Senior Product Manager, Forward Deployed - Handshake AI

About the role

Handshake is building the essential career network for the AI economy, supporting 20 million users and 1 million employers. We are seeking a Senior Product Manager to join our Forward Deployed Engineering team as the first dedicated PM to help bridge the gap between our platform and the specific needs of our high-value customers.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Embed directly with top-tier customers to analyze their unique engineering constraints and workflows.
• Manage the end-to-end experience for off-platform tasking, including task discovery, credentialing, time tracking, and payment processing.
• Translate bespoke customer requirements into scalable platform primitives to improve future integrations.
• Establish success metrics focused on deployment speed, repeatability, and the quality of the worker experience on external surfaces.
• Collaborate with engineering, operations, and platform teams to transition custom solutions into core product features.

Requirements

• Minimum of 5 years of experience as a product manager working with engineering teams on integrations, platform products, or customer-facing solutions.
• Proven ability to operate in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and deliver results without existing playbooks.
• Strong systems thinking skills with the ability to balance custom client needs against long-term platform architecture.
• Experience scoping complex problems into actionable product requirements and shipping features on short timelines.
• A bias for action that combines data-informed decision-making with direct user feedback.

Nice to have

• Previous experience in a forward-deployed, solutions, or professional-services-adjacent product role.
• Background in AI training data, human-in-the-loop workflows, or frontier lab data operations.
• Experience developing browser extensions, integrations, or tools that instrument third-party software.
• Experience managing marketplace dynamics or gig-economy worker platforms.
• 0 to 1 product development experience within research-oriented organizations.

Skills & tools

• Product management for integrations and platform systems
• Cross-functional project scoping and sequencing
• Data-driven prioritization and metrics tracking
• Stakeholder management in high-stakes customer environments

Practical notes

• Benefits for US employees include 401(k) matching, medical, dental, and vision insurance, mental health support, and a $500 wellness stipend.
• Additional perks include a $2,000 learning stipend, paid parental leave, fertility benefits, and flexible PTO with 15 holidays plus 2 flex days.
• The San Francisco office provides free lunch and gym access.