Full-stack & AI Engineer
NewBe an early applicant- This is a part-time role (25 hours/week) for a 1-month contract
- You will join a project-based engagement to deliver a proof of concept for a private legal research and document-editing platform, built to run over a law firm's own files and client records
- Confidentiality drives every decision: secure document handling, local infrastructure, and tightly controlled use of cloud-based LLM APIs
- The POC will cover 1-2 high-value workflows, to be finalized at kickoff, likely among search and retrieval across a private document collection, AI-assisted legal research, AI-assisted document analysis and editing, supplying relevant document context to an LLM, and a simple, practical web application wrapping these capabilities
- The intended architecture is primarily local: a web application running inside the client's environment, documents stored on a NAS, local indexing and search, secure retrieval, and OpenAI and/or Anthropic APIs invoked only with the minimum context required for each response
- You will help validate and refine that architecture instead of implementing a predetermined design, and you will operate with a high degree of independence, taking a high-level business objective from a non-technical client and turning it into a working product
- The POC succeeds when the client has a functional, secure application demonstrating the core workflow, can test it against representative documents, and has enough confidence to define what gets built next
- There is potential for continued development, maintenance, and future upgrades
- So, your responsibilities will be:
- Own the technical execution of the POC, from requirements through delivery
- Design and build the web application supporting the legal research workflow
- Implement document ingestion, indexing, search, and retrieval
- Integrate LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) into the application flow
- Validate and refine the proposed local/private architecture
- Implement security and privacy controls for confidential material
- Define what data can and cannot be sent to external APIs
- Deploy and document the initial application
- Address findings raised in a security-focused code review before delivery
- Work directly with the client to capture business requirements
- Translate business requirements into practical technical solutions
- Help define and prioritize the initial POC scope
- Manage development priorities and timeline independently
- Report progress and technical decisions directly to the client
- 5+ years of software development experience
- Experience building full-stack web applications
- Experience building LLM-powered applications with APIs (e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic)
- Experience with retrieval technologies (e.g. RAG, embeddings, semantic search, vector databases)
- Experience with document and data ingestion, indexing and search
- Proficiency with backend and API development
- Ability to architect, build and deliver a full project independently
- Deep understanding of application security and sensitive-data handling
- Strong communication skills in both spoken and written English
- Startup experience
- Freelance or consulting experience
- Experience working directly with non-technical clients
- Experience running projects end-to-end, from requirements to delivery
- Experience building AI-powered document applications
- Experience in LegalTech or with legal documentation
- Experience with enterprise search or knowledge-management systems
- Experience with on-premise or hybrid cloud architectures
- Experience with NAS and local infrastructure
- Experience handling confidential or otherwise sensitive data
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent