Founding Forward-Deployed Engineer

Job description

ABOUT US Sandstone is on a mission to elevate in-house legal from a support function into a true strategic partner. From day one, we’ve been clear about what we are—and are not. We are not replacing in-house legal teams. We are building a platform that amplifies them. Our platform enables modern legal teams to move at the speed of AI, deliver better outcomes, and create measurable business value. We unify legal data, power end-to-end workflows, and organize business context within the tools teams already use. Sandstone is the home for AI-native legal departments. Today, Sandstone is trusted by Fortune 500 companies and fast-growing innovators alike. We ship quickly, iterate relentlessly, and scale with intention. When you join Sandstone, you become part of a team that believes deeply in the compounding power of collaboration, rigorous problem-solving, and obsessive attention to detail. Our engineering team is elite, our lawyers ship code every day, and we are dedicated to building the most delightful product an in-house lawyer opens in the morning—and closes at the end of the day. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re seeking Founding Forward-Deployed Engineers (FDE) to serve as the technical face of Sandstone for a cohort of in-house legal teams post-sale, owning engagements from onboarding through adoption, expansion, and renewal. Our FDEs are fully ambidextrous: they sit on our Post-Sales team and they also meet or exceed the technical caliber of our core software engineers. Our Post-Sales team is relentlessly focused on customer outcomes, while our core engineers are relentlessly focused on executing the product roadmap. Sometimes those are the same thing - in a perfect world, our product roadmap would always be seamlessly aligned with what is needed for customer success. The reality is that often the two are not perfectly aligned, however. Discerning and navigating the difference - in real time on a customer call - is the essence of success in this role. This is not a sales role. This is a systems and outcomes role — owning how Client readiness translates into strong adoption, retention, and expansion. You'll be a builder: designing programs, defining standards, and working directly with in-house legal teams to ensure early success and long-term scale. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Build software end to end that enables the success of our largest customers - understanding customer pain points, scoping product specs, and delivering high-quality solutions. - Own a portfolio of accounts, establishing a strong foundation for long-term adoption and clear, measurable client outcomes from day one. - Drive sustained product adoption through structured enablement programs, tailored success plans, regular engagement, and proactive usage optimization. - Act as a trusted strategic advisor to legal and operational leaders—aligning Sandstone to client goals, uncovering new use cases, and helping teams re-imagine how legal work gets done. - Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Legal Engineering, and Marketing to translate customer feedback into actionable insights that shape our roadmap, messaging, and go-to-market strategy. - Design, refine, and operationalize Sandstone's engagement playbook at scale. We’re building this machine together—your ideas and execution won’t just be welcomed, they’ll be expected. WHAT YOU BRING - You bring 4+ years of experience as an Forward Deployed Engineer, Full Stack Engineer, or a related role within a high-growth B2B SaaS environment, ideally in LegalTech. Alternatively, you'll bring nuanced, high ownership experience as a technical founder of your own startup. - You have a demonstrated track record of entrepreneurship or of success in an unstructured environment - you’re hungry, low ego, and generative. - You have the empathy to understand what a customer is feeling and the emotional intelligence to know how to interact smoothly with them. - You’re comfortable owning senior stakeholder relationships, driving adoption, and delivering commercial outcomes in a fast-moving setting. - As a bonus, you come from the world of law—but you’ve never been content with how things have always been done. WORKING AT SANDSTONE: BENEFITS & PERKS - Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance; 401K - 12 weeks paid parental leave - Flexible time off (20+ days PTO) - Annual learning & development stipend - Technology stipend, including unlimited spend on AI tooling - Daily lunch for in-office team members At Sandstone, we value high ownership, flexibility, and curiosity. You'll have an outsized impact, work closely with ambitious colleagues, and help transform how legal teams work for the modern age.