Engineering Lead

Opportunity Overview

Handshake is looking for senior engineering leaders to support AI research through flexible, part-time contract work. This is not a traditional job. You’ll draw on your experience leading engineering teams and running multi-week or multi-month projects, across fields such as electrical, mechanical, civil, structural, industrial, chemical, controls, and aerospace engineering, to evaluate AI-generated work and provide feedback that helps AI reason like an experienced engineering lead. The Handshake AI program runs year-round, with project opportunities opening periodically across different areas of expertise.

This is an ongoing, project-based opportunity you can take on alongside your current role.

What You’ll Do

• Write the project briefs a lead would hand to a team, including scope, workstreams, and inputs, for engineering work that takes weeks or months to complete
• Create rubrics that evaluate the full set of deliverables for a project
• Review and evaluate AI-generated work on long, multi-step projects for technical accuracy, completeness, and alignment with how engineering work is actually run
• Provide clear, structured written feedback to help improve AI model performance
• Work remotely and complete tasks at your own pace, with no set schedule or minimum hour requirement

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience: At least 10 years of professional engineering experience in industry, including at least 5 years of hands-on engineering work, such as design, analysis, test, build, or commissioning
• Leadership experience: At least 3 years leading work in your own engineering field, as a team lead, manager, director, or project or program lead running multi-week or multi-month projects
• Domain: Experience in one or more of the following areas:

  • Electrical, mechanical, civil, or structural engineering

  • Industrial, manufacturing, or physical engineering
  • Chemical and process engineering
  • Controls and PLC systems
  • Aerospace engineering
  • Biomedical devices
  • Piping, MEP, or construction project management with a technical engineering background

Additional qualifications (not required, but strengthen your application)

• Experience writing detailed technical documents, such as specifications, test plans, SOPs, white papers, regulatory filings, or bills of materials
• Experience in verification and validation, commissioning, or quality assurance
• Experience coordinating across functions or with vendors, or leading work that spans multiple engineering disciplines
• Experience in regulated industries, such as medical devices, aerospace and defense, oil and gas, or utilities
• Prior experience with AI training or prompt writing

This may not be a fit if

• Your engineering experience has primarily been in academia (holding a PhD is fine if your career has been in industry)

Required for all applicants

• Must be based in the United States and have US work authorization
• Must have 10+ years of total engineering experience, with 3+ years being in a engineering leadership position
• Strong written communication and attention to detail
• Ability to explain complex engineering concepts clearly
• Ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment