Founding Full-Stack Software Engineer, Legal

Details

The Legal team is building AI-powered products and experiences for the legal industry. As a founding member of the Legal engineering team, you will help define the technical foundation for this new product area, working at the intersection of AI, product, and real-world legal workflows.

You will help imagine, build, and scale products for legal professionals and organizations. The role involves designing intuitive user experiences, building robust backend systems, rapidly prototyping concepts, and developing production-quality applications on top of OpenAI's platforms and APIs.

The team operates with a startup-like mindset inside OpenAI, with small teams, rapid iteration cycles, significant ownership, and close collaboration with product, design, research, applied AI, go-to-market partners, and customers.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship full-stack products that leverage OpenAI models to solve complex problems in legal workflows.
• Own projects end-to-end, from early prototypes and technical exploration through production deployment and iteration.
• Design and develop intuitive user experiences across frontend and backend systems.
• Build scalable, reliable systems on top of OpenAI's internal platforms and APIs.
• Contribute new technical foundations where existing systems are not sufficient.
• Partner with product managers, designers, researchers, applied AI teams, and customers to identify opportunities and translate insights into impactful products.
• Rapidly prototype and experiment with new AI capabilities, using real-world feedback to guide product decisions.
• Develop a deep understanding of legal workflows, customer needs, and industry challenges to inform technical strategy.
• Help establish engineering culture, technical standards, and product practices as an early member of the team.
• Contribute to a high-trust, inclusive, and candid team environment.

Requirements

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience building and shipping full-stack applications end-to-end, from early prototypes through production systems.
• Strong frontend and backend engineering skills, with a willingness to work across the stack.
• Ability to work effectively on ambiguous, open-ended problems and turn broad ideas into shipped products.
• Ability to move quickly, iterate based on feedback, and make pragmatic technical decisions.
• Strong product instincts and experience collaborating directly with users and cross-functional partners.
• Excitement about emerging AI capabilities and rethinking how software is built.
• Ability to learn quickly, pick up new technologies as needed, and choose appropriate tools to solve problems effectively.
• Ability to thrive in small, high-ownership teams where engineers have significant influence over product direction and technical strategy.
• Willingness to give and receive direct, constructive feedback with clarity and respect.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The company is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Background checks are administered in accordance with applicable law.