Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Legal-SF

Details

OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with customers to turn research breakthroughs into production systems. The team works closely with users to solve high-leverage problems, rapidly move from prototype to deployment, and surface patterns that shape the platform. It operates at the intersection of customer delivery and core development, collaborating with Product, Research, and Go-to-Market.

The role focuses on building and deploying AI systems for legal work. You will work closely with customers and senior legal practitioners to identify initial use cases, rapidly prototype solutions, and demonstrate measurable value. Early engagements may include creating workflows that use OpenAI models for legal analysis, drafting, research, or real-time work with complex case records.

You will own technical work from discovery and proof of concept through production adoption, translate customer workflows and constraints into product feedback, and turn successful deployments into repeatable patterns that can scale across larger accounts and the legal market. This role is based in San Francisco or New York City and follows a hybrid model of three days in the office per week. Travel of up to 50% may be required.

Responsibilities

• Embed with law firms and legal teams to understand workflows, identify high-value opportunities, and select initial use cases to prove value.
• Build full-stack systems that deliver customer value and improve how the team learns.
• Work closely with customer teams, understand their needs, and guide adoption of deployed solutions.
• Balance scope, speed, and quality, adjusting plans to protect delivery.
• Contribute directly to production code when progress or clarity depends on it.
• Codify working patterns into tools, playbooks, or reusable building blocks.
• Share field feedback with Research and Product to help identify where models succeed and where they can improve.

Requirements

• 5+ years of software engineering, ML engineering, or technical deployment experience with customer-facing ownership in financial services or adjacent regulated industries.
• Experience with legal technology, legal services, compliance-heavy workflows, or professional services is helpful but not required.
• Experience owning complex AI or data-driven systems end-to-end, from scoping through production adoption, in environments where errors have significant financial or regulatory consequences.
• Ability to write and review production-grade code across backend and frontend systems using Python, JavaScript, or comparable technology stacks.
• Experience deploying systems powered by large language models or generative models.
• Understanding of how model behavior, evaluation, and guardrails affect user trust and business outcomes.
• Clear communication across engineering, product, risk, compliance, and executive stakeholders, including the ability to translate technical trade-offs into decision quality and risk posture.
• Systems thinking and high execution standards, including the ability to turn incidents, escalations, and failures into improved operating standards and repeatable deployment patterns.
• Ability to remain calm and decisive during urgent, ambiguous, and high-stakes delivery situations.

Benefits

• Base pay range of $162,000–$280,000 per year, plus equity.
• Performance-related bonuses for eligible employees.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax accounts for health and dependent care expenses, as well as commuter expenses.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental, medical, and caregiver leave.
• Flexible paid time off for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees.
• Paid company holidays, office closures, and sick or safe time as required by applicable law.
• Mental health and wellness support.
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage.
• Annual learning and development stipend.
• Daily office meals and eligible meal delivery credits.
• Relocation support for eligible employees.