Staff Software Engineer, AI - Elite Squad Team

Ironclad•San Francisco, CA

13d•Hybrid

About The Position

Ironclad is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for a new elite Squad Team focused on high-priority AI initiatives. This role is for a technical anchor in a small, high-leverage engineering group that moves quickly across product and platform boundaries to incubate new AI capabilities, accelerate strategic bets, and bring ideas from concept to production. The ideal candidate is a high-agency builder with strong technical depth, product sense, urgency, and excellent judgment, who is excited about ambiguity and fast context switching.

Requirements

Significant experience building and shipping production software in fast-paced environments.
A strong track record of leading ambiguous, cross-functional efforts and turning them into concrete outcomes.
High agency and ownership: you see gaps, form a point of view, and drive things forward.
Strong bias to action, with the ability to balance speed and quality.
Excellent collaboration skills and low ego; you work well by influence, not just authority.
Strong software engineering fundamentals, especially in backend systems and distributed systems.
Ability to learn unfamiliar systems quickly and be productive in codebases you did not originally build.
Experience building AI-powered product features, platforms, or internal developer systems.
Familiarity with modern LLM application patterns such as agentic workflows, retrieval, evals, tool use, and quality/error analysis.
Comfort using AI coding tools to accelerate development, while maintaining engineering rigor and sound judgment.
Strong product instinct and customer empathy.
You care not just about whether a system works, but whether it solves an important user problem.
Excitement about iterating quickly, learning from real usage, and improving product quality over time.

Responsibilities

Lead the design and delivery of high-priority AI initiatives across Ironclad, from early prototype through production launch.
Rapidly ramp into new systems, codebases, and problem areas, and drive execution with minimal hand-holding.
Incubate new product ideas in areas such as contract AI, agentic workflows, intelligent extraction, search, and automation.
Partner closely with product, design, legal domain experts, and go-to-market teams to turn customer needs into shipped product.
Raise the engineering bar through strong technical judgment, crisp execution, and pragmatic use of AI-assisted development tools.
Identify organizational or technical bottlenecks and help close them, whether by building, debugging, simplifying, or unblocking teams.
Mentor other engineers through hands-on leadership, code reviews, technical direction, and example-setting.
Help shape how Ironclad builds with modern AI systems, including evals, orchestration, prompting, retrieval, and production quality standards.

Benefits

Equity awards (a new hire grant, along with opportunities for additional awards throughout your tenure)
Competitive health and wellness benefits
Commitment to career growth and development
100% health coverage for employees (medical, dental, and vision)
75% coverage for dependents with buy-up plan options available
Market-leading leave policies, including gender-neutral parental leave and compassionate leave
Family forming support through Maven for you and your partner
Paid time off - take the time you need, when you need it
Monthly stipends for wellbeing, hybrid work, and (if applicable) cell phone use
Mental health support through Modern Health, including therapy, coaching, and digital tools
Pre-tax commuter benefits (US Employees)
401(k) plan with Fidelity with employer match (US Employees)
Regular team events to connect, recharge, and have fun