Principal Engineer

Ironclad is the leading AI contracting platform that transforms agreements into assets. Contracts move faster, insights surface instantly, and agents push work forward, all with you in control. Whether you’re buying or selling, Ironclad unifies the entire process on one intelligent platform, providing leaders with the visibility they need to stay one step ahead. That’s why the world’s most transformative organizations, from Rivian to the World Health Organization and the Associated Press, trust Ironclad to accelerate their business.

We’re consistently recognized as a leader in the industry: a Leader in the Forrester Wave and Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contract Lifecycle Management, a Fortune Great Place to Work, and one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Workplaces. Ironclad has also been named to Forbes’ AI 50 and Business Insider’s list of Companies to Bet Your Career On. We’re backed by leading investors including Accel, Y Combinator, Sequoia, BOND, and Franklin Templeton. For more information, visit www.ironcladapp.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

This is a hybrid role. Office attendance is required at least twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for collaboration and connection. There may be additional in-office days for team or company events.

Engineering @ Ironclad

As a Principal Engineer at Ironclad, you’ll work cross-functionally to identify business problems and architect, build, and verify solutions. You’ll architect and evolve a platform that lets lawyers scale themselves and their businesses 100x more effectively, with AI at the core. At Ironclad, we’ve built a product that brings a two thousand year old profession into the digital age, and you’ll play a pivotal role in driving the foundation forward by building the next wave of AI-powered contract intelligence features and the platform capabilities that support them.

We seek an experienced principal engineer with strong coding fundamentals, deep platform architecture experience, and a track record of shipping high quality AI-powered products. We work in a highly collaborative environment, and strive to foster a positive, inclusive culture and offer remote work flexibility. If you’d like to join us on our mission to build the product that legal teams love, let’s talk!

What you’ll do:

• Collaborate cross functionally with product managers, designers, and other engineers to spec, design, architect and build features and systems.

• Own and evolve core platform architecture (service boundaries, data models, multi-tenant scale, reliability) to support AI capabilities safely and efficiently across our product surface area.

• Partner with quality engineers to define, build and maintain testing strategy.

• Lead technical discussions, mentor and provide thoughtful feedback to other engineers on the team.

• Grow the team by interviewing and recruiting talented engineers to Ironclad.

• Work on a modern stack built upon: TypeScript, ReactJS, Node.js, Java, and Docker containers in Kubernetes on Google Cloud Platform (experience with these specific technologies not required).

• Build AI solutions and apply AI tools and features (e.g., LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, semantic search, and classification) to power the future of contract intelligence.

• Drive end-to-end delivery of AI-powered product experiences, from problem definition and experimentation to reliable, scalable production systems.

What we look for:

• At least 10+ years of software experience architecting, building, launching and maintaining complex systems (a formal degree is not required, we are prioritizing industry experience).

• Experience operating at a Principal, with a track record of driving technical strategy and architectural evolution across entire organizations.

• Demonstrated leadership across teams and a drive towards improving overall technical architecture and achieving company-wide goals.

• Deep experience designing and evolving large-scale, distributed SaaS or platform architectures (e.g., multi-tenant systems, event-driven systems, or data platforms).

• Passion for software engineering to build and ship great product.

• Experience in building AI applications and shipping AI-powered product features to production (ideally including LLM integration, retrieval, experimentation, and measurement).

• Hands-on experience shipping valuable products to production with real user feedback.

• A high bar for quality.

• Strong cross-team communication and collaboration skills.

• Alignment with Ironclad’s values: drive, intent, integrity, and empathy.

Base Salary Range: $285,000 – $315,000

The base salary range represents the minimum and maximum of the salary range for this position based at our San Francisco headquarters. The actual base salary offered for this position will depend on numerous factors, including individual proficiency, anticipated performance, and the location of the selected candidate. Our base salary is just one component of Ironclad’s competitive total rewards package, which also includes equity awards (a new hire grant, along with opportunities for additional awards throughout your tenure), competitive health and wellness benefits, and a commitment to career growth and development.

US Full-Time Employee Benefits at Ironclad:

• 100% health coverage for employees (medical, dental, and vision), and 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

• And most importantly: the opportunity to help build the company you want to work at

**UK Employee-specific benefits are included on our UK job postings

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.