Founding Software Engineer

San Francisco, California

Development - Back End

Permanent

Our client, an AI-driven legal tech company, is hiring a Founding Software Engineer to join the team in San Francisco, CA. The successful candidate will own the development and scaling of full-stack applications across the platform, combining product engineering, infrastructure and applied AI to deliver high-quality customer experiences.

Responsibilities

Design, build and maintain production-grade full-stack applications using React and TypeScript.
Develop scalable APIs, data models and backend services that support a rapidly evolving product.
Design flexible and scalable data architectures using NoSQL databases.
Build and maintain integrations with third-party APIs, authentication, payments and document platforms.
Take end-to-end ownership of features, from initial design and development through deployment and continuous improvement.
Leverage AI coding tools and agent-driven development workflows to accelerate engineering and improve productivity.
Collaborate closely with product and design to turn customer needs into intuitive, high-quality product experiences.
Continuously improve the platform’s performance, reliability, scalability and developer experience.
Contribute to technical architecture and engineering decisions as the platform and team scale.
Solve complex and ambiguous technical problems within a fast-moving, highly iterative startup environment.

Skillset

At least 2 years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of building and shipping production-grade web applications.
Strong proficiency in TypeScript, React and modern full-stack development.
Hands-on experience designing, building and integrating APIs and backend services.
Solid understanding of distributed systems, application architecture and scalable software design.
Experience working with NoSQL databases and flexible data-modelling patterns.
Comfortable using AI-assisted development tools, coding copilots and agent-based engineering workflows.
Proven ability to own features end-to-end, from technical design and implementation through to production.
Ability to work independently, navigate ambiguous requirements and make pragmatic technical decisions.
Strong product mindset with a focus on shipping high-quality software that delivers meaningful customer value.
Previous experience within an early-stage startup or other fast-paced engineering environment would be a big plus.