Senior Software Engineer - AI, CoCounsel International

Refinitiv; Ann Arbor (MI); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 204,000; Full time

Job summary

Thomson Reuters seeks a Senior Software Engineer – AI to join the CoCounsel International team and collaborate with our Labs team to build AI agents and adapt them for international products. You’ll develop backend services that enable agentic capabilities and scale early Labs concepts into production-ready features used by legal professionals worldwide.

You’ll work with Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and AWS to deliver reliable, scalable systems, mentor peers, and partner with product and design

Qualifications

• 4+ years of backend software engineering experience building production systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and AWS.
• Experience designing production-grade agentic AI workflows at scale.

Responsibilities

• Design and build backend services for real-time AI interactions and data flows.
• Define service boundaries and scalable architecture for the AI platform.
• Integrate with LLM providers (OpenAI/Anthropic) for orchestration and reliability.
• Collaborate with Labs, product managers, and designers to ship production-ready features for international products.
• Mentor engineers through pairing, code reviews, and guidance.

Skills

Python

FastAPI

PostgreSQL

AWS

Distributed systems

LLM orchestration

Debugging

Education

BA/BS in CS

Tools

OpenAI

Anthropic

Job description

Job Description We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer – AI to join the CoCounsel International team and work closely with our Labs team to build new AI agents and adapt them for our international products and features. In this role, you'll build the backend services that bring these agentic capabilities to life, and help take early Labs concepts into scalable, production-ready features used by legal professionals worldwide. If you're passionate about building AI agents and bringing new capabilities to life for legal professionals around the world, we'd love to hear from you. Join us to build, innovate, and make a lasting impact on our CoCounsel application.

Key Responsibilities

• Build AI-Powered Backend Systems: Design and build backend services using Python, FastAPI, and PostgreSQL to support real-time AI interactions and large-scale data flows, with direct contribution to AI-powered capabilities such as agentic workflows, LLM orchestration, and content pipelines.
• Shape Platform Architecture: Define service boundaries, system interfaces, and scalable design patterns that form the architectural foundation of our AI platform.
• Productionize AI Capabilities: Integrate backend systems with modern LLM providers (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) and implement reliable orchestration, routing, error handling, guardrails, telemetry, and deep observability for performance and reliability.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with our Labs team, product managers, and designers to take early AI agent concepts and turn them into scalable, production-ready features for our international products.
• Mentor Engineers: Support the growth of other engineers through pairing, code reviews, and ongoing technical guidance.

Required Qualifications

• Technical Experience: 4+ years of professional software engineering experience building and shipping production backend systems, APIs, and microservices used by real customers.
• Backend & Cloud Skills: Strong proficiency in Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and AWS cloud services, with a deep understanding of distributed systems, architecture, and data modeling.
• Agentic AI Experience: Proven experience designing, building, and deploying production-grade agentic AI workflows — including multi-step reasoning, tool/API orchestration, and LLM-as-judge or eval-driven quality gates — serving real end users at scale.
• Technical Judgment: Excellent debugging skills and a proven ability to deliver production-ready, highly reliable systems.
• Collaboration & Communication: Comfortable operating in fast-paced, iterative environments, with strong cross-functional communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• BA or BS in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience
• Experience with performance optimization for backend systems, including monitoring, profiling, and tuning for scale
• Hands-on experience building AI-powered product features, including LLM APIs, RAG pipelines, or agentic workflows in a production environment
• Familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure including vector databases, model serving, and cost/latency optimization for LLM-powered features
• Strong opinions on testing, automation, and operational robustness
• Prior experience working on products for legal, compliance, or other regulated professional domains

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.
• 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.
• 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.

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 $127,000 USD - $235,000 USD.

For any eligible US locations, unless otherwise noted, the base compensation range for this role is $110,000 USD - $204,200 USD.

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.

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