Lead Research Engineer

Thomson Reuters Foundation; Eagan (MN); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Flexible work arrangements

Career development programs

Job summary

Thomson Reuters Foundation is seeking a Lead Research Engineer to drive AI/ML initiatives across legal, tax, government, and news domains. You will lead technical teams, shape engineering standards, and deliver data-driven solutions that scale in production.

The role emphasizes mentorship, end-to-end delivery, and collaboration with researchers while advancing ModelOps and cloud-native systems in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, preferably in ML/NLP contexts
• Experience leading technical workstreams within software engineering
• Proficiency in Python and related ecosystems
• Ability to collaborate with research scientists to prototype and productionize concepts
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS/Azure) and DevOps practices
• Knowledge of ModelOps and MLOps principles
• Experience integrating ML into production-grade software
• Hands-on experience with NLP tasks such as information extraction

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and establish standards to scale the technology stack
• Develop and deliver high-quality software solutions across the lifecycle
• Build scalable ML data pipelines and production-ready ML systems
• Foster collaboration with cross-functional and remote teams
• Demonstrate urgency and adaptability in a fast-paced environment
• Propose and implement innovative approaches and new technologies
• Mentor engineers and elevate team technical practices

Skills

Python

ML/NLP

Leadership

Mentoring

Cloud computing

DevOps

Research collaboration

ModelOps/MLOps

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

NumPy

SciPy

Pandas

spaCy

NLTK

scikit-learn

PyTorch

AWS

Azure

Job description

Do you love creating innovative solutions for customers? Then come and apply your skills and passion for technology at Thomson Reuters Labs. We are seeking a Lead Research Engineer who will bring expertise in AI and ML and is interested in building data-driven capabilities that transform the way legal, accounting, and government professionals work across the globe. As a member of Thomson Reuters Labs, you will have a direct impact on our company and develop products and features that will delight our customers. What does Thomson Reuters Labs do? We experiment, we build, we deliver. We obsess over our customers through applied research and development of new products and technologies. In TR Labs, we act fast and learn fast, innovating collaboratively across our core segments in Legal, Tax & Accounting, Government, and Reuters News. As a Lead Research Engineer at Thomson Reuters Labs, you will be part of a global interdisciplinary team of experts. We hire engineers and specialists across a variety of AI research areas to drive the company’s digital transformation. The science and engineering of AI are rapidly evolving. We are looking for a lead who drives strategy across initiatives, shapes engineering practices and standards, and who force multiplies the capabilities of our teams through mentorship and technical leadership.

Is this you? Come join us!

About the Role

In this opportunity as a Lead Research Engineer, you will:

• Be a Leader: Provide technical leadership partnering with other engineers to develop and improve methodology and evolve the technology stack by establishing standards and best practices that scale.
• Develop and Deliver: Applying modern software development practices, you will be involved in the entire software development lifecycle, building, testing and delivering high-quality solutions.
• Build Scalable ML Solutions: You will create large scale data processing pipelines to help researchers build and train novel machine learning algorithms. You will develop high performing scalable systems in the context of large online delivery environments.
• Be a Team Player: Working in a collaborative team-oriented environment, you will share information, value diverse ideas, partner with cross-functional and remote teams.
• Be an Agile Person: With a strong sense of urgency and a desire to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, you will deliver timely solutions.
• Be Innovative: You are empowered to try new approaches and learn new technologies. You will contribute innovative ideas, create solutions, and be accountable for end-to-end deliveries.
• Be an Effective Communicator: Through dynamic engagement and communication with cross-functional partners and team members, you will effectively articulate ideas and collaborate on technical developments.

About You

• A Bachelor of Science degree, computer science or related field.
• At least 8 years software engineering experience, ideally in the context of machine learning and natural language processing.
• Experience leading technical workstreams within a software engineering organization.
• Skilled and have a deep understanding of Python software development stacks and ecosystems, experience with other programming languages and ecosystems is ideal.
• Driving innovation throughout the entire software lifecycle – specify, design, build, scale and maintain Machine Learning systems and capabilities in production environments.
• Familiarity with the Python data science stack through exposure to libraries such as Numpy, Scipy, Pandas, Dask, spaCy, NLTK, scikit-learn, PyTorch.
• Take pride in writing clean, reusable, maintainable and well-tested code.
• Experience in collaborating with research scientists to evaluate, prototype and productionize research concepts.
• Proficiency in automation, system monitoring, and cloud-native applications, with familiarity in AWS or Azure (or a related cloud platform).
• Proficiency in system analysis and design & Consider DevOps and automation as fundamental pillars of your work.
• A desire to learn and embrace new and emerging technology.
• Familiarity with probabilistic models and have an understanding of the mathematical concepts underlying machine learning methods.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, elevate team technical practise.
• Experience integrating Machine Learning solutions into production-grade software with a sound understanding of ModelOps and MLOps principles and the ability to translate between language and methodologies used both in research and engineering fields.
• Previous exposure to Natural Language Processing (NLP) problems and have familiarity with key tasks such as Named Entity Recognition (NER), Information Extraction, Information Retrieval, etc.
• Hands‑on experience in other programming and scripting languages (Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, etc.).
• #LI-SM2

What’s in it For You?

• Hybrid Work Model: We’ve adopted a flexible hybrid working environment 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.