Senior People Systems Analyst

About Handshake

Handshake was founded on a simple belief that everyone deserves a path to a great career regardless of where they went to school or who they know. Today we power 25 million job seekers 1 million employers and 1600 educational institutions.

In 2025 we started Handshake AI and built the fastest-growing AI data business in history. We work directly with frontier AI lab researchers to create evaluations publish benchmarks and push the boundary of data. Weve grown from $0 to $1B run rate and pay $60M to over 30K individuals every month.

Why join Handshake now:

• Shape how every career evolves in the AI economy at global scale with impact your friends family and peers can see and feel

• Partner hand-in-hand with world-class AI labs Fortune 500 partners and the worlds top educational institutions

• Work together with engineers scientists operators and more from Palantir Meta Scale AI and former YC founders

• Build a massive fast-growing business with billions in revenue

The Role

Handshake is hiring a Senior People Systems Analyst to be our hands-on Workday builder. Youll own the day-to-day technical work in our tenant -- configuring business processes building reports running EIBs maintaining tenant hygiene and supporting our simpler integrations. The work is Workday-deep.

Youll report to Handshakes lead of People Systems Technology & Analytics and partner closely with our People Operations team and other partners across the company. Youll be a key advisory input on whats possible feasible how to do it how long it will take and the risks involved.

Handshake uses Workday for HCM Compensation Benefits Time & Absence Payroll and Integrations. We expect this person to handle most Core HCM work and ideally bring expertise in one additional module. For projects outside those modules or for highly technical work we retain an external Workday consulting firm on an hourly basis.

Partner across the People team and the company

• Serve as the trusted technical advisor to the People Systems lead -- bring clear answers on feasibility approach LOE and risk

• Partner closely with People Operations on day-to-day Workday work; collaborate with HRBPs Compensation Benefits Talent Acquisition Payroll IT and Engineering Operations

• Translate ambiguous business asks into Workday-native solutions and surface tradeoffs honestly

Build and maintain business processes

• Configure the BPs that codify how Handshake hires promotes transfers and terminates employees -- including custom objects validation rules conditional routing notifications and delegation

• Recent examples: end-to-end attendance policy exception flow executive supervisory org redesign termination process redesign with regrettable / voluntary flagging

Build reports and analytics

• Build maintain and security-tune custom reports and dashboards used by HRBPs Compensation Finance and the exec team

• Translate ambiguous asks (whos exempt from RTO monthly Europe-only census) into well-scoped reports calculated fields and durable data models

Run mass data operations and re-orgs

• Lead EIB uploads and bulk operations for re-orgs performance and compensation cycles RIFs and other ad-hoc mass changes

• Coordinate timing with downstream systems (Okta Slack Github Datadog Linear) so go-lives are clean; test thoroughly in Sandbox / Preview before promoting to Production

Maintain tenant hygiene and simple integrations

• Audit and improve tenant data: organizations supervisory orgs locations cost centers job profiles comp grades and reference IDs. Lead periodic tenant health checks

• Own simple integrations (e.g. WorkdaySlack); partner with our external Workday consultant for more complex integration work

You Have

• 58 years of hands-on Workday administration with deep Core HCM expertise ideally with additional depth in one of: Compensation Benefits Time & Absence or Payroll

• Demonstrated end-to-end ownership of business process configuration -- custom objects validation rules conditional routing delegation notifications

• Strong reporting chops: custom reports calculated fields and security-tuned datasets.

• Comfort running mass data operations (RIFs perf cycles re-orgs) with disciplined SBX-to-Prod rigor and an eye for downstream impact

• Excellent stakeholder management: take an ambiguous request from an HRBP comp partner or exec and return a clean spec build and rollout plan

• Comfort working independently in a small high-trust People team where priorities shift

Bonus Points

• Workday Pro certification(s) in HCM Compensation Benefits Absence Payroll Reporting or Integrations

• Working knowledge of US (and ideally global) HR compliance considerations: pay transparency CA emergency contact requirements visa tracking EOR / EMEA and RIF / WARN

• Experience supporting global workforce changes -- RIFs EOR conversions country open / close sabbaticals

• Familiarity with Workday Customer Central administration and tenant security models

We Offer

Handshake 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: $2000 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 bonuses

Explore our mission values and comprehensive US benefits at Experience:

Senior IC