Senior Manager, Software Engineering -Search Platform

Overview of the Role The Senior Manager, Software Engineering – Search Platform will lead the engineering team that builds, operates, and evolves the shared search platform at ThomsonReuters. The platform powers the company’s search capability across legal, tax, and professional products, providing a managed, self‑service infrastructure that allows internal client teams to configure, deploy, and iterate on production search systems in days rather than months. Responsibilities Platform & Technical Leadership – Own the end‑to‑end platform engineering roadmap, spanning document ingestion, search engine management, query APIs, control‑plane APIs, and the cloud infrastructure that ties them together; balance new capability delivery with reliability and technical debt management. Drive API‑first, self‑service architectural thinking – every capability must be accessible via a clean, versioned, well‑documented API to enable internal teams to configure and operate search systems without direct platform support. Lead migration from current infrastructure to the platform’s strategic search engine (Vespa), maintaining zero‑downtime production operations during transition. Champion full‑stack operational ownership – establish on‑call rotations, incident response practices, SLO definitions, and reliability engineering as core team responsibilities. Build a team culture that embraces AI‑assisted development, identifies and eliminates delivery friction, and relentlessly pushes for constant production shipping. Collaborate with TR Labs to integrate new retrieval techniques, embedding models, re‑ranking approaches, and agentic search patterns into the platform, ensuring proper latency SLOs, versioning, and rollback capability. Oversee platform infrastructure, including event streaming (Kafka/MSK), AWS cloud services, observability tooling, and security controls such as multi‑tenant data isolation and customer‑controlled encryption. Team Management – Build and lead a team of ~10 engineers (Staff and Senior levels), managing hiring, onboarding, performance, and professional development with a focus on deep technical ownership. Develop engineers with a strong sense of distributed systems, search domain expertise, and operational responsibility; foster empowered ownership. Translate complex platform concepts to non‑technical stakeholders; balance platform responsibilities with direct search solution delivery for CoCounsel’s highest‑priority use cases. Define and maintain engineering processes that ensure rigorous testing, code review, reliability standards, and continuous evaluation of search quality. Strategic Delivery – Establish platform health and developer‑experience benchmarks (API reliability SLOs, onboarding time‑to‑value, search quality metrics) and drive continuous improvement. Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies with a clear assessment of production‑readiness and operational implications. Collaborate closely with product management, TR Labs, and consuming engineering teams to align the roadmap with business priorities across CoCounsel, Westlaw, and the broader TR product portfolio. About You Ideal candidates possess deep experience leading large‑scale distributed data systems and building shared infrastructure for multiple teams. They have a track record of building high‑velocity engineering teams, managing full‑stack reliability, and embedding AI‑assisted development practices. Required Experience Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field. 8+ years of software engineering experience, with 3+ years in a technical leadership or engineering management role. Proven experience designing and operating large‑scale distributed data systems (event streaming, data pipelines, search/indexing infrastructure). Track record of building shared infrastructure consumed by multiple teams with a product mindset toward developer experience. Experience leading teams with end‑to‑end production ownership – on‑call, SLO management, incident response. Advanced knowledge of distributed systems design, cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), API design, software architecture, and observability. Proficiency in Python and strong software engineering fundamentals. Familiarity with information retrieval or vector/hybrid search concepts. Awareness of AI ethics, governance, and responsible technology deployment. Strong leadership skills, proficiency in agile methodologies, and excellent communication across engineering, product, and science teams. Preferred Experience Hands‑on experience with agents such as Vespa, OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, or Solr. Experience building multi‑tenant platform infrastructure with data isolation and customer‑managed encryption. Background in event‑driven architectures and stream processing (Kafka, MSK). Experience partnering with AI/ML research teams to operationalize retrieval models and re‑ranking systems. What Success Looks Like First 90 Days – Understand current architecture, technical debt, team composition, and gaps in reliability and velocity; build relationships with engineers, TR Labs partners, and client teams; initiate hiring for open roles; address high‑leverage near‑term improvements. First Six Months – Deliver a clear platform engineering roadmap with Vespa migration milestones, API maturity, reliability targets, and team growth; establish operational ownership (on‑call, SLOs, incident playbooks, post‑mortems); demonstrate measurable improvement in delivery velocity and incident reduction. First Year – Lead the team through a major platform milestone such as a Vespa migration phase, a self‑service API release, or equivalent; grow the team into a high‑performing organization with AI‑assisted development embedded; position the search platform as a trusted internal product; provide strategic input on platform direction and develop the next generation of staff‑level engineers. Benefits Hybrid Work Model – Flexible hybrid working environment (2–3 days a week in the office depending on the role). Flexibility & Work‑Life Balance – Flexible work arrangements, work from anywhere up to 8 weeks per year, supportive policies. Career Development and Growth – Continuous learning, skill development, tools for growth, thrive in an AI‑enabled future. Industry Competitive Benefits – Comprehensive plans including vacation, mental health days, Headspace app, retirement savings, tuition reimbursement, employee incentive programs, and resources for mental, physical, and financial well‑being. Social Impact – Two paid volunteer days per year and opportunities to participate in pro‑bono consulting and ESG initiatives. Equal Employment Opportunity ThomsonReuters is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex/gender, religion, disability, or any other protected status; we are committed to recruiting a diverse workforce. Please contact our Human Resources Department if you need accommodations during the recruitment process. #J-18808-Ljbffr