Director of Applied Research

Job Description:

Director of Applied Research, Information Retrieval Thomson Reuters Labs

We experiment, build and deliver. Thomson Reuters Labs work across all business segments to discover what new products, services, and AI‑driven solutions we can create for our customers. With access to over 60,000 TBs of legal, regulatory, news, and tax data, we are building the next generation of AI‑powered knowledge systems that transform how professionals access, discover, and act on information.

You will join the global labs leadership team as a key leader shaping the technical vision and culture of Thomson Reuters' IR and AI research initiatives.

• Define Technical Vision & Strategy
  • Set the strategic direction for Information Retrieval research and innovation at Thomson Reuters, positioning TR as a leader in retrieval‑based AI
  • Establish the technical direction for retrieval, ranking, semantic search, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), and agentic retrieval system capabilities
  • Design and optimize retrieval architectures leveraging embeddings, reranking, hybrid search, knowledge graphs, and contextual retrieval techniques
  • Build evaluation frameworks and benchmarks for search quality, relevance, answer quality, and real‑world business impact
  • Contribute to the global TR Labs engineering strategy and methodology through adoption of emerging AI/ML technologies and industry best practices
• Build & Lead a High‑Performing Team
  • Hire, train, and manage a highly skilled team with expertise across cloud engineering, machine learning engineering, data engineering, and AI research
  • Mentor scientists and engineers while establishing best practices for production AI development and deployment
  • Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning across the global labs organization
  • Develop team members' technical depth in information retrieval, NLP, generative AI, and large‑scale AI systems
• Drive Production AI Solutions
  • Lead development of enterprise‑grade retrieval, ranking, NLP, and knowledge‑based AI solutions that integrate with Thomson Reuters products
  • Partner closely with Product and Engineering teams to translate customer needs and domain‑specific challenges into scalable AI applications
  • Establish robust channels between Labs research and product technology organizations, enabling effective transfer of innovation to production systems
  • Apply modern development practices across the entire software development lifecycle— from experimentation to deployment to operational excellence
  • Demonstrate proficiency in automation, system monitoring, MLOps, and cloud‑native AI applications on AWS, Azure, or equivalent platforms
• Drive Strategy & Business Impact
  • Proactively identify opportunities where Labs can improve the status quo or generate new business value through AI/ML innovation
  • Influence the global project portfolio and investment decisions with your expertise in applied AI and domain knowledge
  • Provide strategic input to product and modernization roadmaps, particularly in identifying and articulating AI‑driven opportunities
  • Translate complex customer problems in legal, tax, news, and corporate domains into successful AI solutions
  • Continuously question why something needs to be done and for whom, maintaining a strong customer‑centric mindset
  • Be a Trusted Advisor—actively engage across cross‑functional teams, sharing knowledge, valuing diverse ideas, and building relationships with technology and product leaders
  • Communicate effectively—translating between research and engineering methodologies and languages
  • Secure alignment and clear paths to market for AI‑powered initiatives

You are a recognized AI leader with deep expertise in Information Retrieval,…