AI Engineer

burfordcap • New York, NY

5d • $130,000 - $150,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Burford Capital is hiring an AI Engineer to join our Software & Data team, which designs, builds, and scales systems that process real-time legal documents and apply various forms of AI to support investment decision-making and business development. This role is well-suited to an early career engineer who is eager to learn, grow, and take on meaningful responsibility in a fast-paced and entrepreneurial environment.

The Software Engineer will be a core contributor to Burford’s AI and data infrastructure. They will help ensure our systems are reliable, scalable, and able to adapt to the evolving needs of the business. This role involves working directly with colleagues across teams—underwriting and business development—to translate business requirements into technical solutions. Success will require adaptability, creativity, and a strong sense of initiative in seeking out answers and solutions, whether from teammates, external resources, or modern development tools.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Data Science, or related technical field.
• Fluency in Python and familiarity with modern development practices.
• Experience in building, testing, and deploying LLM-based applications, as well as experience using relevant AI stack (e.g. LLM frameworks, vector databases, etc.)
• Experience with databases (e.g. PostgreSQL) and the basics of frontend development (React / Typescript).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability; some minimal level of mathematical fluency is essential (e.g. comfortability with vectors, matrices, probability, etc.)
• Demonstrated initiative and persistence in tackling new challenges.
• Collaborative working style with the ability to communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical colleagues.
• Ability to adapt quickly and learn new concepts in a dynamic environment.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with AI tools for development is a plus (e.g. Cursor)
• Experience with machine learning is a plus (e.g. fine-tuning models, building neural nets from scratch, etc.)
• Comfort with cloud environments is a plus (e.g. Azure)
• Evidence of interest in the law or the social sciences is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Build and enhance Burford’s AI-driven systems for processing real-time legal documents.
• Ensure reliability, scalability, and accuracy across complex data pipelines – including web scrapers, external/internal APIs, and constantly evolving collections of data from business users
• Proactively identify and implement opportunities for improving system performance and efficiency.
• Contribute to long-term improvements in Burford’s AI and data infrastructure.
• Develop features that help decision-makers access insights quickly and intuitively.
• Work directly with underwriting, business development, and legal teams to translate needs into practical, effective tools.
• Approach challenges with initiative and persistence, leveraging a wide range of resources—including colleagues and modern AI-assisted development tools—to find solutions.
• Adapt quickly to new responsibilities and areas of focus as business needs evolve.
• Seek continuous growth in both technical and business knowledge.

Benefits

• Burford also pays a discretionary annual bonus and provides welcome Restricted Stock Units to all full-time employees.
• Burford provides competitive health care benefits and a 401k matching program.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level