Lead Applied Scientist

Thomson Reuters; Ann Arbor (MI); Hybrid; USD 192,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible vacation

Mental Health Days

Headspace app access

Tuition reimbursement

Employee stock purchase plan

Job summary

Thomson Reuters' TR Labs is seeking a Lead Applied Scientist to define research strategy and lead high-impact AI/ML initiatives across product features. You will drive innovation in domains such as legal reasoning, document understanding, or knowledge graphs, establishing best practices and technical vision.

You will mentor scientists across Labs, lead stakeholder engagement, and develop a deep understanding of customer problems and the data that informs them.

Qualifications

• Doctoral or master's degree in CS/ML or related field with industry equivalent experience.
• 7+ years hands-on experience building production IR, NLP, ML, or GenAI systems.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams to deliver AI capabilities.
• Strong product mindset translating customer problems into AI solutions.

Responsibilities

• Define research strategy and lead high-impact AI/ML initiatives.
• Mentor scientists and drive stakeholder engagement across Labs.
• Develop deep customer problem understanding and data-informed solutions.

Skills

PhD/Master's

7+ years exp

Team leadership

Product mindset

AI strategy

Strong communication

RAG architectures

Agentic frameworks

Tool-using systems

Evaluation methodologies

Domain expertise

Publications (ACL/NeurIPS)

Production code / MLOps

Education

PhD or Master's in CS/ML

Tools

MLOps

PyTorch

TensorFlow

NLP libraries

Job description

Are you excited about working at the forefront of applied research in an industry setting? TR Labs is the AI Research & Development arm of Thomas Reuters. We are seeking scientists with a passion for solving problems using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learning.

About The Role

As a Lead Applied Scientist, you will define research strategy and lead high-impact initiatives that shape Thomson Reuters' AI/ML roadmap across multiple product features. You will drive innovation in specialized domains such as legal reasoning, document understanding, or knowledge graphs, establishing best practices and technical vision. You will provide thought leadership internally and externally, mentoring scientists across Labs and leading stakeholder engagement. You will develop a deep understanding of customer problems and the data that informs them.

About You

• PhD or Master's degree with equivalent industry experience in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field
• 7+ years of hands‑on experience building production IR, NLP, ML, or GenAI systems leveraging modern techniques
• Demonstrated experience leading through others in cross‑functional teams to deliver end‑to‑end AI capabilities
• Strong product mindset with ability to translate complex customer problems into successful AI applications
• Proven ability to demonstrate novel methods that influence product roadmaps and business outcomes
• Outstanding communication and analytical skills
• Deep expertise in RAG architectures, agentic frameworks, tool‑using systems, and evaluation methodologies
• Significant experience developing novel methods for complex professional domains such as medical, tax, or law.
• Publications at top-tier venues (ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, NeurIPS, ICLR, SIGIR, KDD)
• Experience delivering production code with well-managed software/MLOps practices

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.

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. Eligible office location(s) for this role include one or more of the following: New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and/or Irvine, CA; McLean, VA; Washington, DC. The base compensation range for the role in any of those locations is $170,000 USD - $316,000 USD. For any eligible US locations, unless otherwise noted, the base compensation range for this role is $147,600 USD - $274,200 USD. 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.

Thomson Reuters makes reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities, including veterans with disabilities, and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law. If you reside in the United States and require an accommodation in the recruiting process, you may contact our Human Resources Department at [e-mail]. Disability accommodations in the recruiting process may include things like a sign language interpreter, making interview rooms accessible, providing assistive technology, or other relevant accommodations. Please note this email is not intended for general recruitment questions and we will promptly respond to inquiries regarding accommodations. More information on requesting an accommodation here.

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More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.com