Forum Ventures · 1 month ago
Founding Engineer at Venture-Backed, AI-Native Law Firm
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level
$140K/yr - $160K/yr
6+ years expShepherd is a hybrid law firm for startups that combines AI-powered technology with experienced attorney oversight to deliver legal services. They are seeking a Founding Engineer / Head of Engineering to architect the AI engine and build the core product, leading the technical execution to create scalable, automated systems for legal workflows.
FinanceFinancial ServicesVenture Capital
Responsibilities
Architect the end-to-end technology stack for the Shepherd platform (LLM infrastructure, workflow engine, database design, API integrations (Slack, Docusign, ect)
Establish engineering best practices, technical roadmap, and long-term architecture decisions
Build the foundation for a secure, compliant system that meets startup and enterprise legal standards
Own the evaluation, fine-tuning, and deployment of LLMs for contract analysis, summarization, redlining, and risk scoring
Build our core features:
AI contract review and redlines
Build and expand a context-aware AI
Smart drafting and document automation
Workflow automation (intake, tasking, approvals)
Legal hub for requests, docs, alerts, and lawyer interaction
Design human-in-the-loop systems that blend AI speed with attorney validation
Translate ambiguous legal workflows into clean, reliable, repeatable technical systems
Work directly with early customers to validate and iterate on features in real time
Set up infrastructure that meets SOC-2 and privacy standards
Implement secure document storage, access controls, role-based permissions, and audit trails
Ensure ethical, compliant, and trustworthy use of AI models across the platform
Hire and lead a world-class engineering team as we scale (frontend, backend, ML/AI)
Build a culture of velocity, quality, and ownership
Act as a technical co-founder who can communicate clearly with investors, partners, and customers
Qualification
Required
6–12+ years of experience as a full-stack engineer or technical founder (AI/ML or workflow-heavy SaaS strongly preferred)
Deep experience building production AI systems (LLM fine-tuning, embeddings, RAG, evaluation)
Strong product instincts with a bias toward shipping quickly and iterating
Experience designing secure, scalable architectures for B2B or workflow products
Comfortable in ambiguity: able to turn undefined problems into structured, elegant solutions
Entrepreneurial DNA- you want to build, own, and scale something from the ground up
Preferred
experience with legal tech
experience with fintech
experience with compliance systems
experience in other highly regulated verticals
Benefits
Ground-Floor Equity: Ground-floor opportunity to build a generational company redefining legal infrastructure.
Category Creation: Help build the first AI-native hybrid law firm + SaaS platform for startups.
Technical Challenge: Blend LLMs, data, automation, and legal reasoning into one seamless workflow engine.
Massive Market: Startups and SMBs spend $25B+ per year on legal- and the shift toward automation is accelerating.
Mission-Driven Team: Work alongside founders building a more accessible, modern, and scalable legal system.
Equity: Significant founding team equity stake
Company
Forum Ventures
Forum Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups, mainly in the SaaS and enterprise software sectors.
51-200 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageLeadership Team
Michael Cardamone
CEO & Managing Partner
Elif Tutuk
Founding Member, Innovation Forum
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