Backend Engineer (AI/ Legal Tech)

Saga is a legal innovation company on a mission to remove the friction between legal expertise and real-world impact, so lawyers can focus on what matters the most: people, ethics, and impact. Founded in Norway and built for the legal profession from day one, we integrate with local legal sources across jurisdictions and are currently available in 12 languages. In just 18 months, we've grown to 70+ employees and 5,000+ users across 20+ countries - with market leadership in Norway and the Netherlands, and active expansion across Europe. We believe technology shouldn't replace legal reasoning, but strengthen it - so the law can work as it's meant to: aligned, accountable, and capable of delivering justice for everyone.

Your role as Backend Engineer

As a Backend Engineer, you will design and build the systems that power AI-driven legal workflows. You'll own backend services end-to-end, from TypeScript/Node.js REST APIs and data models to deployment and ongoing operation. Working closely with engineering, legal, and product teams, you'll develop scalable features including document processing, semantic search, vector search, and RAG-based capabilities powered by LLMs from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. You'll help shape technical architecture while balancing innovation with practical improvements to existing systems. Success in this role comes from delivering reliable, secure, and maintainable systems that create measurable impact for customers.

What you'll be doing

• Design, build, and maintain backend services, REST APIs, and data models using TypeScript and Node.js
• Develop document ingestion, processing, semantic search, vector search, and RAG-based systems leveraging LLMs from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google
• Build and operate asynchronous processing pipelines, background workers, and long-running jobs
• Improve performance, reliability, scalability, and security across distributed, multi-tenant systems and databases
• Collaborate with engineering, legal, and product teams to deliver customer-facing features and contribute to architectural decisions
• Monitor, maintain, and continuously improve production systems and platform capabilities

What you bring to our team

• 3+ years of professional backend engineering experience with TypeScript and Node.js
• Strong understanding of APIs, databases, distributed systems, and backend architecture
• Experience designing and implementing solutions within existing production codebases
• Experience operating and supporting backend services in production environments
• A strong ownership mindset with a focus on reliability, maintainability, and continuous improvement
• Clear written and verbal English communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across teams

Why join Saga Legal

Saga is a fast-growing legal innovation company on a mission to remove the friction between legal expertise and real-world impact - and we're just getting started. We're a team of lawyers, engineers, and builders spread across multiple countries and continents, bringing a genuinely international perspective to everything we do. If you thrive in a flat, high-ownership environment where you're building from the ground up and the pace is real, this is the place for you. We also offer:

• A salary package between €3,000–€5,000 gross per month (all-inclusive, based on a 40-hour work week), with the amount depending on experience and skill set
• A chance to build the learning foundation for one of Europe's fastest-growing AI companies serving clients globally
• Autonomy to build and experiment, with direct impact on company strategy and client success
• An international team that moves fast, thinks clearly, and builds with care

If all this sounds like your kind of challenge, we’d love to hear from you.