www.clearygottlieb.com

Junior Software Engineer

We build agentic AI workflows, automation systems, and legal intelligence tooling that lawyers use in real work.

We move quickly, collaborate closely, and value autonomy, clarity, and thoughtful engineering. Our AI systems extract intelligence from complex legal documents, index the data and automate document editing, leveraging world-class expertise accumulated at Cleary.

We are looking for a Junior Software Engineer who will build bespoke enterprise-grade AI solutions based on a modern web application stack. We are seeking a backend-leaning full-stack engineer with strong Python skills (TypeScript is a plus).

The team operates on a 4-day workweek, as you get up to speed you will be expected to use the remaining day for independent study. Your mentors will point you to the most useful study areas based on your ongoing work and our team skills matrix.

About the team:

This is an internal development team within Cleary that creates bespoke AI solutions for the firm utilizing our software development and data science capabilities. You will be joining the Software Development team, working on productionising and deploying the solutions.

We are a tight-knit team that values ownership, honesty, and curiosity. We work across disciplines - engineering, data science, legal, and product - to deliver meaningful impact.

Our team is 100% remote and has a strong remote-first culture that enables everyone to feel like one team and contribute meaningfully to team decisions and activities.

Main Responsibilities:

As a Junior Software Engineer, you will:

  • Go through a structured, 90-day onboarding schedule, with a senior mentor available for architecture discussions, code review, and career guidance
  • Develop, and maintain enterprise-grade AI-powered applications and services
  • Build and iterate on full-stack solutions, building your knowledge of frontend, backend, databases and infrastructure
  • Use approved tooling and follow security protocols to protect sensitive information processed by our applications and workstreams
  • Receive code review, peer programming time and mentoring from senior members of the team, helping you build sound engineering judgement
  • Contribute to technical design decisions and architecture discussions, especially turning prototypes and ad-hoc processes into robust software applications

Skills and Experience:

  • Python – You have built and deployed or released code with Python specifically. Coursework does not count. Familiarity with FastAPI, pydantic or other web frameworks is a plus
  • Git – you know how to version your code and submit a pull request on GitHub
  • Project experience - a personal or professional project where you are a core software contributor, at least for a few months (excluding coursework)
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Organised and self-motivated
  • A strong desire and focus on continued improvements and personal development

Desirable Experience:

  • STEM Undergraduate degree: you have built robust reasoning skills and got comfortable quickly building mental models of complicated systems. Ideally, you took courses in data structures, algorithmics, machine learning etc. (self-taught candidates will be considered)
  • Frontend Coding (React Typescript): Production-grade software development experience in TypeScript or JavaScript is ideal
  • Some deployment experience: you have built a CI pipeline or contributed to an app that continues running while you sleep
  • Databases: Familiarity with databases (we primarily use PostgreSQL)
  • LLM Exposure: you understand how an LLM API can be used to automate tasks within an application, especially in context of information retrieval and agents
  • AI Code Assistants: You can make prudent judgements on when generating code with AI is appropriate and to be able to assess code quality quickly.

Additional Information

  • Fully remote within the UK, with occasional travel to a Cleary London office for events
  • Four-day working week, with no reduction in salary; fifth day for independent study
  • Salary of £40,000 to £50,000 per annum  (dependent on experience)

If you meet some — not all — of the above criteria, we still encourage you to apply. We value learning ability, adaptability, and thoughtful engineering judgment above box-ticking.

If you are interested in applying, please submit a CV and short cover letter to the London Human Resources Team, LON-HR@cgsh.com.