Staff Software Engineer - AI I

Thomson Reuters is hiring a Staff Software Engineer - AI to define and build the AI foundation for next-generation Westlaw experiences. The role leads development of enterprise-scale AI systems and provides technical strategy, engineering leadership, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver secure, trustworthy AI products for legal professionals.

Responsibilities

• Build and architect AI-driven systems – Design and lead the implementation of enterprise-scale AI systems, including multi-component pipelines, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and knowledge graph–based architectures, and autonomous AI agents with multi-step reasoning; stay hands-on across the stack, from AI orchestration and RAG through API gateways, microservices, and modern web UIs
• Drive innovation and technical strategy – Evaluate and drive adoption of emerging AI techniques; run proof-of-concept work and assess technical feasibility for new AI-driven features; stay current with AI research and translate insights into technical roadmaps; represent the organization at industry conferences and events
• Provide technical leadership – Help make design decisions and translate business requirements into scalable technical specifications; mentor senior and junior software engineers; champion MLOps and LLMOps practices and governance for the AI model lifecycle
• Ensure quality, security, and operational excellence – Design and implement testing, monitoring, and observability for AI systems at scale; ensure compliance with ethical AI principles, security standards, and regulatory requirements
• Lead cross-functional collaboration and drive business value delivery – Partner with AI researchers, engineering leadership, design, and product to turn AI capabilities into customer-facing applications; set technical priorities and stay engaged through delivery so AI investments produce measurable business value; optimize performance for latency, cost, and user experience; influence product strategy through technical depth

Preferred

• Master's preferred
• Experience leading technical direction for teams building agent-based systems or enterprise integrations with AI APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic)
• Advanced knowledge of vector databases, embeddings, semantic search, and information retrieval
• Hands-on experience with knowledge graphs, including graph data modeling, ontologies and taxonomies, graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, Amazon Neptune), and combining graphs with LLMs through approaches such as GraphRAG and entity extraction
• Domain expertise in legal, tax, accounting, or other regulated industries, or in large-scale search platforms
• Successful AI product launches and experience scaling AI systems to enterprise customers
• Experience with AI governance, model risk management, and regulatory compliance
• Publications, patents, or speaking experience in AI/ML
• Master’s Degree
• Agent-Based Systems
• Enterprise Integrations
• AI APIs
• OpenAI APIs
• Anthropic APIs
• Vector Databases
• Embeddings
• Semantic Search
• Information Retrieval
• Knowledge Graphs
• Graph Data Modeling
• Ontologies
• Taxonomies
• Neo4j
• Amazon Neptune
• GraphRAG
• Entity Extraction
• Legal Industry Expertise
• Tax Industry Expertise
• Accounting Industry Expertise
• Regulated Industry Expertise
• Large-Scale Search Platforms
• AI Product Launches
• AI Systems Scaling
• Enterprise AI Systems
• AI Governance
• Model Risk Management
• Regulatory Compliance
• AI/ML Publications
• AI/ML Patents
• Public Speaking

Benefits

• Flexible hybrid working environment for office-based roles
• Work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year
• Career development and growth through continuous learning, skills development, and Grow My Way programming
• Flexible vacation
• Two company-wide Mental Health Days off
• Access to the Headspace app
• Retirement savings
• Tuition reimbursement
• Employee incentive programs
• Resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing
• Two paid volunteer days off annually
• Opportunities to get involved with pro-bono consulting projects and ESG initiatives
• For employees in the United States: health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance programs
• For employees in the United States: 401(k) plan with company match
• For employees in the United States: sick and safe paid time off, paid holidays, parental leave, and sabbatical leave
• For employees in the United States: optional hospital, accident and sickness insurance paid 100% by the employee
• For employees in the United States: optional life and AD&D insurance paid 100% by the employee
• For employees in the United States: Flexible Spending and Health Savings Accounts
• For employees in the United States: fitness reimbursement
• For employees in the United States: access to Employee Assistance Program
• For employees in the United States: Group Legal Identity Theft Protection benefit paid 100% by the employee
• For employees in the United States: access to 529 Plan
• For employees in the United States: commuter benefits
• For employees in the United States: Adoption & Surrogacy Assistance
• For employees in the United States: access to Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• This role may also be eligible for an Annual Bonus based on a combination of enterprise and individual performance

Company

• Professional software and information services for legal, tax, and compliance.
• Toronto, Ontario, CAN
• http://thomsonreuters.com/
• Founded in 1851
• 10001+ employees

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience
• 5+ years of software engineering experience, including 3 years in senior or lead roles on AI/ML systems
• A track record as a software engineer with AI expertise (not primarily a data scientist or researcher), with hands-on experience in generative AI, RAG, or LLM-based systems, covering discovery, architecture, agentic tools, evaluation, deployment, and metrics
• Expert-level proficiency in Python or another object-oriented language, with strong backend service and API design skills
• Solid understanding of ML principles, evaluation methodologies, and distributed systems, plus working experience with AI/ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
• Advanced experience with AWS and with Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform, and a record of integrating AI models into large-scale production systems through APIs, data pipelines, and cloud-native architectures
• Strong technical leadership and mentoring experience as an individual contributor, with the communication skills to influence senior stakeholders
• Master's preferred
• Experience leading technical direction for teams building agent-based systems or enterprise integrations with AI APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic)
• Advanced knowledge of vector databases, embeddings, semantic search, and information retrieval
• Hands-on experience with knowledge graphs, including graph data modeling, ontologies and taxonomies, graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, Amazon Neptune), and combining graphs with LLMs through approaches such as GraphRAG and entity extraction
• Domain expertise in legal, tax, accounting, or other regulated industries, or in large-scale search platforms
• Successful AI product launches and experience scaling AI systems to enterprise customers
• Experience with AI governance, model risk management, and regulatory compliance
• Publications, patents, or speaking experience in AI/ML
• 5+ years of software engineering experience, including 3 years in senior or lead roles on AI/ML systems.

Required skills

• AWS, Backend Service and API Design, Distributed Systems, Docker, Generative AI and LLM-Based Systems, Kubernetes, Machine Learning Evaluation, PyTorch, Python, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), TensorFlow, Terraform

Preferred skills

• Master's preferred, Publications, patents, or speaking experience in AI/ML

Experience

• 5+ years