Applied Research Intern

Are you a curious and open-minded individual with an interest in programming and machine learning? Thomson Reuters Labs in Toronto is seeking an applied scientist intern with a passion for problem-solving using state-of-the-art ML/NLP/IR/GenAI techniques.

What does Thomson Reuters Labs do? We experiment, we build, we deliver. We support the organization and our customers through applied research and development of new products and technologies. The Labs innovate collaboratively across our core segments in Legal, Tax & Accounting, Government, and Reuters News.  We undertake a diverse portfolio of projects today, while investing in long term research for the future.

As an intern, you will be part of a diverse and interdisciplinary global team of experts. We hire specialists in ML/NLP/IR/GenAI, as well as Engineering and Design to drive the company’s digital and AI transformation. Thomson Reuters Labs is known for consistently delivering successful data-driven Artificial Intelligence solutions in support of high-growth products that serve Thomson Reuters customers in new and exciting ways.

The internship duration at Thomson Reuters Labs is typically up to 6 to 8 months and may be aligned with one or two academic semesters or depending upon your availability.

About the role 

As applied research intern you will:

• Innovate: You will have the opportunity to try new ML/NLP/IR/GenAI approaches and learn new technologies. You will contribute ideas and work on solving real-world challenges. 
• Experiment and Develop: You can be involved in the entire model development lifecycle, building, testing, and delivering high-quality solutions.
• Collaborate: Working on a collaborative cross-functional team of PMs, SMEs, engineers and designers, you will learn from and partner with colleagues across the globe.

• Learning and development: On-the-job coaching and learning as well as the opportunity to work with cutting-edge methods and technologies.
• Plenty of data, compute, and high-impact problems: Our scientists and engineers get to play with large datasets and discover new capabilities and insights in support of our high-impact products and customers. Thomson Reuters is best known for the globally respected Reuters News agency, but our company is also the leading source of information for legal, corporate, and tax & Accounting professionals. We have over 60,000 TBs worth of legal, regulatory, news, and tax data. We also provide access to all major cloud computing platforms to our researchers and engineers.
• Competitive compensation: The opportunity to earn while learning new skills.

About you
You’re a fit for the role of Applied Research Intern if your background includes:

• PhD student or recent MSc graduate in a discipline relevant to NLP/ML/IR/Statistics,
• Practical and relevant experience building NLP/ML/IR/GenAI systems, from ideation to implementation,
• Software engineering skills for prototyping including:
  • Proficiency in implementing solutions using Python, data science libraries (Numpy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, etc.), DL frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, etc.) and relevant tools,
  • Experience in using code collaboration and versioning systems such as Github,
  • Familiarity with cloud tools such as Amazon AWS, MS Azure, or Google Cloud,
  • Comfortable working with unstructured datasets and knowledgeable about tools and techniques for data cleaning and processing,
• Data-driven problem solving and decision-making mindset,
• Curious and innovative disposition capable of proposing outside the box solutions,
• Comfortable in communicating (verbal and written) complex AI solutions to audience with diverse technical backgrounds.

Preferred qualifications:

• Familiarity with attention mechanism and transformer neural networks such as BERT and GPT,
• Familiarity with generative AI (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs),
• Familiarity with GenAI supporting technologies such as Prompt Engineering, RAG, Fine-tuning, etc.
• Publications at relevant venues such as ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, NeurIPS, ICLR, SIGIR, KDD, or similar venues,
• Ability to translate academic research into working prototypes and experience experimenting with novel NLP/ML/IR models to solve real-world problems,
• Self-driven attitude and ability of working with limited supervision,
• Team player and comfortable to collaborate with internal team members and external stakeholders,
• Comfortable in working in fast-paced, agile environments managing uncertainty and ambiguity.

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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:

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.