Senior NLP Research Engineer

Clio • Toronto, ON

48d • Hybrid

About The Position

Clio is the global leader in legal AI technology, empowering legal professionals and law firms of every size to work smarter, faster, and more securely. We are transforming the legal experience for all by bettering the lives of legal professionals while increasing access to justice. Summary: Clio signed a definitive agreement to acquire vLex in 2025. This transaction is a major milestone in Clio’s platform evolution and a turning point for the future of legal work. It combines Clio’s legal operating system - trusted by more than 200,000 legal professionals - with vLex’s cutting-edge legal intelligence platform, which includes Vincent AI, built on the industry’s most comprehensive global legal database. Together, these platforms establish a new category of intelligent legal technology at the intersection of the business and practice of law, empowering legal professionals to seamlessly manage, research, and execute legal work within a unified system. Learn more here. This role is available to candidates local to our Toronto hub, with the expectation of being in office minimum twice per week on our Anchor Days. As a Senior NLP Research Engineer, you will play a key role in developing and advancing Vincent, vLex’s groundbreaking AI, by contributing to applied research experiments that integrate cutting-edge AI - particularly large language models (LLMs) - into real-world legal workflows. You will work closely with software engineers and domain experts on sophisticated technical challenges to deliver innovative solutions that push the boundaries of legal technology.

Requirements

• Masters degree or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field
• Industry experience in applied AI research or engineering
• At least one of the following experiences: Information retrieval systems, LLM fine-tuning and evaluation, LLM hosting and inference optimization, LLM workflow automation using prompt engineering, prompt chaining techniques, and agent orchestration frameworks
• Track record of independently delivering complex technical projects from ideation to implementation
• Hands-on experience in working closely with product engineering in production applications
• Proficiency in data manipulation, cleaning, and pre-processing for complex unstructured data sets
• A proven ability to quickly learn new technologies and adapt to a fast-paced environment with distributed teams and customers
• A strong understanding of modern AI tools and approaches
• Clear communication skills and the ability to build trust with both internal teams and external customers
• A desire to continuously learn, challenge yourself, and refine your craft

Nice To Haves

• A deep interest in how technology transforms the legal industry is highly valuable

Responsibilities

• Leading complex research projects focused on LLMs, advanced information retrieval, and novel AI applications in the legal domain, working independently with minimal supervision
• Designing and implementing sophisticated prototypes that demonstrate the feasibility and business value of cutting-edge research ideas, ensuring they meet production-quality standards
• Driving the transition of research innovations from prototype to production, collaborating closely with product and engineering teams to ensure successful integration and scalability
• Contributing to strategic research planning by identifying high-impact research opportunities and helping prioritize initiatives based on business value and technical feasibility
• Staying at the forefront of AI research, particularly in NLP, LLMs, and legal AI, actively incorporating state-of-the-art techniques into your work and sharing insights with the team
• Lead technical discussions and code reviews, ensuring high standards of research quality and implementation across the team
• Collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders including product managers, legal engineers, and business leaders to align research efforts with strategic objectives
• Documenting and communicating research findings through internal presentations, technical documentation, and potentially external publications or conference presentations
• Contributing to the development of research infrastructure and best practices that enhance the team's overall efficiency and impact

Benefits

• Competitive, equitable salary with top-tier health benefits, dental, and vision insurance
• Hybrid work environment, with expectation for local Clions (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Dublin and Sydney) to be in office min. twice per week.
• Flexible time off policy, with an encouraged 20 days off per year.
• $2000 annual counseling benefit
• RRSP matching and RESP contribution
• Clioversary recognition program with special acknowledgement at 3, 5, 7, and 10 years

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 251-500 employees