Director of Engineering - Reinforcement Learning Environments

About Handshake

Handshake was created with the mission that everyone should have access to a meaningful career path, regardless of their educational background or network. Now, we facilitate opportunities for 25 million job seekers, work with over 1 million employers, and support 1,600 educational institutions globally.

In 2025, we launched Handshake AI, rapidly developing one of the fastest-growing AI data enterprises. Collaborating with leading AI research labs, we create benchmarks and push the limits of data innovation. Handshake has grown from zero to nearly $1 billion run rate, distributing approximately $60 million monthly to more than 30,000 contributors.

Why Join Now

• Impact global career transformations in the AI-driven economy.
• Collaborate with premier AI laboratories, Fortune 500 companies, and top-tier educational institutions.
• Work alongside engineering and scientific talent from renowned companies such as Palantir, Meta, and Scale AI, as well as former startup founders.
• Contribute to building a high-growth business generating billions in revenue.

About Handshake AI

Human data is fundamental to advancing AI. Frontier AI labs enhance model capabilities with data-heavy post-training methods. We anticipate a 3 to 5-fold increase in data investment for AI training in coming years as models expand across domains. Handshake AI supports these complex data needs at scale for premier AI labs.

We are expanding our engineering presence in India, aiming to build a high-performance team that works tightly with US counterparts to develop the platforms underpinning next-generation AI.

About the Role

Handshake AI seeks a Director of Engineering based in Bengaluru to establish and grow our India engineering teams. This position offers the unique chance to create an engineering organization from scratch, collaborating closely with US leaders in engineering.

The initial focus will be to build teams in Reinforcement Learning Environments (RLE), Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE), International Expansion, and other strategic areas. The role includes defining the technical vision, operational practices, culture, and ensuring seamless global team integration.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the formation and scaling of the India engineering organization by recruiting, mentoring, and managing talented engineers.
• Work in close partnership with US leaders across Engineering, Research, Product, and Operations to execute a unified roadmap.
• Expand engineering efforts across RLE, FDE, International Expansion, and other upcoming initiatives.
• Establish a culture centered on ownership, urgency, technical rigor, and accountability to attract and keep top talent.
• Oversee multi-team engineering execution ensuring quality, reliability, and sustainable development.
• Define technical strategy, engineering methodologies, and operational frameworks suitable for the India organization.
• Provide coaching to engineers, raising standards for technical skill and execution quality.
• Act as a trusted collaborator with engineering leadership to shape Handshake AI's long-term engineering vision.

Required Qualifications

• Proven experience creating engineering teams or organizations from the ground up, thriving in startup-like zero-to-one scenarios.
• Strong track record as a people leader in hiring, developing, and retaining high-performance engineering staff, maintaining a high bar for talent.
• Solid technical background managing distributed systems, platform infrastructure, AI platforms, or extensive software products.
• Experience effectively collaborating with US-based or globally dispersed engineering teams, fostering trust and productive workflows across time zones.
• Demonstrated skill navigating ambiguity, making prompt data-driven decisions, and delivering results in dynamic contexts.
• Excellent communication and influence abilities to align stakeholders and motivate teams across Engineering, Product, Research, and Operations.
• Ownership mindset characterized by goal-setting, accountability, and exemplary leadership.
• A growth-focused attitude with enthusiasm for staying technically engaged while scaling engineering organizations.

Preferred Experience

• Knowledge of reinforcement learning infrastructure, simulation platforms, or AI evaluation systems.
• Background supporting applied AI or machine learning research teams.
• Track record building customer-facing or developer platforms and large-scale distributed architectures.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS or GCP, container orchestration tools like Kubernetes and Docker, API development, and modern tech stacks.
• Experience thriving in rapidly growing startups or hypergrowth environments.

Success Indicators

• Establish a world-class engineering division in India integrated tightly with US counterparts.
• Ensure consistent technical excellence, collaboration, and delivery within India and across global teams.
• Drive the creation of reliable, scalable platforms and products that accelerate Handshake AI's growth.
• Foster a vibrant culture emphasizing ownership, speed, technical mastery, and continuous evolution.
• Continue attracting and retaining exceptional engineers in the Indian market.
• Develop platforms that measurably enhance Handshake AI's capabilities and reliability.

Employee Benefits

• Equity grant vesting over four years.
• A housing allowance totaling 130,000 INR disbursed throughout the first year.
• Performance bonuses ranging from 10% to 100% of base salary, based on outcomes.
• Comprehensive medical insurance coverage.
• Food credits provided for every day worked onsite.