Director, Applied Research

Socket.dev; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Thomson Reuters Labs is seeking a Director, Applied Research to lead a high-performing team developing agentic AI for tax and accounting professionals. You will shape AI capabilities for transformative workflows at scale, partnering with product and domain experts to deliver real value in demanding environments.

The role requires a PhD or equivalent depth, 10+ years in AI/ML with hands-on production experience, and 5+ years leading teams.

Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field — or Master’s with equivalent depth.
• 10+ years of hands-on industry experience building AI/ML systems for commercial applications.
• 5+ years of experience leading applied science or ML teams.
• Experience developing LLM-based and agentic AI systems in production.
• Demonstrated success in product- or customer-facing roles with business impact.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing applied science team working on agentic AI for tax and accounting professionals.
• Drive design and delivery of AI features that reimagine customer workflows in high-stakes settings.
• Serve as strategic thought partner to Labs leadership, product leadership, and stakeholders on AI strategy and roadmap.
• Influence product strategy through technical depth and usage data insights.
• Improve ways of working across R&D and product engineering in a fast-paced delivery cycle.
• Engage domain experts in concept development and design workshops.
• Foster a culture of innovation, rigour, collaboration, and continuous learning.

Skills

AI/ML systems

LLM-based AI

Team leadership

Product strategy

Customer impact

Education

PhD in CS/ML or related field

Master's with depth and publications

Job description

Director, Applied Research

Are you excited about working at the forefront of applied research in an industry setting? Thomson Reuters Labs is seekingan experiencedscientist withstrongproduct mindset toleada high-performing team developing transformativesolutions for tax, audit, and accounting professionals

About the role

What doesTR Labsdo? We experiment, we build, we deliver. We support the organization and our customers through applied researchandinnovation. We work closely with product and domain experts toidentifycompelling solutions at the intersection ofcustomerneedsand technical feasibility.We partner closely with product engineering teams to deliverreal value in high-stakes settings,where accuracy and verificationare essential

Our team is designingthe nextgenerationofagentic AIfortax & accounting professionalsaround the globe.Thisisanopportunityto create entirely new workflows addressing fundamental challenges in the industry.TR has all the ingredientsfromannotatedtax lawtorobusttaxengines andend-to-end solutions for data management, filing, audit, and compliance.Comejoin the R&Dteamfor Thomson Reuters’portfolio oftaxproducts, including Checkpoint,CoCounselTax,and OneSource

About You

You hold a PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a closely related field or a Master's with equivalent depth, a strong science background, and a relevant publication record. You bring 10+ years of hands-on industry experience building AI/ML systems for commercial applications, with recent direct experience developing LLM-based and agentic systems in production. You have 5+ years leading and developing high-performing applied science or ML teams

What You'll Do

• Lead and develop a high-performing applied science team working on agentic AI for tax and accounting professionals
• Drive the design and delivery of AI features that meaningfully reimagine customer workflows in high-stakes, accuracy-critical settings
• Serve as a strategic thought partner to Labs leadership, product leadership, and key business stakeholders on long-term AI strategy, partnerships, and capability roadmap
• Influence product strategy through deep technical knowledge combined with insight from usage data, quality metrics, and customer feedback
• Continuously improve ways of working across R&D and product engineering in a fast-paced, tightly embedded delivery cycle
• Engage domain and subject matter experts in concept development and design workshops
• Foster a team culture of innovation, rigour, collaboration, and continuous learning

Required Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field or Master's with a strong science background and relevant publication record — required
• 10+ years of hands-on industry experience building AI/ML systems for commercial applications — not research-only experience
• Recent, direct hands-on experience developing LLM-based and agentic AI systems for production, non-trivial use cases
• 5+ years of experience managing and developing high-performing applied science or ML teams
• Demonstrated success in product- or customer-facing roles, with business and customer impact as the primary measure of success
• Technical depth in AI/ML sufficient to provide effective challenge, expand on team ideas, and support high-quality technical decision-making

Preferred Qualifications

• Technical depth in information retrieval and NLP, with experience in complex vertical domains — taxonomy induction, document understanding, agentic search, knowledge graphs, or neuro-symbolic approaches
• Experience with AI agent evaluation, language model training with verifiable rewards, and synthetic data generation