Founding Principal Architect

Founding Principal Architect

Location: Remote (U.S.-based) – NYC strongly preferred (4 days/week in-office)

Position Type: Full-Time (Permanent)

Work Policy: Hybrid, Remote, or In-Office (U.S. only)

Start Timeline: ASAP

Sponsorship: H1B Transfer

Compensation

• Base Salary: $0 – $250,000 (based on interview performance, level, and location)
• Equity: Competitive early-stage equity

About

A Sequoia-backed legal AI startup building an intelligent platform to automate and streamline how in-house legal teams operate. The product serves as a legal intake and workflow automation hub, enabling redlining, Q&A, and document generation through customizable AI agents.

• Founded: 2025
• Stage: Seed (Raised $3M)
• Traction: Active customers and ~10 design partners
• Public Launch: Fall 2025

Why join

• Founding-level opportunity to define architecture, engineering culture, and technical strategy
• Work directly with experienced, legal-focused engineering founders
• Ownership over both backend and infrastructure as the company scales
• Clear leadership path into Head of SWE or CTO
• Competitive salary, equity, and up to $10K relocation assistance
• High-impact role at the center of legaltech + AI innovation

Tech environment

• Languages: JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js
• Frameworks: React
• Backend: Postgres
• Cloud: GCP
• Infrastructure: DevOps, CI/CD, system design, production reliability
• Focus Areas: Backend architecture, integration, document-heavy workflows, internal scaling systems

Role summary

Greyball.ai is hiring a Founding Engineer & Principal Architect to lead full-system architecture and technical execution. You’ll be responsible for scaling core infrastructure and backend systems using modern tools (Node.js, React, GCP, Postgres). In this hands-on leadership role, you’ll own critical decisions across the stack, build key product features end-to-end, and help recruit and mentor early engineering hires. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys working across systems, and wants to shape the engineering foundation of a high-ownership, early-stage AI startup.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture and scaling of backend infrastructure and application integrations
• Design and implement full-stack features alongside legal domain experts and founders
• Lead and enforce engineering best practices across CI/CD, security, and code reviews
• Collaborate on product roadmap, technical strategy, and early team growth
• Make high-leverage decisions on performance, scalability, and maintainability
• Guide DevOps workflows and help establish robust operational infrastructure
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers as team grows

Must-have qualifications

• 5–10 years of professional software engineering experience
• Proven end-to-end product delivery and/or technical team leadership
• Deep expertise in:
• Node.js, React, TypeScript, Postgres, and GCP
• Experience designing and scaling complex backend systems
• Familiarity with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, and production system reliability
• Strong communication skills and ownership mentality
• Comfortable making high-stakes technical decisions in a fast-paced startup

Preferred qualifications

• Early-stage startup or hyper-growth company experience
• Legal-tech, reg-tech, or other compliance-driven domain exposure
• Familiarity with enterprise security standards (e.g., OAuth, SOC 2, GDPR)