Senior Engineering Manager, Reinforcement Learning Environments (RLE)
About HandshakeHandshake 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 NowShape how every career evolves in the AI economy, at global scale, with impact your friends, family and peers can see and feelWork hand-in-hand with world-class AI labs, Fortune 500 partners and the world’s top educational institutionsJoin a team with leadership from Scale AI, Meta, xAI, Notion, Coinbase, and Palantir, among othersBuild a massive, fast-growing business with billions in revenueAbout The RoleWe’re hiring a Senior Engineering Manager to lead our Reinforcement Learning Environments (RLE) team - the group building the interactive sandboxes where frontier models learn to complete real work.RLE environments simulate end-to-end workflows across domains like software engineering, finance, and legal research, with realistic tools, constraints, and feedback loops. The platform generates high-signal interaction data researchers use to train and evaluate models for task completion, quality, and robustness.This is a high-leverage role: the systems you lead directly shape what models can learn, how quickly new domains can launch, and how much researchers trust the signal. You’ll lead a team of ~9 engineers today and are expected to add leadership capacity (including managing an EM) as we scale.Location: San Francisco, CA. This is an in-office role, 5 days/week (no remote/hybrid)What You’ll DoLead, hire, and develop a high-performing team building RL environments and the platform behind themOwn the RLE roadmap and execution in close partnership with Research, Product, and OperationsDrive architecture for scalable, reliable, extensible environment systems and data generation pipelinesBuild modular, plug-and-play domains that integrate cleanly with training and evaluation loopsRaise the bar on reliability, observability, performance, and data qualityCreate a culture of ownership, speed, and strong engineering fundamentals in an ambiguity heavy settingWhat We’re Looking ForEngineering leader + builder: 3+ years managing teams, plus 5+ years hands-on engineering experienceStrong people leadership: experience leading senior engineers; managing an EM (or equivalent scope) is a plusExecution in ambiguity: proven ability to align cross-functionally and deliver in fast-moving, unclear problem spacesSystems + product mindset: strong platform/distributed systems background, and the ability to turn research/ops needs into a clear roadmap, ship iteratively, and measure outcomesNice to HaveExperience with RL training infrastructure, simulation systems, or evaluation platformsHuman-in-the-loop systems (annotation, rubric tooling, QA pipelines, workflow platforms)Operations-heavy, tech-enabled environment experienceFamiliarity with AWS/GCP, APIs, Docker, and modern stacks (TypeScript/Node, React)Experience building systems used by applied ML or AI research teamsWhat Success Looks LikeRLE becomes the default platform researchers use to train workflow-capable modelsNew domains launch quickly and reliably with trusted quality gatesEnvironment reliability + data quality are trusted inputs into training and evaluation decisionsThe team scales with strong leaders who can independently drive new verticalsThe platform measurably improves real-world task completion, robustness, and qualityPerksHandshake 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 bonusesExplore our mission, values, and comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers.Compensation Range: $230K - $300K