Director of Applied Research

Job Description: Director of Applied Research, Information RetrievalThomson Reuters Labs About Thomson Reuters LabsWe experiment, build and deliver. Thomson Reuters Labs work across all business segments to discover what new products, services, and AI-driven solutions we can create for our customers. With access to over 60,000 TBs of legal, regulatory, news, and tax data, we are building the next generation of AI-powered knowledge systems that transform how professionals access, discover, and act on information.You will join the global labs leadership team as a key leader shaping the technical vision and culture of Thomson Reuters' IR and AI research initiatives.Key Responsibilities:As Director of Applied Research, you will define and drive the technical vision for AI-powered search, discovery, and knowledge systems that unlock value from Thomson Reuters' unique data assets. You will combine strategic leadership with hands-on technical depth, building a world-class team while directly contributing to cutting-edge IR research and production-grade solutions.Key ResponsibilitiesDefine Technical Vision & StrategySet the strategic direction for Information Retrieval research and innovation at Thomson Reuters, positioning TR as a leader in retrieval-based AIEstablish the technical direction for retrieval, ranking, semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agentic retrieval system capabilitiesDesign and optimize retrieval architectures leveraging embeddings, reranking, hybrid search, knowledge graphs, and contextual retrieval techniquesBuild evaluation frameworks and benchmarks for search quality, relevance, answer quality, and real-world business impactContribute to the global TR Labs engineering strategy and methodology through adoption of emerging AI/ML technologies and industry best practicesBuild & Lead a High-Performing TeamHire, train, and manage a highly skilled team with expertise across cloud engineering, machine learning engineering, data engineering, and AI researchMentor scientists and engineers while establishing best practices for production AI development and deploymentFoster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning across the global labs organizationDevelop team members' technical depth in information retrieval, NLP, generative AI, and large-scale AI systemsDrive Production AI SolutionsLead development of enterprise-grade retrieval, ranking, NLP, and knowledge-based AI solutions that integrate with Thomson Reuters productsPartner closely with Product and Engineering teams to translate customer needs and domain-specific challenges into scalable AI applicationsEstablish robust channels between Labs research and product technology organizations, enabling effective transfer of innovation to production systemsApply modern development practices across the entire software development lifecycle—from experimentation to deployment to operational excellenceDemonstrate proficiency in automation, system monitoring, MLOps, and cloud-native AI applications on AWS, Azure, or equivalent platformsDrive Strategy & Business ImpactProactively identify opportunities where Labs can improve the status quo or generate new business value through AI/ML innovationInfluence the global project portfolio and investment decisions with your expertise in applied AI and domain knowledgeProvide strategic input to product and modernization roadmaps, particularly in identifying and articulating AI-driven opportunitiesTranslate complex customer problems in legal, tax, news, and corporate domains into successful AI solutionsContinuously question why something needs to be done and for whom, maintaining a strong customer-centric mindsetBe a Trusted AdvisorActively engage across cross-functional teams, sharing knowledge, valuing diverse ideas, and building relationships with technology and product leadersCommunicate effectively—translating between research and engineering methodologies and languagesSecure alignment and clear paths to market for AI-powered initiativesRequired Qualifications:You are a recognized AI leader with deep expertise in Information Retrieval, Search, Natural Language Processing, and Generative AI. You have a proven track record of turning cutting-edge research into production solutions that deliver measurable customer value, and you bring the rare combination of technical depth, engineering excellence, and strategic business acumen.Core QualificationsEducation & ExperiencePhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, or a closely related field8+ years of industry experience building and deploying production AI systems at scaleProven track record of successfully taking machine learning and AI solutions from research to production-grade software with measurable business impactA strong publication record in leading venues such as SIGIR, NeurIPS, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, KDD, or comparable conferencesLeadership & Team BuildingDemonstrated ability to build, mentor, and manage high-performing teams of engineers and scientistsExperience leading cross-functional initiatives and influencing technical strategy across research, engineering, and product organizationsAn entrepreneurial mindset with confidence in making independent decisions and driving initiatives forwardExceptional communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skillsTechnical ExpertiseYou bring deep hands-on experience in several of the following areas:Information Retrieval & Search: Semantic search, ranking algorithms, retrieval optimization, search relevance, and evaluation methodologiesRetrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Design and optimization of RAG systems, grounding techniques, and answer quality assuranceAgentic Retrieval Systems: Tool-using retrieval agents, multi-step reasoning for search, and autonomous information discoveryNatural Language Processing: Core NLP tasks including Named Entity Recognition (NER), Information Extraction, question answering, and advanced language understandingLarge Language Models & Generative AI: Prompt engineering, fine-tuning, model evaluation, and production deployment of LLM-based applicationsKnowledge Graphs & Knowledge Systems: Design, construction, and leveraging of knowledge graphs for AI applicationsProduction AI Development: Hands-on experience with Python, PyTorch, Hugging Face, and modern MLOps practicesCloud-Native AI: Proficiency in AWS, Azure, or equivalent cloud platforms for deploying and operating AI solutions at scaleEmerging Technologies: A demonstrated desire to learn and embrace new and emerging technologies in the AI/ML landscapeIdeal Candidate ProfileYou understand and can translate between research and engineering languages and methodologiesYou bring a strong product mindset and understand how to translate complex customer problems into successful solutionsYou have a fundamental understanding of the SDLC and hands-on experience in programming languages such as Python, Java, TypeScript, or JavaScriptYou are comfortable with ambiguity, creative in redirecting when reaching dead ends, and embrace continuous evolution of your skillsYou thrive in diverse, agile, and interdisciplinary environments with a strong sense of urgencyPreferred QualificationsExperience building enterprise search, discovery, or research-assistance platformsExperience within Legal, Tax & Accounting, Risk, Financial Services, or other complex professional domainsExperience with hybrid search, vector databases, recommendation systems, and large-scale retrieval platformsExperience deploying and operating AI solutions using Azure ML, Azure AI Foundry, AWS SageMaker, or similar cloud platformsExperience leading large-scale AI initiatives and building diverse, geographically distributed teamsFamiliarity with MLOps frameworks, containerization, and modern DevOps practices for AI systems#LI-SM2What’s in it For You?Flexibility & Work-Life Balance: Flex My Way is a set of supportive workplace policies designed to help manage personal and professional responsibilities, whether caring for family, giving back to the community, or finding time to refresh and reset. This builds upon our flexible work arrangements, including work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year, empowering employees to achieve a better work-life balance.Career Development and Growth: By fostering a culture of continuous learning and skill development, we prepare our talent to tackle tomorrow’s challenges and deliver real-world solutions. Our Grow My Way programming and skills-first approach ensures you have the tools and knowledge to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.Industry Competitive Benefits: We offer comprehensive benefit plans to include flexible vacation, two company-wide Mental Health Days off, access to the Headspace app, retirement savings, tuition reimbursement, employee incentive programs, and resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.Culture: Globally recognized, award-winning reputation for inclusion and belonging, flexibility, work-life balance, and more. We live by our values: Obsess over our Customers, Compete to Win, Challenge (Y)our Thinking, Act Fast / Learn Fast, and Stronger Together.Social Impact: Make an impact in your community with our Social Impact Institute. We offer employees two paid volunteer days off annually and opportunities to get involved with pro-bono consulting projects and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.Making a Real-World Impact: We are one of the few companies globally that helps its customers pursue justice, truth, and transparency. Together, with the professionals and institutions we serve, we help uphold the rule of law, turn the wheels of commerce, catch bad actors, report the facts, and provide trusted, unbiased information to people all over the world.In the United States, Thomson Reuters offers a comprehensive benefits package to our employees. Our benefit package includes market competitive health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance programs, as well as a competitive 401k plan with company match. In addition, Thomson Reuters offers market leading work life benefits with competitive vacation, sick and safe paid time off, paid holidays (including two company mental health days off), parental leave, sabbatical leave. These benefits meet or exceeds the requirements of paid time off in accordance with any applicable state or municipal laws. Finally, Thomson Reuters offers the following additional benefits: optional hospital, accident and sickness insurance paid 100% by the employee; optional life and AD&D insurance paid 100% by the employee; Flexible Spending and Health Savings Accounts; fitness reimbursement; access to Employee Assistance Program; Group Legal Identity Theft Protection benefit paid 100% by employee; access to 529 Plan; commuter benefits; Adoption & Surrogacy Assistance; Tuition Reimbursement; and access to Employee Stock Purchase Plan.Thomson Reuters complies with local laws that require upfront disclosure of the expected pay range for a position. The base compensation range varies across locations. For any eligible US locations, unless otherwise noted, the base compensation range for this role is $198,200 USD - $368,000 USD. Base pay is positioned within the range based on several factors including an individual’s knowledge, skills and experience with consideration given to internal equity. Base pay is one part of a comprehensive Total Reward program which also includes flexible and supportive benefits and other wellbeing programs. This role may also be eligible for an Annual Bonus based on a combination of enterprise and individual performance. This job posting will close 01/31/2027.About UsThomson Reuters informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. We serve professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Our products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world leading provider of trusted journalism and news.We are powered by the talents of 26,000 employees across more than 70 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness, and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.As a global business, we rely on the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of all employees to deliver on our business goals. To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our operations around the world regardless of race, color, sex/gender, including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, citizen status, veteran status, or any other protected classification under applicable law. Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer providing a drug-free workplace.We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law. More information on requesting an accommodation here.Learn more on how to protect yourself from fraudulent job postings here.More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.comSummaryLocation: United States of America, New York, New YorkType: Full time