Manager AI and Applied Research

PowerToFly; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 140,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology research firm in Toronto is seeking a Manager for AI and Applied Research. This role involves managing a high-performing team, translating AI research into scalable products, and collaborating with product leaders. The ideal candidate will have a PhD and over 8 years of experience in AI, particularly in natural language processing and information retrieval. This position also emphasizes career development and includes a hybrid work model between in-office and remote work.

Benefits

Flexible vacation and work-life balance

Comprehensive benefits including mental health days

Career development opportunities

Flexible hybrid working environment

Employee incentive programs

Two paid volunteer days annually

Qualifications

• 8+ years of hands-on experience building IR/NLP systems.
• Prior management experience with high-performing teams.
• Experience translating complex problems into successful AI applications.

Responsibilities

• Manage and mentor a team of Applied Scientists and Research Engineers.
• Translate AI research into scalable solutions.
• Partner with Product and Engineering leaders to define the AI roadmap.

Skills

Building IR / NLP systems for commercial applications

GenAI/Rag/LLM expertise

Python development

Cloud infrastructure (AWS and Azure)

MLOps

Advanced search and recommendation technology

Model monitoring and governance

Problem solving and analysis skills

Education

PhD in a relevant discipline or Master's plus relevant experience

Tools

Containerization

Microservices architecture

Job description

This posting is for proactive recruitment purposes and may be used to fill current openings or future vacancies within our organization.

Manager AI and Applied Research

Are you excited about working at the forefront of applied research in an industry setting? Thomson Reuters Labs in Toronto is seeking scientists with a passion for solving problems using state‑of‑the‑art information retrieval, natural language processing and generative AI, to lead a team of high‑performing ML scientists and research engineers.

What does Thomson Reuters Labs do?

We experiment, we build, we deliver. We support the organization and our customers through applied research in informational retrieval and natural language processing. We work closely with product and domain experts to identify compelling solutions at the intersection of user need and technical feasibility. Our team is responsible for designing the next generation of tax, accounting and audit compliance software for Tax Professionals and Corporates in the US, and across the global markets. We own AI innovation for Thomson Reuters’ core tax products, including UltraTax, Cloud Audit Suit, SurePrep and ONESOURCE. We work with the latest LLM prompting and agentic AI approaches to build cutting‑edge products.

About the role

In this opportunity as Manager, Applied Research you will:

• Manage: Direct the efforts of a team of Applied Scientists and Research Engineers, ensuring a high-performance culture. Nurture your team’s career development and manage performance expectations through servant leadership and active coaching.
• Lead and Inspire: Build, mentor, and grow a high‑performing team of applied scientists.
• Drive Research to Production: Translate state‑of‑the‑art AI research into scalable, production‑ready solutions.
• Shape Strategy: Partner with Product and Engineering leaders to define and execute the AI‑driven product roadmap.
• Ensure Operational Excellence: Oversee scaling of experiment and LLMOps platforms, balancing reusability and innovation.
• Champion Innovation: Explore emerging technologies, foster experimentation, and share impact and ideas to both technical and non‑technical audiences.

About you

You’re a fit for the role of Manager, Applied Research if your background includes:

• PhD in a relevant discipline or Master’s plus a comparable level of experience.
• 8+ years hands‑on experience building IR / NLP systems for commercial applications.
• Strong experience in GenAI/Rag/LLM.
• Prior management experience – coaching & developing high‑performing teams.
• Strong track record of delivering AI solutions at scale in enterprise environments.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and align AI initiatives with business goals.
• Experience delivering minimum viable products in a large enterprise environment.
• Demonstrable experience translating complex problems into successful AI applications.
• Experience writing production code and ensuring well‑managed software delivery.
• Expertise in several of the following areas: robust Python development, MLOps, containerization, cloud infrastructure (AWS and Azure), advanced search and recommendation technology, orchestration of ML pipelines for real‑time inference, microservices architecture, model monitoring and governance.
• Outstanding communication, problem‑solving, and analysis skills.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience innovating state‑of‑the‑art research to solve real‑world problems.
• Experience designing and implementing solutions with large language models.
• Relevant publications at ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, NeurIPS, ICLR, SIGIR, KDD, or similar.
• Advanced proficiency in Python, Java, or Scala.

#LI-ES1

What’s in it For You?

• Hybrid Work Model: We’ve adopted a flexible hybrid working environment (2‑3 days a week in the office depending on the role) for our office‑based roles while delivering a seamless experience that is digitally and physically connected.
• 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.

Our use of AI within the recruitment process

Thomson Reuters utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our global recruitment process. Unless you opt‑out, our AI system will assess the information provided by you and compare it to the requirements listed for the role, and present the result to our recruitment personnel for further review. The AI system acts as a supporting tool, but there is always a human making the decision if you will be considered for the role.

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 Ontario, Canada, the base compensation range for this role is $140,000 CAD - $175,000 CAD. 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.

About Us

Thomson 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.com