Staff Software Engineer - AI I

Thomson Reuters • Eagan, MN

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Staff Software Engineer will help define and build the AI foundation for the next generation of Westlaw experiences. The role is part of Global Westlaw Engineering, which builds and operates the technology behind Westlaw, a legal research platform. The engineer will develop AI-driven solutions—including agentic systems, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI platforms, and large-scale knowledge services—to support intelligent, trustworthy, and high-performing legal research experiences worldwide.

The position combines hands-on engineering with technical leadership. It includes designing and implementing enterprise-scale AI systems, evaluating emerging techniques, setting technical direction, mentoring engineers, and working with AI researchers, engineering leadership, product, and design to deliver customer-facing applications. The role also focuses on governance, security, quality, observability, and optimizing AI systems for latency, cost, and user experience.

This is a hybrid, office-based role. Eligible locations include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Irvine, McLean, Washington, DC, and Ontario, Canada. The posting may be used to fill current openings or future vacancies. The position may be eligible for an annual bonus based on enterprise and individual performance.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience; a master’s degree is preferred.
• At least 5 years of software engineering experience, including 3 years in senior or lead roles on AI/ML systems.
• A software engineering background with AI expertise, rather than a primarily data-science or research background.
• Hands-on generative AI, RAG, or LLM-based systems experience across discovery, architecture, agentic tools, evaluation, deployment, and metrics.
• Expert proficiency in Python or another object-oriented language, with strong backend service and API design skills.
• Solid understanding of machine-learning principles, evaluation methodologies, and distributed systems.
• Working experience with AI/ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Advanced experience with AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform.
• Experience integrating AI models into large-scale production systems through APIs, data pipelines, and cloud-native architectures.
• Technical leadership and mentoring experience as an individual contributor, with communication skills to influence senior stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading technical direction for teams building agent-based systems or enterprise integrations with AI APIs such as OpenAI or Anthropic.
• Advanced knowledge of vector databases, embeddings, semantic search, and information retrieval.
• Hands-on knowledge-graph experience, including graph data modeling, ontologies and taxonomies, graph databases such as Neo4j or Amazon Neptune, and combining graphs with LLMs through GraphRAG or entity extraction.
• Domain expertise in legal, tax, accounting, other regulated industries, or large-scale search platforms.
• Successful AI product launches and experience scaling AI systems for enterprise customers.
• Experience with AI governance, model risk management, and regulatory compliance.
• Publications, patents, or speaking experience in AI/ML.

Responsibilities

• Design and lead implementation of enterprise-scale AI systems, including multi-component pipelines, RAG and knowledge-graph architectures, and autonomous agents with multi-step reasoning.
• Remain hands-on across AI orchestration, RAG, API gateways, microservices, and modern web user interfaces.
• Evaluate emerging AI techniques, conduct proof-of-concept work, and assess technical feasibility for AI-driven features.
• Track AI research and translate relevant insights into technical roadmaps; represent the organization at industry conferences and events.
• Help make design decisions and translate business requirements into scalable technical specifications.
• Mentor senior and junior software engineers, and champion MLOps and LLMOps practices and governance for the AI model lifecycle.
• Design and implement testing, monitoring, and observability for AI systems at scale.
• Ensure AI systems comply with ethical AI principles, security standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Partner with AI researchers, engineering leadership, design, and product to turn AI capabilities into customer-facing applications.
• Set technical priorities, remain engaged through delivery, and help ensure AI investments produce measurable business value.
• Optimize system performance for latency, cost, and user experience, and influence product strategy through technical expertise.

Benefits

• Flexible vacation and paid time off, including sick and safe paid time off and paid holidays.
• Two company-wide Mental Health Days off annually.
• Access to the Headspace app and Employee Assistance Program.
• Retirement savings plan, including a 401(k) with company match in the United States.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• Employee incentive programs and possible annual bonus.
• Health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance programs in the United States.
• Parental leave and sabbatical leave.
• Flexible Spending and Health Savings Accounts.
• Fitness reimbursement.
• Commuter benefits.
• Adoption and surrogacy assistance.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• Two paid volunteer days annually and opportunities to participate in pro-bono consulting and ESG initiatives.
• Flexible hybrid work arrangements, including work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year.
• Career development and continuous-learning programs.
• Resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior