Founding Product Engineer

Clera

$140K — $180K *
Legal & Accounting
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 1-3 years in production software development, preferably at early-stage companies or as a founder.
  • Strong full-stack development skills, particularly with TypeScript/React and a modern backend stack.
  • Hands-on experience with AI/LLMs, including professional or personal projects.
  • Proven ability to own features from conception to production deployment.
  • Experience in making engineering trade-offs and architectural decisions under constraints.
  • Adaptability to work in fast-paced environments with minimal established processes.
  • Excellent judgment and communication skills, maintaining high quality standards.

Responsibilities

  • Build and own core product features across the entire stack.
  • Collaborate closely with AI engineers and attorneys to translate legal workflows into software.
  • Make practical architecture decisions to enable rapid development without sacrificing quality.
  • Write maintainable code and take full responsibility for production releases.
  • Establish engineering culture, standards, and hiring practices during team expansion.
  • Work in-person with teammates to ensure fast and high-quality software delivery.

Benefits

  • Early equity participation in a promising, seed-stage startup.
  • Opportunity for significant influence in shaping company culture and product direction.
  • Full-time, in-person work environment fostering close collaboration with team members.
Full Job Description
About the Role

A fast-moving, seed-stage legal AI company in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Product Engineer to build the core product from the ground up. You'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with licensed attorneys and AI engineers to ship software that transforms how commercial legal work gets done - territory nobody has fully mapped before.

This is a high-ownership, high-impact role where you'll set engineering culture and standards for everyone who comes after you, while owning features that real customers depend on every day. The company sits at the intersection of legal services, AI agents, and B2B SaaS, serving fast-moving companies that need rapid, predictable contract review and negotiation.
What You'll Do
  • Build and own core product features across the full stack - from data models to the interfaces attorneys and clients use daily.
  • Partner closely with AI engineers and licensed attorneys to translate legal workflows and review playbooks into reliable, production-grade software.
  • Make pragmatic architecture and tooling decisions that let the team move fast now without compromising the future.
  • Write maintainable code, build for reliability, and take complete ownership of what you ship in production.
  • Help define engineering culture, standards, and hiring practices as the team scales.
  • Collaborate in-person with teammates daily, turning real legal judgment into software that ships fast and holds a high bar.
What We're Looking For

Required:
  • 1-3 years building and shipping production software, ideally at an early-stage company or as a founder.
  • Strong full-stack ability: TypeScript/React on the front end, a modern backend stack, and relational databases.
  • Hands-on experience building with AI/LLMs, either professionally or in personal projects.
  • A track record of owning features end-to-end - from conception through production deployment.
  • Experience making pragmatic engineering trade-offs and architecture decisions under time constraints.
  • Comfort with ambiguity and a proven ability to thrive in fast-moving, high-ownership environments with minimal process.
  • Excellent judgment, communication skills, and a consistently high bar for your own work.
  • Product instincts and an entrepreneurial mindset - you think like an owner and move with urgency.

Nice to Have:
  • Experience in legal tech, contract management, or document processing.
  • Experience working directly with domain experts (attorneys, compliance specialists) to translate workflows into software.
  • Familiarity with modern DevOps, CI/CD, and production monitoring practices.
  • Prior founder or early-employee experience at a venture-backed startup.
Compensation & Benefits
  • Salary: $140,000 - $180,000 USD annually
  • Early equity in a well-backed, seed-stage company
  • Full-time, in-person role

Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.
Location

This is a full-time, in-person role based in San Francisco, CA. Remote and hybrid arrangements are not available.

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