Staff Software Engineer

TRSS; Ann Arbor (MI); Hybrid; USD 118,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid Work Model

Career Growth

Competitive Benefits

Mental Health Days

Volunteer Days

Job summary

Thomson Reuters is seeking a Lead Software Engineer AI (Staff Engineer AI) to drive the technical direction of its CoCounsel AI products for legal professionals. You will lead a team delivering agentic, real-time AI features, while shaping a cloud-native architecture and a fast-paced delivery culture.

You will architect backend services, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product managers and designers to turn early AI concepts into scalable, production-ready capabilities.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years in technical leadership and 3+ years building scalable cloud apps and AI-enabled products.
• Strong Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL skills and experience with AWS or Azure cloud services; solid distributed systems knowledge.
• Experience building and owning CI/CD pipelines for production web apps and automated testing; ability to ship production AI systems.
• Excellent collaboration, communication, and ability to influence senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Build and architect AI agentic systems in collaboration with the Engineering Manager and full stack team.
• Lead technical strategy, experimentation, testing, rollout practices, and operational excellence.
• Design and implement backend services using Python, FastAPI, and PostgreSQL for real-time AI interactions; support agentic workflows and LLM orchestration.
• Define service boundaries, interfaces, and scalable architectural patterns for the AI platform.
• Support frontend engineers with a complex Agentic UI using SSE, AG-UI, Claude Agent SDK, and AgentCore.
• Drive innovation, evaluate new AI techniques, and translate insights into technical roadmaps; mentor engineers.
• Ensure quality, security, and observability; ensure ethical AI, security standards, and regulatory compliance.

Skills

Python

FastAPI

PostgreSQL

Cloud (AWS/Azure)

CI/CD

Distributed systems

Leadership

Communication

Education

BA/BS in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Claude Agent SDK

AgentCore

SSE

Job description

Job Description

We're looking for a Lead Software Engineer AI (Staff Engineer AI) to join the CoCounsel team. We are building the next generation of AI agentic products for legal professionals. The team takes early Labs concepts and turns them into scalable, production-ready features. You'll also help drive our transition to an AI-native engineering organization where AI accelerates development and engineers provide technical leadership, architecture, and judgment.

As a Lead Software Engineer AI (Staff Engineer), you will be responsible technical direction and delivery of our market leading Litigation Drafting products in CoCounsel Legal. You will be providing technical leadership for a team of talented front and back end engineers to deliver at pace.

We are looking for Leaders with a strong sense of urgency and a desire to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment who will drive the delivery of timely solutions. You are empowered to try new approaches and learn new technologies. You will have agency to contribute innovative ideas, create solutions, and will be accountable for end-to-end deliveries.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and architect AI Agentic driven systems –You will be working with the Engineering Manager to facilitate our full stack team in delivering ground breaking Agentic Legal software.
  
  
  
  • Leading Technical strategy, experimentation, testing, rollout practices and operational excellence
  
  
  • Designing and building backend services using Python, FastAPI, and PostgreSQL to support real-time AI agentic interactions, with direct contribution to AI-powered capabilities such as agentic workflows, LLM orchestration, and content pipelines.
  
  
  • Defining service boundaries, system interfaces, and scalable design patterns that form the architectural foundation of our AI platform.
  
  
  • Supporting the front-end engineers to deliver of a complex Agentic UI which uses SSE and AG-UI along with Claude Agent SDK and AgentCore at run time.
  
  
  
  


• Drive innovation and technical strategy – Lead evaluation and adoption of cutting-edge AI techniques; oversee proof-of-concept work and technical feasibility for new AI-driven features; stay current with AI research and translate insights into technical roadmaps.


• Provide senior technical leadership – Lead architecture decisions and translate business requirements into scalable technical specifications; mentor senior and junior software engineers


• Ensure quality, security, and operational excellence – Design and implement testing, monitoring, and observability for AI systems at scale; lead compliance with ethical AI principles, security standards, and regulatory requirements.


• Cross-Functional Influence: Influencing and partnering 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 products. Working closely with other engineering leaders to ensure consistency with other teams.


• Productionize AI Capabilities: Integrate with modern LLM providers (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) and implement reliable orchestration, routing, error handling, guardrails, telemetry, and deep observability for performance and reliability. Strengthen CI/CD pipelines and DevOps automation to support fast, stable, cloud‑native development workflows.

Required Qualifications

• Technical Experience: 7+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years in technical leadership roles and 3+ years building scalable cloud applications, APIs, and AI-enabled products. Proven track record of shipping production-grade AI systems to customers, including deployment, monitoring, evaluation, scaling, and ongoing operational ownership in enterprise environments.


• Technical Skills: Strong proficiency in Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and AWS or Azure cloud services, with a deep understanding of distributed systems, architecture, and data modelling. building and owning CI/CD pipelines for production web applications (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CodePipeline, or similar), including automated testing and safe release practices


• Collaboration & Communication: Comfortable operating in fast-paced, iterative environments, with strong cross-functional communication skills. Strong product sense and the ability to work from ambiguous requirements.


• Leadership: Strong leadership and mentoring experience; excellent strategic thinking and problem-solving; outstanding communication and presentation skills with experience influencing senior stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• BA or BS in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience


• Strong knowledge of vector databases, embeddings, semantic search, and information retrieval;


• Hands-on experience with the AG-UI protocol or comparable agent-UI protocols and SDKs. Strong proficiency in SSE events


• Knowledge of backend streaming patterns (Node, Python/FastAPI, etc.) sufficient to debug end to end


• Experience with Datadog (logs/RUM/traces), CloudWatch Log Insights, and Braintrust


• 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.

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 any eligible US locations, unless otherwise noted, the base compensation range for this role is $118,400 USD - $219,800 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. 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.

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