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Lead Software Engineer
Lead Software EngineerRecruiting From Scratch • Palo Alto, CA, United States
Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer

Recruiting From Scratch • Palo Alto, CA, United States
30+ days ago
Job type
  • Full-time
Job description

Overview

Title of Role : Lead Software Engineer (Search & NLP)

Location : Palo Alto, California (Onsite, 5 days per week)

Company Stage of Funding : Series A (well-funded, $100M+)

Office Type : Onsite, 5 days per week

Salary : $150,000 – $230,000 base + competitive equity

Company Description

Our client is a fast-growing, venture-backed AI company redefining how large enterprises manage legal knowledge and risk. Backed by $100M+ in Series A funding from leading investors, the company is building a category-defining platform that blends cutting-edge AI with enterprise-grade security and compliance.

The team consists of serial founders and top-tier engineers with expertise across AI, enterprise software, and large-scale systems. The company is already working with many of the Fortune 500’s most sophisticated legal teams and is scaling quickly. Joining at this stage means contributing to both the technical foundation and the culture of a company that is positioned for long-term industry impact.

What You Will Do

As the Lead Software Engineer, you’ll join the founding engineering team and take ownership of building highly scalable Search infrastructure to power Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and insights across a massive enterprise knowledge base.

Key responsibilities include :

  • Technical Leadership : Architect and implement core Search infrastructure components, including distributed systems, data pipelines, indexing systems, and query optimization.
  • System Ownership : Drive stability, performance, and scalability of search infrastructure to support rapid enterprise adoption.
  • Cross-functional Collaboration : Partner with product, data science, and AI engineering teams to deliver high-impact, enterprise-ready solutions.
  • Performance Optimization : Identify bottlenecks and improve efficiency for low-latency, large-scale workloads.
  • Innovation : Research and adopt new technologies, algorithms, and design patterns to push the boundaries of enterprise AI and search.
  • Mentorship : Provide technical guidance and coaching to engineers, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture.

Ideal Candidate Background

  • 8+ years of experience as a software engineer, with significant ownership over large-scale, distributed systems.
  • Strong track record at high-growth, venture-backed startups or Tier 1 tech companies.
  • Deep technical proficiency in at least two of the following : Java, C++, Python, Go .
  • Expertise in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and large-scale data / search systems .
  • Passion for AI—active user of modern AI tools and comfortable innovating in AI-driven environments.
  • Proven ability to mentor others, contribute to team culture, and work collaboratively with cross-functional teams.
  • Preferred

  • Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, Mathematics, or related field (MS or PhD).
  • Experience designing cloud-agnostic solutions in high-compliance, security-focused domains.
  • Hands-on work with NLP, Generative AI, or search infrastructure at scale.
  • History of being an early team member at a startup, helping to scale systems and teams rapidly.
  • Compensation, Benefits, and Other Details

  • Base Salary : $150,000 – $230,000
  • Equity : Highly competitive equity package with strong upside potential.
  • Benefits : Comprehensive healthcare, retirement savings options, and generous time-off policy.
  • Work Environment : Onsite in Palo Alto, working directly with founders and leading engineers in a collaborative, high-energy culture.
  • Career Growth : Opportunity to join as one of the earliest engineering hires and help shape a platform that will define an industry category.
  • This is a unique chance to join a world-class team at the ground floor of a company that is transforming enterprise legal technology with AI. If you are excited by building scalable, impactful systems at the intersection of AI, security, and enterprise infrastructure, we’d love to hear from you.

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    Lead Software Engineer • Palo Alto, CA, United States

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