Manager, Research Science (Foundational Research, Machine Learning)

TRSS; London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 100,000

Job description

Are you a curious and open-minded individual with an interest in leading teams conducting state-of-the-art foundational machine learning research? Thomson Reuters Labs is seeking Research Scientist Managers with a passion for leading teams and solving challenging machine learning problems in a data-rich, complex academic environment driven by real-world problems.

Foundational Research is the dedicated core Machine Learning research division of Thomson Reuters. We are focused on research and development, with a particular focus on advanced algorithms and training techniques for Large Language Models (LLMs). We are building a strong foundation of research capabilities across different areas and are looking for managers who can inspire and guide their teams, are willing to roll up their sleeves and participate in designing, coding, conducting experiments, and translating findings into concrete deliverables. Our focus areas are:

1. LLM Training (Continued Pretraining, Instruction Tuning, Reinforcement Learning Alignment, Distributed Training, Efficient ML techniques)
2. Post-training techniques for planning & reasoning (e.g. LLMs & Knowledge Graphs, Advanced Prompting, CoT pipelines, RAG, Tool use, etc.)
3. Data-centric Machine Learning (Synthetic Data, Curriculum Learning, learned data-mixtures)
4. Evaluation (Benchmarks, Human-in-the-loop, red teaming/Adversarial Testing, Hallucination detection, ...)

We work collaboratively both with TR Labs (TR’s applied research division), academic partners at world-leading research institutions and subject matter experts with decades of experience. We experiment, prototype, test, and deliver ideas in the pursuit of smarter and more valuable models trained on an unprecedented wealth of data and powered by state-of-the-art technical infrastructure. Through our unique institutional experience, we have access to an unprecedented number of subject matter experts involved in data collection, testing and evaluation of trained models.

As a Research Scientist Manager, you will play a key part in leading a diverse global team of experts. We hire world-leading specialists in ML/NLP/GenAI, as well as Engineering, to drive the company’s leading internal AI model development. You will have the opportunity to publish your research findings as well as contribute to our proprietary AI model research & development. Thomson Reuters Labs is known for consistently delivering successful data-driven Artificial Intelligence solutions in pursuit of academic excellence and support of high-growth products that serve Thomson Reuters customers in new and exciting ways.

About the Role

In this opportunity, as Research Scientist Manager you will:

Lead: You will be involved in strategic planning, hiring and the management in foundational research. This gives you the opportunity to master your management skills, mentor, lead and help direct reports grow and contribute to the wider group.

Innovate: You will innovate and create new state-of-the-art ML/NLP/IR/GenAI approaches at the cutting edge of AI research. You will contribute ideas and work on solving real-world challenges using a wealth of data.

Experiment and Develop: You are involved in the entire research & model development lifecycle, brainstorming, coding, testing, and delivering high-quality reports at leading international academic conferences.

Collaborate: Working on a collaborative global team of research engineers both within Thomson Reuters and our academic partners at world-leading universities.

Communicate: Actively engage in sharing our technical findings with the wider community through contributions to seminars, lectures, conferences and/or the sharing of publications and/or technical assets (data & models).

About You

You're a fit for the role if your background includes:

Required Qualifications:

1. PhD in a relevant discipline.
2. Strong publication record in top-tier conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, ICLR).
3. Familiarity with one or more deep learning frameworks (e.g. pytorch, jax, tensorflow, …)
4. Experience in ML Research beyond completing a PhD (e.g. supervision, industry experience, leading academic initiatives, …).
5. Excellent communication skills to report and present research findings and developments clearly, both orally and in writing.
6. Curious and innovative disposition capable of devising novel, well-founded algorithmic solutions to relevant problems.
7. Good social skills and ability to motivate, inspire and mentor team members.
8. Comfortable in working in fast-paced, agile environments, managing uncertainty and ambiguity.

Preferred Qualifications:

1. High-impact publications in top-tier conferences or other influence in the research community.
2. 5+ years of hands-on experience leading teams building advanced ML / NLP / IR systems in academia (e.g. through student supervision) or for commercial applications.
3. Extensive experience with deep learning and large-scale model training.
4. Experience working on at least one relevant state-of-the-art research topic (see our focus areas) in large language models (LLMs).
5. Strong software and/or infrastructure engineering skills and ensuring well-managed software delivery, as evidenced by code contributions to popular open-source libraries or writing production code.
6. Experience training large-scale models over distributed nodes with cloud tools such as Amazon AWS, MS Azure, or Google Cloud.

What’s in it For You?

Join us to inform the way forward with the latest AI solutions and address real-world challenges in legal, tax, compliance, and news. Backed by our commitment to continuous learning and market-leading benefits, you’ll be prepared to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future. This includes:

1. Industry-Leading 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.
2. 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, and hybrid model, empowering employees to achieve a better work-life balance.
3. 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 skills-first approach ensures you have the tools and knowledge to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.
4. Culture: Globally recognized and award-winning reputation for inclusion, innovation, and customer-focus. Our eleven business resource groups nurture our culture of belonging across the diverse backgrounds and experiences represented across our global footprint.
5. 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.
6. 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 consulting projects and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.

Do you want to be part of a team helping re-invent the way knowledge professionals work? How about a team that works every day to create a more transparent, just and inclusive future? At Thomson Reuters, we’ve been doing just that for almost 160 years. Our industry-leading products and services include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the world’s most global news services – Reuters. We help these professionals do their jobs better, creating more time for them to focus on the things that matter most: advising, advocating, negotiating, governing and informing.

We are powered by the talents of 26,000 employees across more than 70 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments that celebrate diversity and inclusion. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.

Accessibility
As a global business, we rely on diversity of culture and thought to deliver on our goals. To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our operations around the world regardless of race, color, sex/gender, including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, citizen status, veteran status, or any other protected classification under applicable law. Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer providing a drug-free workplace.

We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law.

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More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on https://thomsonreuters.com.