Real Estate Attorney for AI Startup (Legal Engineer)

We’re on a mission to make real estate transactions smarter, faster, and friction‑free. Real estate is the world’s largest asset class, yet the legal processes and tools behind it remain slow, manual, and underinvested. Lawyers must review dense documents line by line and piece together information across silos, all while clients demand faster, more transparent due diligence. That’s where we come in. Orbital Copilot is the AI assistant built exclusively for commercial real estate law. Developed with former practicing real estate lawyers, it accelerates complex due diligence by up to 70% while delivering legal‑grade precision.

Working at Orbital means joining a team that’s reimagining how real estate transactions get done - moving fast, working collaboratively, and giving people the ownership to make a real impact from day one.

Role Overview

Are you excited to shape the future of legal technology? As a Legal Engineer at Orbital, you’ll play a critical role in building our AI‑powered legal assistant, Orbital Copilot - a product designed to transform how real estate law is practiced. Since launching just over a year ago, Orbital Copilot has gained impressive traction by leading the charge in applying Large Language Models (LLMs) to the legal sector. This innovation has positioned us as pioneers in legal AI, while meeting a growing demand across the industry for smarter, faster tools.

You’ll get a chance to:

• Take ownership of automating specific real estate legal workflows—from initial concept to successful implementation.
• Be part of a dynamic team, working in a fast‑paced, collaborative environment made up of Legal, AI and Software Engineers.
• Build domain‑specific knowledge bases and decision trees, translating real‑world legal processes into scalable AI workflows.
• Contribute to the development of templates and automation blueprints for various US real estate scenarios—such as due diligence for acquisitions, lease reviews, title and survey analysis, and beyond.
• Research jurisdiction‑specific nuances in US property law and help design features that align with how attorneys actually work.

Once you’re up and running, you’ll be expected to make meaningful contributions to our products’ success. It’s a challenging role - but highly rewarding - as we work to redefine how real estate transactions are completed across the US and beyond.

What you’ll do

• Translate commercial real estate legal work into structured, repeatable workflows that can be understood by AI systems.
• Break down complex legal tasks (e.g. due diligence, lease analysis, title review) into discrete steps, rules, and decision logic.
• Collaborate with engineers and product teams to design, test, and refine AI‑driven legal features.
• Review and improve AI outputs to ensure legal accuracy, clarity, and usefulness for practising lawyers.
• Help define best‑in‑class legal standards for AI‑assisted real estate work.
• Stay close to how lawyers actually work, ensuring products are grounded in real‑world practice rather than theory.

You should apply if

• You’re a UK‑qualified solicitor (England & Wales and/or Scotland) with experience in commercial real estate, including areas such as acquisitions, disposals, leasing, development, or real estate finance.
• Ideally, you have 5+ years PQE, but we’re very open to strong candidates with less experience who show the right mindset.
• You can deconstruct legal work into clear, logical steps that could be followed by a machine or automated process.
• You’re highly tech‑literate, curious, and comfortable learning new tools quickly.
• You’re genuinely interested in AI, large language models, and LegalTech, and how they can be applied to improve legal practice.
• You may not have done a role like this before (almost no one has!) — but you’re analytical, adaptable, and excited by building something new.

It would also be nice if

• You’re dual‑qualified (e.g. England & Wales and another jurisdiction), or qualified in Scots law.
• You’ve worked with LegalTech tools within a law firm or in‑house team, particularly those involving automation or AI.
• You’ve managed or supported teams using new technology in legal workflows.
• You’ve experimented with programming, no‑code tools, integrations, APIs, or complex SaaS products, whether professionally or as a hobby.
• You enjoy sitting at the intersection of law, technology, and product design.

Benefits:

• Competitive starting salary
• Matched pension contributions
• Flexible working hours and location
• 25 days paid holiday (plus bank holidays)
• Professional equipment and personal development budget along with training opportunities to learn and develop your skills
• Cycle‑to‑work scheme
• An inclusive community enjoying all‑company off‑sites, lunches and socials

Security is everyone’s responsibility at Orbital. We ask all team members to follow our security policies, complete regular awareness training, and handle sensitive data with care in line with ISO 27001 standards. Spot something unusual? Reporting risks or incidents quickly helps us maintain the strong culture of security and compliance we all depend on.

At Orbital, we’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We especially welcome applications from people who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. Even if you don’t meet every single requirement, or if the right role isn’t listed yet, we’d still love to hear from you.

This hiring range is a reasonable estimate of the base pay range for this position at the time of posting. Pay is based on several factors, which may include job‑related knowledge, skills, experience, and business requirements.