Founding Legal Engineer

As Legal Engineer, you will sit at the intersection of law, technology, and operations — the connective tissue between our legal team, our AI-powered platform, and our customers. You will review and negotiate commercial contracts with speed and precision, while simultaneously building the playbooks, workflows, and tooling that let us do it faster and better every time.

This is a high-responsibility, detail-oriented role for someone who is energized by complex systems, quality execution, and the challenge of codifying legal expertise into repeatable processes. You will work directly with both founders every day.

What You’ll Do

Contract Review & Legal Operations

• Review and negotiate commercial contracts and other legal documents (MSAs, NDAs, DPAs, order forms) with speed and precision

• Interpret contract terms and identify key obligations, risks, and anomalies for customers and internal stakeholders

• Operate and improve Arcline’s internal tooling and AI-powered workflows to streamline document review

• Manage end-to-end deal execution alongside the founders — from initial review through redline to signature

Process & Playbook Development

• Standardize and codify recurring contract types into reusable playbooks and clause libraries

• Identify inefficiencies or patterns in the review process and implement improvements

• Translate legal expertise into structured data, prompts, and workflows that enhance our AI capabilities

• Build quality-assurance processes to ensure every deliverable meets Arcline’s standard of precision

Product & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with engineering to evolve Arcline’s legal service delivery model and platform features

• Gather, organize, and synthesize customer feedback to inform product roadmap priorities

• Run competitive and market research; distill findings into crisp memos for the team

• Join customer discovery and demo calls; synthesize insights and translate them into product requirements

What We’re Looking For

• 3–7 years of experience reviewing commercial contracts — in private practice (e.g., BigLaw transactional or commercial group), in-house as commercial counsel, or in a legal operations / legal engineering role

• Impeccable attention to detail — you spot the small stuff others miss and care deeply about getting it right

• A strong process mindset: you’re always thinking about how to do something faster, better, or with more consistency

• Experience with or genuine excitement about technology-enhanced legal services, AI tooling, or legal ops

• Comfort working in a fast-paced, sometimes ambiguous, high-ownership startup environment

• Excellent written and verbal communication — you can distill complex legal concepts into clear, concise language for technical and non-technical audiences

• High integrity and discretion — you will handle sensitive business information and customer relationships

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an accredited law school

• Bar admission in at least one Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) jurisdiction (required for portability). UBE jurisdictions include: New York, Arizona, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Alaska, Hawaii.

Bonus Points

• Experience building or maintaining contract playbooks, clause libraries, or legal automation workflows

• Familiarity with AI/ML concepts, prompt engineering, or legal tech platforms

• Background in legal operations, legal project management, or process engineering

Why Arcline

• Direct access to both founders from day one — learn how a fast-moving YC startup is built in real time

• Define a new role category: Legal Engineer is emerging as one of the most important functions in AI-native legal services, and you’ll help shape what it means

• Hot market: we’re building the defining AI-native firm in a $1T+ industry

• Accelerated growth path: high performers move into senior legal, product, or operations leadership as the company scales

• Backed by Y Combinator — access to the best network in startups for hiring, partnerships, and customer introductions

• Competitive salary ($130K–$175K), meaningful equity (0.15%–0.60%), and full benefits

Interview Process

• Intro call with a founder (30 min)

• Contract review exercise — a short, practical assessment reflecting real Arcline work

• Final conversation with both founders (30 min)

Apply using YCs job portal. We review every application and respond only to relevant applicants within 1-2 week(s). In your application add a message answering these 3 questions:
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1. Do you have +3 PQE?
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2. Have you passed the bar at one of the UBE-states?
   
   
   Please do not send e-mails directly, use only this application portal.