AI Engineer

Build AI contracting at enterprise scale. Ship it fast.

Ironclad is building AI on one of the most consequential datasets in enterprise software: over 2 billion contracts across thousands of the world's largest organizations. Contracts run every dollar, deal, and business relationship on the planet, and the AI transformation of this space is still largely uncharted. Engineers here are building agentic solutions to problems that haven't been solved yet, in a category that's still being defined. The feedback loop is short, the data is rich, and the people closest to the work are the ones deciding what gets built next. That ability to deliver impact quickly is why the the companies at the forefront of AI choose Ironclad to manage their contracts.

We’re consistently recognized as a leader in the industry: a Leader in the Forrester Wave and Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contract Lifecycle Management, a Fortune Great Place to Work, and one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Workplaces. Ironclad has also been named to Forbes’ AI 50 and Business Insider’s list of Companies to Bet Your Career On. We’re backed by leading investors including Accel, Y Combinator, Sequoia, BOND, and Franklin Templeton. For more information, visit www.ironcladapp.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

This is a hybrid role. Office attendance is required at least twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for collaboration and connection. There may be additional in-office days for team or company events.

AI Engineering @ Ironclad

Ironclad is accelerating its AI initiatives to transform how legal teams manage contracts. We're looking for a AI/ML Engineer to help shape the future of legal AI. In this role, you’ll work with cutting-edge tools such as HuggingFace, OpenAI APIs, and Rivet to develop state-of-the-art models and intelligent systems that extract structured insights from contracts and power product features used by leading legal teams.

You’ll partner closely with product managers and designers to translate user needs into AI-powered product capabilities. You’ll also lead efforts in model evaluation, iteration, and deployment-ensuring our systems are robust, explainable, and continuously improving. As part of our end-to-end ownership model, you’ll contribute to the MLOps stack to ensure our models are scalable, reliable, and performant in production.

What you'll be doing:

• Build and Tune models and AI capabilities that ingest legal documents, extract key information, and deliver actionable insights to customers

• Implementing backend services that power document understanding, classification, and natural language search

• Explore and apply cutting-edge techniques in NLP, LLM integration, Prompt / Context Engineering, and semantic search to advance Ironclad’s AI/ML vision

• Design and maintain robust systems for prompt management, model training / tuning, orchestration, evaluation & inference, with a focus on scalability, reliability, and observability

• Develop and scale retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems and agent-based orchestration frameworks for complex legal workflows

• Help build foundational AI/ML infrastructure, including tools for experimentation, model versioning, and online/offline performance monitoring

• Partner closely with product managers and designers to shape user-facing AI experiences and deliver value through APIs and intelligent features

Required skills:

• BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field

• Experience working with large language models (e.g., GPT, Claude) or building RAG systems

• Experience with embedding models and vector databases

• Experience in training, evaluating, and serving machine learning models

• Hands-on experience with Python, backend service development, and RESTful APIs

• Experience in NLP techniques such as text classification, entity extraction, document understanding, or question answering

• Proficiency with AI frameworks and APIs (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, HuggingFace , OpenAI , LangChain)

• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., GCP, AWS, Azure)

• Solid understanding of Git or other version control systems

• Strong engineering fundamentals and attention to code quality, testing, and maintainability

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills

• Passion for building AI products that solve real-world customer problemsS

Nice to have:

• Familiarity with Vertex AI or other managed ML platforms

• Experience working with PDF and DOCX parsing for document ingestion

• Comfort with Docker and containerized development

• Familiarity with CI/CD systems (e.g., GitHub Actions, CircleCI)

• Monitoring and observability with tools like Datadog or equivalent

• Experience with data processing and analysis using tools like SQL, Pandas, NumPy, or PySpark

Base Salary Range: $150,000 - $180,000

The base salary range represents the minimum and maximum of the salary range for this position based at our San Francisco headquarters. The actual base salary offered for this position will depend on numerous factors, including individual proficiency, anticipated performance, and the location of the selected candidate. Our base salary is just one component of Ironclad’s competitive total rewards package, which also includes equity awards (a new hire grant, along with opportunities for additional awards throughout your tenure), competitive health and wellness benefits, and a commitment to career growth and development.

US Full-Time Employee Benefits at Ironclad:

• 100% health coverage for employees (medical, dental, and vision), and 75% coverage for dependents with buy-up plan options available

• Market-leading leave policies, including gender-neutral parental leave and compassionate leave

• Family forming support through Maven for you and your partner

• Paid time off - take the time you need, when you need it

• Monthly stipends for wellbeing, hybrid work, and (if applicable) cell phone use

• Mental health support through Modern Health, including therapy, coaching, and digital tools

• Pre-tax commuter benefits (US Employees)

• 401(k) plan with Fidelity with employer match (US Employees)

• Regular team events to connect, recharge, and have fun

• And most importantly: the opportunity to help build the company you want to work at

**UK Employee-specific benefits are included on our UK job postings

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.