Manager AI and 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 Ultra Tax, Cloud Audit Suit, Sure Prep and ONESOURCE. We work with the latest LLM prompting and agentic AI approaches to build cutting edge products.

In this opportunity as Manager, Applied Research you will:

• Manage: Direct the efforts of a team of Applied Scientists and Research Engineers, ensuring a high-performance culture. Nurture your team's career development and manage performance expectations through servant leadership and active coaching.
• Lead and Inspire: Build, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of applied scientists.
• Drive Research to Production: Translate state-of-the-art AI research into scalable, production-ready solutions.
• Shape Strategy: Partner with Product and Engineering leaders to define and execute the AI-driven product roadmap.
• Ensure Operational Excellence: Oversee scaling of experiment and LLMOps platforms, balancing reusability and innovation.
• Champion Innovation: Explore emerging technologies, foster experimentation, and share impact and ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences.

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

• 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
• Strong experience in GenAI/Rag/LLM
• Prior management experience - coaching & developing high-performing teams
• Strong track record of delivering AI solutions at scale in enterprise environments.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and align AI initiatives with business goals

• 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

Eligible office location(s) for this role include one or more of the following:
Eagan, MN, Toronto, New York City.

• Impact at Scale: Your work will power mission-critical products used by millions worldwide.
• Innovation Culture: Autonomy to experiment with cutting-edge AI technologies.
• Career Growth: Opportunities to lead, publish, and shape the future of AI in a global enterprise.

• 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.
• 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…