ZipRecruiter

Log In

1

Director Applied Research Innovation Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Watts

Sr. Applied Research Engineer 1

Blauvelt, NY · On-site

Other duties assigned by the Director of Applied Research. * Participates in open innovation with universities and start-ups as assigned, including as a team member or company representative. * Work ...

Prosperity Now

Director of Applied Research & Policy

$112K - $163K/yr

... change through innovation, strategic investment, collaboration, and evidence-informed action ... Position Summary The Director of Applied Research & Policy leads Prosperity Now's enterprise ...

next page

Showing results 1-20

All JobsScience JobsResearch JobsDirector Applied Research Innovation Jobs

Director Applied Research Innovation information

See salary details

$57.5K

$191.3K

$230.5K

How much do director applied research innovation jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 10, 2026, the average yearly pay for director applied research innovation in the United States is $191,320.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $135,500.00 and $229,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What does a director of applied research innovation do?

A Director of Applied Research Innovation leads teams to develop and implement innovative solutions by bridging scientific research and practical application. They oversee research projects, manage cross-functional teams, and ensure that new technologies or processes align with business goals. Their role involves identifying opportunities for innovation, collaborating with stakeholders, and guiding the commercialization of new ideas. They play a crucial part in maintaining an organization's competitive edge through research-driven advancements.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a director of applied research innovation?

To thrive as a Director of Applied Research Innovation, you need deep expertise in research methodologies, innovation management, and a relevant advanced degree such as a PhD or Master's in a technical field. Familiarity with data analytics tools, project management software, and experience with research funding systems and intellectual property processes are typically required. Outstanding leadership, strategic thinking, and the ability to foster cross-functional collaboration are key soft skills for excelling in this position. These qualities are essential for driving impactful research initiatives, ensuring effective team performance, and translating research into actionable innovations for organizational growth.

How does a director of applied research innovation typically collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive project success?

A Director of Applied Research Innovation regularly partners with teams across R&D, product management, engineering, and business development to ensure research initiatives align with organizational goals. This collaboration often involves facilitating regular strategy meetings, coordinating pilot studies, and translating research findings into actionable insights for product or service improvement. Effective communication and stakeholder management are essential, as the director must bridge the gap between scientific research and practical business applications. Building strong interdisciplinary relationships is key to driving innovation and securing buy-in for new initiatives.

What is the difference between Director Applied Research Innovation vs Research Scientist?

AspectDirector Applied Research InnovationResearch Scientist
CredentialsAdvanced degrees (Master's/PhD), leadership experienceTypically a Master's or PhD in relevant field
Work EnvironmentLeadership roles, strategic planning, cross-department collaborationLaboratory or field research, data analysis
Employer & Industry UsageResearch institutions, corporations, R&D divisionsUniversities, research labs, corporate R&D
Search & Comparison IntentUnderstanding leadership and strategic roles in researchFocus on technical research and experimentation

The main difference is that the Director Applied Research Innovation oversees strategic research initiatives and manages teams, while the Research Scientist conducts hands-on experiments and data analysis. The director focuses on innovation and leadership, whereas the scientist emphasizes technical expertise and research execution.

What are popular job titles related to Director Applied Research Innovation jobs?

For Director Applied Research Innovation jobs, the most frequently searched job titles are:

Infographic showing various Director Applied Research Innovation job openings in the United States as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 86% Full Time, 13% Part Time, and 1% Contract. Highlights an 91% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 6% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $191,320 per year, or $92 per hour.

Director, Applied Research

New York, NY • On-site

THOMSON REUTERS
Analytics and Business Intelligence Systems • 10K+ employees
Learn more about THOMSON REUTERSexternal

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Re-posted 5 days ago

Thomson Reuters rating

8.9

Company rating: 8.9 out of 10

Based on 22 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

35th of 502 rated business services

Job description

Director, Applied Research

Are you excited about working at the forefront of applied research in an industry setting?Thomson Reuters Labsis seekingan experiencedscientist withstrongproduct mindset toleada high-performing team developing transformativesolutions for tax, audit, and accounting professionals.

About the role

What doesTR Labsdo? We experiment, we build, we deliver. We support the organization and our customers through applied researchandinnovation. We work closely with product and domain experts toidentifycompelling solutions at the intersection ofcustomerneedsand technical feasibility.We partner closely with product engineering teams to deliverreal value in high-stakes settings,where accuracy and verificationare essential.

Our team is designingthe nextgenerationofagentic AIfortax & accounting professionalsaround the globe.Thisisanopportunityto create entirely new workflows addressing fundamental challenges in the industry.TR has all the ingredientsfromannotatedtax lawtorobusttaxengines andend-to-end solutions for data management, filing, audit, and compliance.Comejoin the R&Dteamfor Thomson Reuters'portfolio oftaxproducts, includingCheckpoint,CoCounselTax,andOneSource.

About You

You hold a PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a closely related field or a Master's with equivalent depth, a strong science background, and a relevant publication record. You bring 10+ years of hands-on industry experience building AI/ML systems for commercial applications, with recent direct experience developing LLM-based and agentic systems in production. You have 5+ years leading and developing high-performing applied science or ML teams.

What You'll Do

  • Lead and develop a high-performing applied science team working on agentic AI for tax and accounting professionals

  • Drive the design and delivery of AI features that meaningfully reimagine customer workflows in high-stakes, accuracy-critical settings

  • Serve as a strategic thought partner to Labs leadership, product leadership, and key business stakeholders on long-term AI strategy, partnerships, and capability roadmap

  • Influence product strategy through deep technical knowledge combined with insight from usage data, quality metrics, and customer feedback

  • Continuously improve ways of working across R&D and product engineering in a fast-paced, tightly embedded delivery cycle

  • Engage domain and subject matter experts in concept development and design workshops

  • Foster a team culture of innovation, rigour, collaboration, and continuous learning

Required Qualifications

  • PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field or Master's with a strong science background and relevant publication record - required

  • 10+ years of hands-on industry experience building AI/ML systems for commercial applications - not research-only experience

  • Recent, direct hands-on experience developing LLM-based and agentic AI systems for production, non-trivial use cases

  • 5+ years of experience managing and developing high-performing applied science or ML teams

  • Demonstrated success in product- or customer-facing roles, with business and customer impact as the primary measure of success

  • Technical depth in AI/ML sufficient to provide effective challenge, expand on team ideas, and support high-quality technical decision-making

Preferred Qualifications

  • Technical depth in information retrieval and NLP, with experience in complex vertical domains - taxonomy induction, document understanding, agentic search, knowledge graphs, or neuro-symbolic approaches

  • Experience with AI agent evaluation, language model training with verifiable rewards, and synthetic data generation

  • Publications at ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, NeurIPS, ICLR, SIGIR, KDD, or equivalent

  • Experience building AI solutions for tax, legal, audit, or accounting domains

  • Track record of growth at top-tier technology companies or high-growth startups

#LI-LP2

What's in it For You?

  • 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, 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 Grow My Way programming and skills-first approach ensures you have the tools and knowledge to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.

  • Industry Competitive 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.

  • Culture: Globally recognized, award-winning reputation for inclusion and belonging, flexibility, work-life balance, and more. We live by our values: Obsess over our Customers, Compete to Win, Challenge (Y)our Thinking, Act Fast / Learn Fast, and Stronger Together.

  • 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.

  • Making a Real-World Impact:We are one of the few companies globally that helps its customers pursue justice, truth, and transparency. Together, with the professionals and institutions we serve, we help uphold the rule of law, turn the wheels of commerce, catch bad actors, report the facts, and provide trusted, unbiased information to people all over the world.

In the United States, Thomson Reuters offers a comprehensive benefits package to our employees. Our benefit package includes market competitive health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance programs, as well as a competitive 401k plan with company match. In addition, Thomson Reuters offers market leading work life benefits with competitive vacation, sick and safe paid time off, paid holidays (including two company mental health days off), parental leave, sabbatical leave. These benefits meet or exceeds the requirements of paid time off in accordance with any applicable state or municipal laws. Finally, Thomson Reuters offers the following additional benefits: optional hospital, accident and sickness insurance paid 100% by the employee; optional life and AD&D insurance paid 100% by the employee; Flexible Spending and Health Savings Accounts; fitness reimbursement; access to Employee Assistance Program; Group Legal Identity Theft Protection benefit paid 100% by employee; access to 529 Plan; commuter benefits; Adoption & Surrogacy Assistance; Tuition Reimbursement; and access to Employee Stock Purchase Plan.Thomson Reuters complies with local laws that require upfront disclosure of the expected pay range for a position. The base compensation range varies across locations. For any eligible US locations, unless otherwise noted, the base compensation range for this role is $198,200 USD - $368,000 USD. Base pay is positioned within the range based on several factors including an individual's knowledge, skills and experience with consideration given to internal equity. Base pay is one part of a comprehensive Total Reward program which also includes flexible and supportive benefits and other wellbeing programs. This role may also be eligible for an Annual Bonus based on a combination of enterprise and individual performance. This job posting will close 09/05/2026.

About Us

Thomson Reuters informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. We serve professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Our products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world leading provider of trusted journalism and news.

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. 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.

As a global business, we rely on the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of all employees to deliver on our business 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 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. More information on requesting an accommodation here.

Learn more on how to protect yourself from fraudulent job postings here.

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

What Thomson Reuters employees say

Pay

Benefits

Hours and flexibility

Workplace

Get the full story on Breakroom

Thomson Reuters logo

About Thomson Reuters

Sourced by ZipRecruiter

Industry

Analytics and business intelligence systems, finance and insurance, business management consulting, professional, scientific, and technical services and software development

Company size

10,000+ Employees

Headquarters location

New York, NY, US

Social media

FacebookTwitter

View All Thomson Reuters Jobs

Apply