jobs. Nearly 1 million companies use Handshake to build their future workforce—from Fortune 500 to federal agencies, school districts to startups, healthcare systems to small businesses. Handshake is built for where you’re going, not where you’ve been.
When it comes to our workforce strategy, we’ve thought deeply about how work-life should look at Handshake. With our hybrid-work model, employees benefit from collaboration and shared team experiences three days per week in our vibrant offices, and enjoy the flexibility of remote work two days per week. Handshake is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, London, and Berlin.

(GERMANY-SPECIFIC BENEFITS, IN ADDITION TO THE FIRST SECTION)

• 25 days of annual leave + 5 days of a winter #ShakeBreak, a one-week period of Collective Time Off across the company.
• Regular offsites each year to bring the team together + opportunity to travel to our HQ in San Francisco once a year.
• Urban sports club membership offering access to a diverse network of fitness and wellness facilities.
• ️ Discounts across various high street retailers, cinemas and other social activities exclusively for Handshake Germany employees.
  Looking for more? Explore our mission, values and comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers.
  Handshake is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or reasonable accommodation, please let your recruiter know during initial communications

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will:

• 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.