Founding Full Stack Software Engineer, Legal

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Founding Full-Stack Software Engineer to join the Legal team in San Francisco. You will play a crucial role in building AI-powered products designed to transform legal workflows, improve access to information, and create significant impact.

Your responsibilities include designing user experiences, building backend systems, and collaborating with cross-functional teams. Ideal candidates have strong engineering skills, thrive in ambiguity, and enjoy iterating on user feedback.

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to an inclusive workplace.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience in building and shipping full-stack applications.
• Ability to work across the entire product lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship full-stack products leveraging AI models.
• Own projects end-to-end from prototypes to deployment.
• Design and develop user experiences across systems.

Skills

Full-stack application development

Frontend engineering

Backend engineering

Prototyping

Collaborative product development

Understanding of legal workflows

Job description

About the Team

The Legal team is building the next generation of AI-powered products and experiences for the legal industry. We are exploring how advanced AI systems can transform legal workflows, improve access to information, and enable legal professionals and organizations to work more effectively.

As a founding member of the Legal engineering team, you will help define the technical foundation for this new product area from the earliest stages. You’ll operate at the intersection of AI, product, and real-world legal workflows—identifying opportunities, building prototypes, and turning emerging ideas into scalable products that can create meaningful impact.

We operate with a startup-like mindset inside OpenAI: small teams, rapid iteration cycles, and a willingness to explore bold ideas, learn quickly, and adapt based on user feedback. Our goal is to build products that meaningfully improve how legal professionals work while leveraging OpenAI’s cutting‑edge models and infrastructure.

About the Role

As a Founding Full‑Stack Software Engineer on the Legal team, you will help imagine, build, and scale new AI‑powered products for the legal industry. You’ll work across the stack to design intuitive user experiences, build robust backend systems, and create the foundations for products used by legal professionals and organizations around the world.

You’ll have significant ownership from the earliest stages—working closely with product, design, research, and go‑to‑market partners to understand customer needs, shape product direction, and deliver high‑impact solutions. This includes rapidly prototyping new concepts, building production‑quality applications on top of OpenAI’s platforms, and developing new technical approaches when existing systems are not sufficient.

We’re looking for engineers who thrive in ambiguity, have strong product instincts, and enjoy building from 0→1. You should be comfortable moving quickly, making thoughtful technical decisions, and taking ownership across the entire product lifecycle—from initial exploration through launch and scale.

In this role, you will:

• 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 while contributing new technical foundations where needed.
• Partner closely 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.
• Learn from and contribute alongside deeply experienced engineers while fostering a high‑trust, inclusive, and candid team environment.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have 6+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Have built and shipped full‑stack applications end‑to‑end, from early prototypes through production systems.
• Are excited by ambiguous, open‑ended problems and can turn broad ideas into shipped products.
• Have strong frontend and backend engineering skills and enjoy working across the stack.
• Are comfortable moving quickly, iterating based on feedback, and making pragmatic technical decisions.
• Have strong product instincts and enjoy collaborating directly with users and cross‑functional partners.
• Are energized by emerging AI capabilities and the opportunity to rethink how software is built.
• Learn quickly, pick up new technologies as needed, and choose the right tools to solve problems effectively.
• Thrive in small, high‑ownership teams where engineers have significant influence over product direction and technical strategy.
• Welcome direct, constructive feedback and offer the same to others with clarity and respect.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.