Draftwise Deploys Legal Ontology with Top Law Firms and Expands Global Hiring
In late 2026, Draftwise launched Ontonomi, a legal ontology platform designed to structure law firms' internal intelligence, deal histories, and negotiated positions. In October 2026, global law firm Jones Day partnered with the company to deploy Ontonomi across its platform of 2,500 lawyers, as reported by Yahoo Finance. That partnership followed a September 2026 deployment with Ropes & Gray, which implemented the ontology platform within its private funds practice.
Founded in 2020 by former Palantir engineers and a corporate attorney, Draftwise builds AI software for contract drafting, review, and negotiation. Its platform operates inside Microsoft Word, integrating a firm's document management systems and internal knowledge repositories to give transactional lawyers access to precedent clauses and deal data during drafting. Its core offerings include Smart Draft for clause recommendations, Markup for contract analysis and redlining, Playbook Studio for automated negotiation guidelines, and Ontonomi for relational modeling of deal decisions, obligations, and client histories.
Leadership and Architecture
The founding team includes Chief Executive Officer James Ding, Chief Technology Officer Emre Ozen, and Chief Strategy Officer Ozan Yalti. James Ding holds a computer science degree from Emory University and previously built software systems at Palantir. Emre Ozen completed a master's degree in computer science at Columbia Business School and a bachelor's at Georgetown University before working on data-intensive systems at Palantir. Ozan Yalti holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a bachelor's degree in economics from Yale University.
On the technology side, the platform relies on React, TypeScript, Redux, PostgreSQL, Java, and Elasticsearch, drawing on retrieval-augmented generation models and reasoning engines to process internal contract repositories.
Growth and Institutional Adoption
Backed by Y Combinator (S20 batch), Draftwise raised a $20 million Series A funding round in March 2024 led by Index Ventures, with participation from Earlybird Digital East Ventures and Y Combinator, as reported by Canadian Lawyer. The company has expanded operations across North America, Europe, and Asia, securing deployments with firms such as Gunderson Dettmer, Womble Bond Dickinson, and Orrick.
Open Engineering and Go-to-Market Roles
To support new law firm deployments and platform expansion, Draftwise is recruiting technical and deployment specialists. Open engineering positions include on-site forward-deployed backend roles such as a Forward Deployed AI Engineer, Backend - New York in New York City and a Forward Deployed AI Engineer, Backend - West Palm Beach in West Palm Beach. The core software team is also adding a remote Senior Back End Software Engineer (US).
On the client execution side, the company is hiring a Deployment Strategist - London in London and a Deployment Strategist - New York in New York City. Sales roles include a remote Account Executive and an on-site Enterprise Account Executive in New York.
Current Openings
| Role | Location | Work Mode | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deployment Strategist - London | London, United Kingdom | Onsite | $110,000 - $150,000 |
| Deployment Strategist - New York | New York City, NY | Onsite | $150,000 - $190,000 |
| Forward Deployed AI Engineer, Backend - West Palm Beach | West Palm Beach, FL | Onsite | $115,000 - $155,000 |
| Forward Deployed AI Engineer, Backend - New York | New York City, NY | Onsite | $135,000 - $175,000 |
| Senior Back End Software Engineer (US) | New York, NY, US / Remote (US) | Remote | $140,000 - $190,000 |
| Legal Product Specialist (US) | New York, NY, US / Remote (US) | Remote | $130,000 - $160,000 |
| Account Executive | New York, NY / Chicago, IL / San Francisco, CA / Remote | Remote | $215,000 - $275,000 |
| Senior Customer Success Manager | New York, NY / Chicago, IL / Toronto, ON / Remote (US) | Remote | $150,000 - $190,000 |
| Business Development Representative - NYC | New York, NY, US | Onsite | $80,000 - $90,000 |
| Enterprise Account Executive | New York, NY, US | Onsite | $300,000 |