Legal Investigator

Build a Safer World. TRM Labs provides AI-powered intelligence solutions that help public and private sector agencies investigate and disrupt crime. TRM's platforms enable investigators to trace illicit activity, build cases, and construct operating pictures of threat networks. Leading agencies and businesses worldwide rely on TRM to make the world safer and more secure. About the Role Sextortion — extorting money or further imagery from victims, disproportionately minors, under threat of releasing explicit images — has been named a national emergency by the FBI and NCMEC, and financial sextortion cases have been directly linked to a rise in teen suicides. In parallel, CSAM distribution networks increasingly monetize through cryptocurrency, using crypto's speed and pseudonymity to move money across borders faster than any single agency can follow. TRM's Severe Harms pod exists to close that gap. We fuse on-chain and off-chain intelligence to trace the financial rails behind this abuse, working alongside Law Enforcement and Government Partners, and TRM's financial-institution and exchange partners to identify offenders, disrupt activity, and support victim identification and safeguarding. It is some of the most consequential and difficult work at TRM. As a Severe Harms All-Source Investigator , you will be one of the investigators running that flywheel every day — tracing the financial rails behind sextortion and CSAM monetization, building the target packages and legal-process returns that lead to disruption, and working cases from referral through to an actionable outcome. This is an individual-contributor role for someone who wants to do the work directly, not manage it. You will build genuine casework skill on some of the most consequential and difficult material at TRM, with a manager and a Lead Investigator supporting your growth. The Impact You Will Have Work your caseload. Run point on target packages from referral to disruption: legal process → on-chain/off-chain fusion → targeting, on your own cases under normal review. Run all-source collection. Combine OSINT, link analysis, and direct engagement with subjects and sources to identify and attribute actors — not just trace the money. Build defensible, actionable outputs. Every attribution write-up and legal-process return you produce should hold up when tested by Law Enforcement and Government Partners, or a court — with growing independence over time. Map networks, not just events. Build a picture of how a network actually operates, rather than a catalogue of isolated indicators. Use AI to accelerate your own casework. Apply it where it genuinely speeds up or sharpens your work, and know where human judgment has to stay in the loop given the sensitivity of the material. Partner across the ecosystem. Work directly with legal, engineering, and external partners on the specific leads and referrals in front of you. Practice victim-centered, trauma-informed investigative work, and follow TRM's protocols for evidence handling, escalation, and mandatory reporting. Take care of yourself and your teammates. Actively manage your own content exposure and psychological well-being, and know when and how to ask for support. What We're Looking For You are an operator. 3–5 years of relevant investigative or casework experience — illicit-finance, financial-crime, cybercrime, trust & safety, all-source intelligence, OSINT, or direct human-source engagement, or a comparable law-enforcement/intelligence-adjacent background. You have taken a body of information and driven it to a real outcome, not just written a report about it. Real collection capability, whether that's hands-on experience building or adapting tools to pull signal from open web, social, and forum sources, or direct experience engaging subjects and sources yourself. Ideally you've done some of both, but real strength in one is enough. You know how to work a case with other people, not just alone. You can point to investigations you've co-run with another investigator, or handed off cleanly without losing momentum. You're comfortable working to someone else's clock. You've delivered real answers under RFI-style pressure — a partner or requester needing something in hours or days, not on a self-paced research timeline — and can point to examples. Genuine interest in, and some exposure to, child exploitation, sextortion, or closely adjacent investigative work, including CT or Serious Organised Crime. We will teach you the ecosystem specifics; we are looking for the instinct and resilience for this material, plus at least some track record adjacent to it. AI fluency (required). You use AI in your own work today and have a clear, honest view of where it helps and where it does not — especially given the sensitivity of this material. Working knowledge of legal process — subpoenas, warrants, preservation requests — or a fast willingness to learn it. You do not need to be a lawyer; you need to understand how high-quality investigative documentation supports downstream action. Solid written communication. You can produce a clear, defensible written package under review. Sound judgment with difficult material. The maturity to work with emotionally demanding content without it compromising your judgment or your well-being. Fully remote, US- or UK-based. Expect occasional travel, unevenly distributed, with periodic DC-based working sessions. Nice-to-Have Crypto or on-chain experience. A genuine advantage, but we teach on-chain tradecraft — we cannot teach the instinct built from years investigating crimes against children. Sextortion/CSAM-ecosystem familiarity. Direct experience with financial sextortion schemes, CSAM distribution networks, or platform-based grooming and extortion patterns will shorten your ramp considerably, but the team knows this ecosystem well and can bring you up to speed on it. Vetting Given the sensitivity of the material and data handled, successful completion of an enhanced background check is required as a condition of employment. About the Team The Severe Harms pod operates within TRM's Primary Intelligence organization, alongside the other threat categories comprised of threat intelligence analysts, on-chain investigators and data scientists. Distributed team with an async-first approach via Slack and Notion, plus structured syncs for alignment. High autonomy, high standards, low bureaucracy — you work directly with engineers, analysts, legal counterparts, and the partners and customers who depend on the team's output. Team Operating Rhythms Weekly 1:1 with your manager Weekly team sync covering active work, throughput, and escalations 6-week performance pulse check-in Quarterly career-pathing conversation Mandatory wellness check-ins and access to specialized counseling/EAP resources, on a standing cadence Primary time-zone overlap: US Eastern / Central Surge availability expected during time-sensitive referral and disruption windows Application Instructions If you’re interested in joining TRM, we encourage you to apply directly. Every application is reviewed by our Talent team. Before applying, review the job description carefully and highlight the experience and impact that best demonstrate the required qualifications. Please also provide thoughtful and accurate answers to the application questions, as these will be used to evaluate your qualifications for the role. If you send your resume directly to someone at TRM, we can’t guarantee it will reach the appropriate hiring team. Applying directly is the best way to ensure you’re considered. What to Expect From Our Interview Process Our process is designed to understand how you think, solve problems, and deliver impact, while giving you the opportunity to evaluate TRM. Most interview processes include a case study, AI skills assessment, and Leadership Principles interview. Recruiter Intro: Explore your experience, motivations, and alignment with the role. Hiring Manager: Dive deeper into your relevant experience, skills, and impact. First Round: Typically 1–2 interviews focused on the skills most critical to the role. Final Round: Typically 3–5 interviews to go deeper on your craft, problem-solving, and alignment with TRM. References: We’ll speak with former colleagues who can provide perspective on your work and impact. Offer: If it’s a mutual fit, your recruiter will walk you through your offer and answer your questions. Welcome to TRM: Once you sign, we’ll get you ready for your first day and onboarding. Your recruiter will share your specific interview plan and preparation guidance along the way. Learn more about interviewing at TRM Life at TRM We are building a safer world. That promise shows up in how we work every day. TRM moves quickly. We are a high velocity, high ownership team that expects clarity, follow-through, and impact. People who thrive here are energized by hard problems, experimentation, and continuous feedback. If something takes months elsewhere, it will ship here in days. Our work sits at the intersection of AI, national security, and fighting crime. The problems are complex, the stakes are real, and the environment evolves quickly. The pace and intensity of the work reflect the importance of the mission. As a result, the way we operate requires a high level of ownership, adaptability, collaboration, and creative problem-solving. At TRM, you should expect: Priorities and targets to change quickly as we experiment and iterate Work that often requires operating with a high degree of ambiguity A high level of personal ownership and accountability Close collaboration across teams and functions Frequent, high-touch communication Creative problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking A pace that rewards urgency, adaptability, and outcomes This environment is energizing for people who enjoy building, solving hard problems, and making progress in situations that are not always fully defined. It also requires comfort navigating ambiguity, adjusting course as new information emerges, and maintaining focus and positivity in a fast-moving and intense environment. We also recognize that this style of operating is not for everyone. If you are primarily optimizing for predictability or a consistently balanced workload, we encourage you to use the interview process to pressure test whether this environment is truly the right fit. We want teammates who thrive here, not just survive here. At the same time, many people find this work deeply rewarding. If you are excited by meaningful problems, motivated by ambitious goals, and energized by working alongside mission-driven colleagues, there is a good chance you will find TRM to be an exceptional place to grow and contribute. Learn more: Interviewing at TRM: How We Hire and What Success Looks Like AI Fluency at TRM AI fluency is a baseline expectation at TRM. We believe AI meaningfully changes how top performers operate. We expect every team member to use AI to accelerate and reimagine their craft, not just automate surface tasks. At TRM, AI fluency means you are among the top 10 percent of operators in your function in how you apply AI to: Accelerate repeatable workflows Structure and solve problems Improve output quality Increase speed and leverage You will be evaluated on applied AI fluency during the interview process. Leadership Principles We hire and grow against three leadership principles. They’re the standards for how we operate, treat each other, and make decisions. Impact-Oriented Trailblazer: We put customers first and move with speed, focus, and adaptability. We treat every plan like an experiment – test, ship, measure, and iterate quickly. Master Craftsperson: We care deeply about our craft. We balance speed with high standards, own outcomes end‑to‑end, and invest in getting better everyday. Inspiring Colleague: We add clarity and energy, not noise. We bring humility, candor, and a one‑team mindset — giving and receiving feedback to make the team stronger. Join our Mission At TRM we care deeply about our craft. We are looking for individuals who want their work to matter, who experiment with speed and rigor, and who take pride in building a safer world for billions of people. If you’re excited by TRM’s mission but don’t check every box, we encourage you to apply — we hire for slope, judgment, and the will to learn fast. TRM is a Series C company with $220M in total funding, backed by Goldman Sachs, Bessemer, Y Combinator, Thoma Bravo, and others. Headquartered in San Francisco, TRM operates as a distributed-first company with hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., London, and Singapore. Privacy Policy and Additional Information By submitting your application, you agree to allow TRM Labs to process your personal information in accordance with our . We collect the information you provide (such as your resume, work history, and contact details) solely for the purpose of evaluating your candidacy for current and future roles at TRM. Because our hiring cycles for certain positions may span 24 to 36 months, we retain your personal information for up to 36 months from the date of your application. After that period, your data is deleted unless a different retention period is required or permitted by law. If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with applicable data protection laws, you have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal data at any time before that period ends. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at View email address on click.appcast.io . To notify TRM Labs that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form . No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance. The use of AI tools of any kind (including but not limited to notetakers, interview assistants, and real-time coaching tools such as Otter.ai, Fireflies, Fathom, Cluey, or similar) during TRM interviews is not permitted without prior approval from TRM. TRM uses its own internal tools for note-taking to ensure a consistent and confidential experience for all candidates. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this form . Recruitment agencies TRM Labs does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to TRM employees. TRM Labs is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes and will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company without a signed agreement. Learn More : Company Values | Interviewing | FAQs