Manager, Applied Research

Are you excited about working at the forefront of applied research in an industry setting? Thomson Reuters Labs  in Toronto is seeking scientists with a passion for solving problems using state-of-the-art information retrieval, natural language processing and generative AI, to lead a team of high performing ML scientists and research engineers. 

 
What does Thomson Reuters Labs do? We experiment, we build, we deliver. We support the organization and our customers through applied research in informational retrieval and natural language processing. We work closely with product and domain experts to identify compelling solutions at the intersection of user need and technical feasibility. Our team is responsible for designing the next generation of tax, accounting and audit compliance software for Tax Professionals and Corporates in the US, and across the global markets. We own AI innovation for Thomson Reuters’ core tax products, including UltraTax, Cloud Audit Suit, SurePrep and ONESOURCE. We work with the latest LLM prompting and agentic AI approaches to build cutting edge products. 

 

About the role  

In this opportunity as Manager, Applied Research you will:    

• Experiment and Develop: You will execute the entire model development lifecycle, from prototype to delivery, while applying best practices for reproducible research and well-managed software delivery.  

• Collaborate: Working on a collaborative cross-functional team, you will share information, value diverse ideas, and partner effectively with colleagues across the globe.  

• Deliver: You will be accountable for timely, well-managed deliverables.  

• Innovate: You will be empowered to try new approaches and learn new technologies. You will implement innovative ideas to solve real-world challenges.  

• Inspire: You will be a proactive communicator who is excited to share your work. You will be articulate and compelling in describing ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences.   

• Manage: Direct the efforts of a team of Applied Scientists and Research Engineers ensuring a high-performance culture, nurturing your team’s career development and managing their performance expectations through servant leadership and active coaching.  

 

About you  

You’re a fit for the role of Manager, Applied Research if your background includes: 

Basic qualifications  

• PhD in a relevant discipline or Master’s plus a comparable level of experience  

• 8+ years hands-on experience building IR / NLP systems for commercial applications  

• Prior management experience – coaching & developing high-performing teams  

• Experience writing production code and ensuring well-managed software delivery  

• Experience delivering minimum viable products in a large enterprise environment 

• Demonstrable experience translating complex problems into successful AI applications  

• Expertise in several of the following areas: robust Python development, MLOps, containerization, cloud infrastructure (AWS and Azure), advanced search and recommendation technology, orchestration of ML pipelines for real-time inference, microservices architecture, model monitoring and governance.  

• Outstanding communication, problem solving, and analysis skills  

  

Preferred qualifications   

• Experience innovating state-of-the-art research to solve real-world problems.  

• Experience designing and implementing solutions with large language models   

• Relevant publications at ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, NeurIPS, ICLR, SIGIR, KDD, or similar.  

• Advanced proficiency in Python, Java, or Scala ​ 

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What’s in it For You?
You will join our inclusive culture of world-class talent, where we are committed to your personal and professional growth through:

• 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

• Wellbeing: Comprehensive benefit plans; flexible and supportive benefits for work-life balance: flexible vacation, two company-wide Mental Health Days Off; work from another location for up to a total of 8 weeks in a year, 4 of those weeks can be out of the country and the remaining in the country, Headspace app subscription; retirement, savings, tuition reimbursement, and employee incentive programs; resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.

• Culture: Globally recognized and award-winning reputation for equality, diversity and inclusion, flexibility, work-life balance, and more.

• Learning & Development: LinkedIn Learning access; internal Talent Marketplace with opportunities to work on projects cross-company; Ten Thousand Coffees Thomson Reuters café networking.

• Social Impact: Ten employee-driven Business Resource Groups; two paid volunteer days annually; Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives for local and global impact.

• Purpose Driven Work: We have a superpower that we’ve never talked about with as much pride as we should – we are one of the only companies on the planet 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.

Do you want to be part of a team helping re-invent the way knowledge professionals work? How about a team that works every day to create a more transparent, just and inclusive future? At Thomson Reuters, we’ve been doing just that for almost 160 years. Our industry-leading products and services include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the world’s most global news services – Reuters. We help these professionals do their jobs better, creating more time for them to focus on the things that matter most: advising, advocating, negotiating, governing and informing.

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 that celebrate diversity and inclusion. 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. 

Accessibility 

As a global business, we rely on diversity of culture and thought to deliver on our 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/Affirmative Action Employer providing a drug-free workplace.

We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law.

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