Founding Principal Architect

Founding Principal Architect

New York, New York, United States Jenn Nguyen and Friends Or refer someone

About the Job Founding Principal Architect

Founding Principal Architect / Senior Frontend-Leaning Full Stack Engineer Compensation: Up to $250K base (varies by level and interview performance) + competitive equity Location: New York City (strong preference, 4 days/week in office) | SF second | Remote (higher bar, travel required) Work Policy: Hybrid or Remote (NYC strongly preferred; travel expectations for non-NYC hires) Relocation: Up to $10K assistance available Stage: Seed-stage legal AI startup | $3M funding | ~6 engineers | Hiring 2–3 frontend-leaning full stack engineers

We’re a seed-stage legal AI company reinventing how in-house legal teams operate. Today’s legal workflows are slow, manual, and repetitive—we’re building the automation and AI infrastructure to change that. Founded by engineers with legal backgrounds and backed by top-tier VCs, we already have customers and design partners, with a public launch planned soon.

This is not a maintain what exists role. This is a build-the-foundation role. You’ll join as one of the first non-cofounder engineering hires and help define the technical culture, architecture, and future of the company.

What’s in It for You?

True founding-level ownership with a path toward senior leadership (Head of Engineering / CTO trajectory). Direct collaboration with founders on product and architectural decisions. High-impact work on customer-facing AI products already in production. Competitive cash + meaningful equity at seed stage. The opportunity to build scalable systems from day one—no legacy cleanup tours. Fast feedback, fast decisions, and zero corporate red tape.

What Will You Do?

Own system design and implementation across core application layers and integrations. Lead frontend-heavy full stack feature delivery—from scoping with founders and legal experts through deployment and monitoring. Architect scalable infrastructure and backend systems (GCP exposure helpful but not central). Set engineering standards (code reviews, CI/CD, security, DevOps practices). Drive architectural decisions around performance, scalability, and reliability. Recruit, mentor, and guide junior engineers as the team grows. Collaborate directly on product roadmap and technical prioritization.

What Will You Need?

5–10 years of professional software engineering experience, including leading end-to-end projects. Deep expertise in React (critical priority). Strong React skills can compensate for lighter backend depth. Strong full stack experience with Node.js and TypeScript (frontend-leaning required). Proven track record building and scaling production, customer-facing web applications. Experience designing complex app systems and infrastructure. DevOps exposure and comfort operating in ambiguity. Startup hunger—proven ability to move fast, work hard, and operate without structure. Strong ownership mindset and clear communication skills.

Ideal Backgrounds Former founders or founding team members at high-growth startups. Engineers from top-tier growth-stage companies (Series A–C) who understand strong engineering practices. FAANG or similar-tier engineers who have also demonstrated startup hustle. Experience building real products used by customers—not just internal enterprise tools.

Strong Positives Early-stage startup or hyper-growth experience. Experience in legal tech or other regulated industries. Familiarity with enterprise security and compliance (OAuth, SOC 2, GDPR). Comfort presenting ideas and engaging in thoughtful technical debate.

Must Not Have Exclusively worked at legacy enterprise tech companies or non-technology industries without startup exposure. Primarily backend-only or frontend-only experience without full stack ownership. Lack of demonstrated interest in startup pace or legal tech.

Tech Stack React (priority) Node.js TypeScript Postgres (important but secondary to React) GCP (nice to have, not a deciding factor)