Applied Legal Researcher →

Nextlex; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Nextlex in San Francisco seeks a Lead ML Research Scientist to advance AI systems for legal workflows. You will explore new algorithms, evaluate LLMs, and design experiments to improve reasoning accuracy and trustworthy behavior.

Responsibilities include prototyping ML models for automated reasoning, publishing internal research, and guiding product roadmap decisions, with a focus on transforming prototypes into production-ready systems.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree or equivalent research experience in ML.
• Strong publication or patent history demonstrating impact.
• Deep knowledge of statistics, NLP, and modern ML architectures.

Responsibilities

• Research and prototype ML models for automated reasoning, predictive analytics, and knowledge graph generation.
• Evaluate and adapt the latest LLM and generative AI advancements for production use.
• Publish internal research and guide product roadmap decisions.
• Design experiments with rigorous metrics such as precision, recall, and F1 scores.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Statistics

NLP

ML architectures

Research impact

Education

Master's or Ph.D. in ML, CS, or related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Python

Job description

Lead foundational research to advance AI systems designed for legal workflows. This role explores new algorithms and ML methodologies tailored for unstructured legal data, reasoning accuracy, and trustworthy model behavior.

Key Responsibilities

• Research and prototype ML models for automated reasoning, predictive analytics, and knowledge graph generation.
• Evaluate and adapt the latest LLM and generative AI advancements for production use.
• Publish internal research and guide product roadmap decisions.
• Design experiments with rigorous metrics such as precision, recall, and F1 scores.

Qualifications

• Master's or Ph.D. in ML, CS, or related field (or equivalent research experience).
• Proven research impact: publications, patents, or innovative model deployments.
• Deep knowledge of statistics, NLP, and modern ML architectures.
• Strong Python and PyTorch/TensorFlow skills.

Preferred Experience

• Research in few-shot learning, prompt engineering, or adversarial robustness.
• Experience with legal or regulatory datasets.
• Familiarity with transforming research prototypes into production-ready systems.