Your Opportunity for Impact

At Handshake, we’re scaling a world-class technology ecosystem to empower students, universities, and employers. Our IT team is at the heart of this mission—delivering fast, secure, and seamless technology experiences to every Handshaker, every day. We’re searching for an intensely hands-on, outcome-oriented IT Manager who thrives in high-growth, high-expectation environments and obsesses over customer experience and execution excellence.

If you’re not just a leader but a builder—energized by ambiguity, driven to raise the bar, and ready to roll up your sleeves—this is your moment. You’ll shape, execute, and accelerate the roadmap that defines how we work, collaborate, and innovate across the globe.

Professional Growth

You’ll be a core leader as we scale our IT vision—owning initiatives that span process transformation, technology adoption, and new site launches. The competencies you’ll hone here (strategic execution, cross-functional partnership, technical depth, and people development) will position you for senior leadership and beyond as Handshake grows.

If you’re ready to redefine IT at one of the most mission-driven, outcome-obsessed teams in the Bay Area—and make an outsized impact on the experience of every Handshaker—we want to hear from you.

Your Role

• Architect and operationalize a high-performance IT organization, fostering a culture built on excellence, trust, radical candor, and customer obsession.

• Define and execute the IT strategy and roadmap, ensuring every decision leads to scalable, proactive, and automated solutions that delight users and power business growth.

• Lead, mentor, and grow a diverse team of IT professionals—scaling lean teams, unlocking talent, and driving high engagement through continuous development and recognition.

• Own service management: Set ambitious SLAs, monitor performance with transparency, and constantly innovate to drive resolution speeds and satisfaction scores up (and friction down).

• Be a relentless voice for the customer—seek feedback, engage directly with users, and hold yourself accountable to their experience at every touchpoint.

• Build agile cross-functional partnerships with Security, People, Finance, and Workplace teams to deliver company-wide impact in areas like device management, user identity, office operations, and event support.

• Champion cost optimization by negotiating with vendors, managing the IT budget, and identifying areas for savings without compromising quality.

• Guide the implementation and integration of critical collaboration, workflow, and business applications—ensuring seamless onboarding, scalability, and support.

• Set up and maintain robust controls, compliance processes, and security best practices to keep Handshake secure and resilient.

• Serve as a key communicator and spokesperson for all things IT—driving alignment, transparency, and trust across the company.

Your Experience

• Proven success managing IT teams in dynamic, high-growth Bay Area tech environments, and a love for working both strategically and tactically to solve tough problems.

• Demonstrated ability to scale teams, build strong pipelines of talent and move fast—while upholding uncompromising quality and user experience standards.

• Deep, hands-on technical expertise across multiple IT domains (endpoint management, cloud identity, network, collaboration tools, Mac OS admin, office support).

• Mastery in driving automation, process improvement, and data-driven decisions to maximize speed, reliability, and satisfaction.

• Exceptional communication, partnership, and influence skills—you inspire IT to be seen as an enabling partner, not just a service function.

• Passion for metrics: you use analytics and KPIs to measure success, highlight wins, uncover issues fast, and drive action.

• Adept at navigating and negotiating vendor relationships, optimizing spend, and owning IT budgets in a startup or scaleup context.

• Experience managing hybrid/remote teams and supporting distributed workplaces is a strong plus.

Bonus Points

• Relevant IT certifications (ITIL, CompTIA, CCNA, etc.).

• Background optimizing IT for SaaS environments or companies experiencing rapid scaling.

• Successful track record deploying device management, identity, or collaboration platforms in a growth context.

• A stakeholder-magnet: you’re trusted and sought-after for your outcomes-driven leadership and your genuine care for the people you support.

What we offer

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

Benefits below apply to US 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.

• 📚 Generous learning & development opportunities and an annual $2,000 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.

• 🏦 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.

• 💻 Handshake offers $500 home office stipend for you to spend during your first 3 months to create a productive and comfortable workspace at home.

• 🍼 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.

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.