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.

Your impact

Remember the uncertainty of searching for your first job? First internship, second job? Does anyone slide seamlessly into the start of their careers? Most of us don’t; for millions of students every year, it feels like a mission fraught with invisible traps, no map, and the looming prospect of bills to pay. Access to help is not evenly distributed: not to connections nor to information on what's even possible out there.

That's where Handshake comes in. Our mission is to democratize access to opportunity: to help every student find the right job, no matter where they're from or who they know. We’re the career network for Gen Z, with over 15M+ job seekers, almost 1M employers, and 1500+ career centers coming together on our platform. Students need jobs, career guidance, and a nascent professional community; employers want to find and make great student hires; and career centers help us help everyone, ensuring it's not just students in-the-know who get in our doors. We’re seeking you and your design chops to help make it the best experience for all those involved!

As Staff Product Designer on the Employer team, you'll design experiences to help employers build strong early-career hiring programs — from defining hiring needs to sourcing talent to building relationships with candidates. Your role will be pivotal to helping Handshake scale its self-serve subscription business.

Come help us tackle this very tangible, incentives-aligned, real-world problem. Let's do work that matters, together, and enjoy it as we go.

Your role

Organize, craft, and iterate on large, strategic design initiatives: you'll use data, research and product thinking to form your product vision, and make that future tangible by painting possible paths forward in pixels and prototypes
Collaborate closely with your partners, both cross-functionally and within design: research, PM, engineering, analytics, design systems, brand, marketing – to ship and iterate on strategic, well-thought-out, surprisingly great-to-use products that make real impact for both our customers and business
Help your team succeed: raise the bar on culture, operations, and execution of design work, including product reasoning, systems thinking, pixel level precision, mobile prototyping, ability to facilitate conversations with and present to stakeholders, stellar teamwork and mentoring
Strengthen the overall product organization's ability to experiment, iterate, and learn alongside your product organization lead teammates; develop well-informed strategic visions of where we're headed, collaborate to break them into pragmatic phases to scaffold our way forward
Inform creative direction and information architecture alongside your design leader teammates and the VP of Design to weave a seamless, symbiotic experience across the disparate areas of our three-sided marketplace

Your experience

You've designed and shipped products, including mobile and desktop, that customers love, and can systematically, clearly articulate what it took to make that happen, from high-level strategy down to pixel-level decision-making
You know how to roll data, research, business goals, technical constraints, and customer needs together into strongly-crafted solutions (mocks, prototypes, flows); you iterate fast, ensure you gather feedback, use strategic reasoning to inform your decisions
You relish using your design skills to bring clarity and simplicity to both process and product
You're humble and kind, excited to keep learning, and curious about the workings of a three-sided marketplace and ever-evolving team / product surface area
Extra bonus if you're experienced with one or more of: multi-sided marketplaces, growth, b2b

Compensation range

$185,000-$240,000

For cash compensation, we set standard ranges for all U.S.-based roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. In order to be compliant with local legislation, as well as to provide greater transparency to candidates, we share salary ranges on all job postings regardless of desired hiring location. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including geographic location as well as candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.

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 (unless noted in the specific job posting). Handshake is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, London, and Berlin.

What we offer

At Handshake, we'll give you the tools to feel healthy, happy and secure.

Benefits below apply to employees in full-time positions.

💰 Equity and ownership in a fast-growing company.
🍼 16 Weeks of paid parental leave for birth giving parents & 10 weeks of paid parental leave for non-birth giving parents.
💝 Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision policies including LGTBQ+ Coverage. We also provide resources for Mental Health Assistance, Employee Assistance Programs and counseling support.
💻 Handshake offers $500/£360 home office stipend for you to spend during your first 3 months to create a productive and comfortable workspace at home.
📚 Generous learning & development opportunities and an annual $2,000/£1,500/€1,850 stipend for you to grow your skills and career.
💰 Financial coaching through Origin to help you through your financial journey.
🛜 Monthly internet stipend and a brand new MacBook to allow you to do your best work.
🚃 Monthly commuter stipend for you to expense your travel to the office (for office-based employees).
🥗 Free lunch provided 3x a week across all offices.
🤝 Referral bonus to reward you when you bring great talent to Handshake.

(US-specific benefits, in addition to the first section)

🏦 401k Match: Handshake offers a dollar-for-dollar match on 1% of deferred salary, up to a maximum of $1,200 per year.
🏝 All full-time US-based Handshakers are eligible for our flexible time off policy to get out and see the world. In addition, we offer 13 standardized holidays, and 2 additional days of flexible holiday time off. Lastly, we have a Winter #ShakeBreak, a one-week period of Collective Time Off.
🍼 Family support: Parental leave coaching and support provided by Parentaly. We partner with Maven Clinic to provide a lifetime coverage up to $15K for expenses related to fertility and family forming!
💰 Lifestyle Savings Account: We offer you an annual stipend of $500 to use for purchases such as fitness classes, gym memberships, work-from-home setup, and more.

(UK-specific benefits, in addition to the first section)

🏦 Pension Scheme: Handshake will provide you with a workplace pension, where you will make contributions based on 5% of your salary. Handshake will pay the equivalent of 3% towards your pension plan, subject to qualifying earnings limits.
🏝 Up to 25 days of vacation to encourage people to reset, recharge, and refresh, in addition to 8 bank holidays throughout the year.
🤝 Regular offsites each year to bring the team together + opportunity to travel to our HQ in San Francisco.
🛍️ Discounts across various high street retailers, cinemas and other social activities exclusively for Handshake UK employees.

(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.

Staff Product Designer

Handshake

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