Director, Engineering - AI at Ironclad in San Francisco, CA

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 http://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. About the Role Ironclad is doubling down on AI to change how legal teams create, understand, and act on contracts. As Director of Intelligence Platform, you’ll lead the core AI capabilities behind our next generation of products—contract extraction and understanding, search and retrieval, agent frameworks and orchestration, and Ironclad Assistant. Your team owns the shared intelligence layer that powers every AI experience at Ironclad, enabling product teams to move faster with higher quality and consistency. You’ll define strategy, architecture, and execution for these foundational systems, then work hands-on with teams to turn them into durable product advantage: deeper contract understanding, more powerful search, trustworthy agentic workflows, and an assistant that helps customers move faster and make better decisions. This is a high-impact, highly visible role at the intersection of AI platform, applied ML, product engineering, and customer experience—ideal for a hands-on technical leader who wants to pair deep technical engagement with organizational leadership. What You’ll Be Doing - Lead the strategy, roadmap, and execution for Ironclad’s Intelligence Platform, spanning: - contract extraction and understanding - search and retrieval - agent framework and orchestration - Ironclad Assistant - Define and evolve the architecture for reusable AI capabilities used across multiple product areas. - Partner with engineers on system design and technical direction, especially in ambiguous or high-leverage areas. - Contribute hands-on through prototyping, technical exploration, and selective production implementation. - Build and scale a high-performing team of engineers and technical leaders across AI platform and product domains. - Guide product and platform decisions to improve quality, reliability, latency, observability, security, and cost for AI-powered experiences. - Partner with Product, Design, Legal, Infrastructure, and other Engineering teams to translate customer needs into differentiated AI capabilities and products. - Establish strong quality bars for AI systems, including evaluation, experimentation, telemetry, and feedback loops. - Guide the evolution of Ironclad Assistant as a flagship AI product while ensuring its underlying capabilities are reusable across the platform. - Help the company make thoughtful technical and product tradeoffs across LLMs, retrieval, agents, structured contract understanding, and workflow integration. - Turn one-off solutions into shared platform capabilities, tools, and patterns that create leverage for other teams. - Develop an effective team structure, ownership model, and execution cadence that enables rapid progress without sacrificing technical excellence. About You - You have deep experience building and scaling AI-powered products or platforms in production, ideally in complex, high-stakes domains (e.g., legaltech, enterprise SaaS, fintech, healthcare). - You are a hands-on technical leader who stays close to architecture, design reviews, prototyping, and coding when it helps the team move faster. - You have strong architectural instincts and design systems that are practical, extensible, reliable, and aligned with business and customer needs. - You’ve led teams working in several of the following areas: - LLM- or ML-powered product systems - search, retrieval, and ranking - information extraction or document understanding - agentic workflows or orchestration frameworks - evaluation, experimentation, and model quality systems - production-grade backend, distributed systems, or AI infrastructure - You bring strong product judgment and connect technical decisions directly to differentiated customer value. - You are an excellent cross-functional partner who can align engineering, product, and business stakeholders around a clear vision and execution plan. - You know how to hire, develop, and empower strong engineers and technical leaders, and you have a track record of delivering through ambiguity and shaping strategy in fast-moving technical areas. - Experience shipping customer-facing AI assistants, copilots, or agentic products and familiarity with LLM/agent evaluation systems (including human-in-the-loop and telemetry-driven feedback loops) are strong pluses. What Will Make You Successful in This Role - You balance long-term platform thinking with disciplined short-term execution. - You move fluidly between technical depth, product outcomes, and team leadership. - You are energized by building foundational systems that unlock leverage for many teams. - You are comfortable rolling up your sleeves to accelerate critical work, especially in the early stages of new initiatives. - You care deeply about quality, speed, and building AI systems customers can trust. What We Value - Hands-on technical leadership - Ownership mindset with strong product and architectural judgment - Bias for action and high standards for execution - Ability to simplify complex systems and create leverage for others - Strong cross-functional collaboration and low-ego leadership - Comfort in fast-paced, iterative environments - Passion for building AI products that solve real customer problems 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.