Handshakes is an award-winning DataTech company. We enable our clients to make safer, more informed decisions by delivering meaningful insights, harnessed from reliable data.
As part of our continued growth, we are looking for a Research Specialist/Senior Research Specialist to design and implement AI-powered solutions that enhance our products. This role requires someone who is hands-on with LLMs, Agentic AI, and deep learning, while also capable of breaking down research ideas into executable tasks and guiding junior team members.
The ideal candidate is self-driven, able to work independently, and comfortable learning new tools quickly—especially in the fast-evolving Agentic AI space.
As a Research Specialist/Senior Research Specialist, the key responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Applied Research: Explore and apply state-of-the-art methods in LLMs, deep learning, and NLP to Handshakes’ structured and unstructured datasets.
- Agentic AI Workflows: Develop, experiment with, and deploy agent-based AI workflows for automating reasoning, classification, and decision support.
- Generative AI Applications: Design conversational workflows, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, and text classification systems that enhance user interaction with Handshakes data.
- Rapid Prototyping: Translate research concepts into working prototypes and iterate quickly to validate feasibility and business value.
- Collaboration: Work closely with product and engineering teams to integrate AI solutions into production systems.
- Mentorship: Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior data scientists and interns, fostering a learning-oriented environment.
- Task Ownership: Independently manage research tasks, break down complex problems into subtasks, and ensure timely delivery.
To qualify for this role, you would have:
- Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
- 3–5 years of hands-on experience in applied AI/ML research or development.
- Strong experience with LLMs and NLP tasks (e.g., text classification, summarization, retrieval, conversational AI).
- Practical knowledge of deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow) and ML pipelines.
- Experience in building agentic AI workflows or willingness to learn and adopt such tools quickly.
- Strong coding skills in Python with experience in applied AI/ML engineering.
- Ability to work independently, break down ambiguous problems, and drive research outcomes without heavy supervision.
We are not engaging with recruitment agencies for this hiring.
Submit your application to aili.ong@handshakes.ai