Founding Backend Engineer – Legal AI Infrastructure

Co-Founder / CTO – QLaws (Next Gen Legal AI Platform)Location: Hybrid (New York City preferred) Type: Co-Founder, Full-timeRole OverviewWe are looking for a hands-on Co-Founder & CTO to own the holistic technology strategy and execution for QLaws - a next-generation, clause-aware legal AI platform targeting law firms and enterprise legal teams. As CTO, you will drive technical vision, architecture, and platform delivery while leading by example (particularly on the frontend, delivering product experiences lawyers will love). You’ll be responsible for shaping and scaling an agentic AI system that automates complex legal workflows with enterprise-grade security, governance, integrations, and auditability.Key Responsibilities1. Technology Vision & ArchitectureDefine and communicate the technical roadmap aligned with product strategy and customer requirements.Architect modular/microservices/serverless platforms to optimize for speed, quality, and cost across the stack (with strong FE focus).Design and build an agent orchestration layer that coordinates specialized AI agents, manages memory/state, and enforces security/governance policies.2. Product Delivery & Clause-Native PlatformLead rapid prototyping and MVP delivery, evolving solutions based on enterprise customer feedback and usage.Build clause-native capabilities - automated document ingestion, clause extraction/matching, legal redlining, reasoning & provenance, matter-wide memory persistence—with extensible frontend components for lawyer workflows.3. AI/ML & Data SystemsEvaluate, select, and integrate LLMs and agentic toolchains; implement retrieval-augmented generation, tool-use, and multi-agent workflows.Build evaluation harnesses, safety rails, monitoring, and experimentation infrastructure (offline/online) for agent reliability and enterprise output quality.4. Security, Privacy & ComplianceArchitect “security by design” encryption, access control, audit trails, and incident response. Chart and execute on SOC2/ISO27001 readiness.Address legal vertical needs for secure data flows, tenancy isolation, data residency, and BYO-cloud/BYOM deployments.5. Enterprise-Scale IntegrationsLead implementation and maintenance of integrations: DMS (iManage, NetDocuments), CLM, productivity suites (MS365, GSuite), SSO/identity, and control plane governance features for enterprise clients.Enforce SLOs, observability, and reliability best practices across all layers.6. Team Leadership & Frontend-First Engineering CultureRecruit, coach, and inspire a high-output, full-stack engineering team with a strong frontend/UI/UX sensibility your frontend technical decisions will set the standard for the team.Set up and drive pragmatic processes (CI/CD, QA automation, rapid prototyping) for “fast but right” shipping, balancing enterprise quality with startup velocity.Serve as the public technical face engage in partner demos, client security reviews, and co-design sessions with top-tier legal customers.Must-Have QualificationsStartup-grade builder: 5+ years in software/AI/ML; built and scaled complex SaaS platforms; shipped production systems (ideally in a regulated/legal/enterprise context).Hands-on excellence: Deep fluency in frontend frameworks (React, TypeScript, etc.) and modern cloud-native backend (Node/Python, serverless, microservices, distributed systems).Agentic AI: Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, and deploying multi-agent LLM-powered orchestration, with mitigation strategies for hallucinations, provenance, evaluation, and legal-grade guardrails.Security & Compliance: Led or implemented SOC2/ISO27001 programs, familiar with AWS/Azure/GCP security, data residency, tenancy isolation, encryption, and audit frameworks.Enterprise integrations: Built DMS/CLM/SSO integrations; understands orchestration across systems and control plane architecture.Leadership & Communication: Proven engineering leadership mentoring, recruiting, leveling up peers, and translating technical tradeoffs to customers, partners, and investors.Frontend-first mindset: Passion for delivering exceptional, enterprise-grade UI/UX and for leading by example in the FE domain.Working Model & ExpectationsEarly stage, hands-on: Own key components (with frontend leadership focus), write code, review PRs, and “do the unscalable” as we build from v1 to scale.Partner/customer facing: Join calls for BD, security reviews, and technical deep-dives with legal enterprises and lighthouse customers.Startup velocity: Ship fast, instrument thoroughly, and add just enough process to earn enterprise trust.