Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Legal-SF
Remote • New York City • FullTime
Posted 18d ago
Remote Work Policy
Fully remote
Employment Type
FullTime
Categories
Applied AI Engineer
About the job
OpenAI is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to build and deploy AI systems specifically for legal work. In this role, you will embed deeply with customers, often senior legal practitioners, to identify key use cases, rapidly prototype solutions, and demonstrate measurable value. Your work will span from initial discovery and proof of concept to production adoption, translating customer needs and constraints into actionable product feedback. As successful deployments mature, you will codify these into repeatable patterns to scale across larger accounts and the broader legal market.
Responsibilities
- Embed with law firms and legal teams to understand workflows and identify high-value opportunities.
- Build full-stack systems to deliver customer value and improve learning.
- Guide customer adoption of developed solutions.
- Manage trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality to ensure delivery.
- Contribute directly to code when necessary for progress or clarity.
- Codify working patterns into tools, playbooks, or building blocks for broader use.
- Share field feedback to inform Research and Product on model performance and areas for improvement.
Requirements
- 5+ years of software engineering, ML engineering, or technical deployment experience with customer-facing ownership.
- Experience in financial services or adjacent regulated industries is preferred.
- Experience with legal technology, legal services, compliance-heavy workflows, or professional services is helpful but not required.
- Experience owning complex AI or data-driven systems end-to-end in high-consequence environments.
- Proficiency in writing and reviewing production-grade code for backend and frontend systems using Python, JavaScript, or comparable stacks.
- Experience deploying systems powered by LLMs or generative models, understanding model behavior, evaluation, and guardrails.
- Ability to communicate clearly across diverse stakeholders (engineering, product, risk, compliance, executives).
- Systems thinking with high execution standards, turning failures into improved operating standards.
- Ability to remain calm and decisive in urgent, ambiguous, and high-stakes situations.
Benefits
- Hybrid work model (three days in office per week)
- Relocation assistance