Principal Software Engineer - AI

Role overview

NetDocuments is seeking a Principal Software Engineer (AI) to lead the design and development of AI-powered solutions for legal professionals. This is a hands-on technical leadership role where you drive architecture, guide engineering teams, and partner with Product and Design to deliver scalable, high-quality applications.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical strategy & architecture
  • Define and drive the technical direction for AI-enabled products and platform capabilities.
  • Design scalable, high-performance architectures and document them clearly (diagrams/specs).
  • Break down complex systems into maintainable components with long-term scalability and reliability.
  • Partner with senior engineers to design and build robust distributed systems.
• Build & deliver high-quality solutions (≈70% hands-on)
  • Contribute directly to the codebase by building full-stack applications in production.
  • Develop and integrate AI-driven capabilities using leading AI providers.
  • Ensure performance, reliability, and quality via testing, monitoring, and optimization.
  • Implement and maintain APIs using REST and GraphQL.
• Drive innovation & technical excellence
  • Research, evaluate, and prototype new technologies through proof-of-concepts.
  • Stay current with emerging AI and cloud-native development practices.
  • Improve performance, observability, and operational health with logging, telemetry, and proactive monitoring.
• Mentor & collaborate
  • Mentor engineers and support technical growth and successful delivery.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with Product and Design.

Requirements

• Significant technical depth to own AI solution direction, architecture, and distributed system design.
• Ability to operate as a technical leader while contributing hands-on to implementation.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience integrating AI capabilities with AI providers.
• Strong practices around testing, monitoring/observability, and operational excellence.