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Lead Research Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Lead Research Engineer

Eagan, MN · On-site

$104K - $137K/yr

We are seeking a Lead Research Engineer who will bring expertise in AI and ML and is interested in building data-driven capabilities that transform the way legal, accounting, and government ...

Lead Research Engineer

Eagan, MN · On-site +1

$104K - $137K/yr

We are seeking a Lead Research Engineer who will bring expertise in AI and ML and is interested in building data-driven capabilities that transform the way legal, accounting, and government ...

Lead Research Engineer

New York, NY · On-site +1

$112K - $147K/yr

We are seeking a Lead Research Engineer who will bring expertise in AI and ML and is interested in building data-driven capabilities that transform the way legal, accounting, and government ...

Lead Research Engineer

Frisco, TX · On-site +1

$95K - $126K/yr

We are seeking a Lead Research Engineer who will bring expertise in AI and ML and is interested in building data-driven capabilities that transform the way legal, accounting, and government ...

Lead Research Engineer

Ann Arbor, MI · On-site +1

$100K - $132K/yr

We are seeking a Lead Research Engineer who will bring expertise in AI and ML and is interested in building data-driven capabilities that transform the way legal, accounting, and government ...

Lead Research Engineer, Data Quality

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $159K/yr

About the role We're looking for a Lead Research Engineer, Data Quality to own how HUD measures, improves, and scales the quality of training data for frontier agents. You'll lead the data quality ...

Research Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $200K/yr

We are actively seeking a Research Engineer specializing in Machine Learning and AI to play a ... In this role, you will lead end-to-end research projects and contribute technical expertise to ...

Research Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $200K/yr

We are actively seeking a Research Engineer specializing in Machine Learning and AI to play a ... In this role, you will lead end-to-end research projects and contribute technical expertise to ...

Lead R&D Engineer

$104K - $138K/yr

Lead R&D Engineer Location: Remote Job Type: Permanent We are seeking an experienced Lead R&D Engineer specializing in Switchgear to join our dynamic team. The successful candidate will be ...

Senior Research Engineer

Mountain View, CA · On-site

$124K - $170K/yr

They are seeking a Senior Research Engineer to lead perception research and advance their autonomous robotics platform while mentoring a team of engineers. Responsibilities : • Lead research ...

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Lead Research Engineer information

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$42.5K

$123.8K

$180.5K

How much do lead research engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 11, 2026, the average yearly pay for lead research engineer in the United States is $123,784.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $102,500.00 and $135,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a lead research engineer?

Lead Research Engineers are professionals who oversee and guide research and development projects within engineering teams. They are responsible for designing experiments, developing innovative solutions, and leading teams in the creation of new technologies or products. In addition to technical expertise, they often coordinate cross-functional collaboration, manage project timelines, and ensure that research objectives align with organizational goals. Their role is crucial in bridging the gap between scientific research and practical engineering applications.

How does a lead research engineer typically collaborate with cross-functional teams during a project?

As a Lead Research Engineer, you will often act as a bridge between research, engineering, and product teams. You’ll be responsible for translating complex research concepts into practical solutions, coordinating with software engineers to implement prototypes, and working closely with product managers to align on project goals. Effective communication and strong project management skills are crucial, as you’ll facilitate regular meetings, provide technical guidance, and ensure that research outcomes are integrated smoothly into the final product. This collaborative environment fosters innovation and often provides opportunities to lead interdisciplinary projects.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a lead research engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Lead Research Engineer, you need advanced expertise in engineering principles, research methodologies, and a relevant advanced degree such as a Master's or PhD. Familiarity with simulation software, data analysis tools, programming languages (like Python or MATLAB), and project management systems is typically required. Strong leadership, creative problem-solving, and excellent communication skills help drive innovation and effectively manage multidisciplinary teams. These skills and qualities are crucial for advancing research objectives, leading complex projects, and delivering impactful technological solutions.

What is the difference between Lead Research Engineer vs Research Engineer?

AspectLead Research EngineerResearch Engineer
CredentialsBachelor's/Master's/Ph.D. in engineering or related field, leadership experienceBachelor's/Master's/Ph.D. in engineering or related field
Work EnvironmentLeads projects, manages teams, collaborates with stakeholdersConducts research, develops prototypes, tests concepts
Industry UsageUsed in R&D departments across tech, manufacturing, aerospaceCommon in labs, product development, innovation teams

The main difference is that a Lead Research Engineer oversees research projects and manages teams, while a Research Engineer focuses on conducting research and developing solutions. The Lead Research Engineer typically has more leadership responsibilities and strategic input, whereas the Research Engineer is more hands-on with technical tasks.

What states have the most Lead Research Engineer jobs?

States with the most job openings for Lead Research Engineer jobs include:

What are popular job titles related to Lead Research Engineer jobs?

For Lead Research Engineer jobs, the most frequently searched job titles are:

Infographic showing various Lead Research Engineer job openings in the United States as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 89% Full Time, 9% Part Time, and 2% Contract. Highlights an 89% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 8% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $123,784 per year, or $59.5 per hour.

Lead Research Engineer

Eagan, MN • On-site

Thomson Reuters
Analytics and Business Intelligence Systems • 10K+ employees

$104K - $137K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Re-posted 13 hours ago


Thomson Reuters rating

8.9

Company rating: 8.9 out of 10

Based on 22 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz


Job description

Do you love creating innovative solutions for customers? Then come and apply your skills and passion for technology at Thomson Reuters Labs. We are seeking a Lead Research Engineer who will bring expertise in AI and ML and is interested in building data-driven capabilities that transform the way legal, accounting, and government professionals work across the globe. As a member of Thomson Reuters Labs, you will have a direct impact on our company and develop products and features that will delight our customers.
What does Thomson Reuters Labs do?
We experiment, we build, we deliver. We obsess over our customers through applied research and development of new products and technologies. In TR Labs, we act fast and learn fast, innovating collaboratively across our core segments in Legal, Tax & Accounting, Government, and Reuters News.
As a Lead Research Engineer at Thomson Reuters Labs, you will be part of a global interdisciplinary team of experts. We hire engineers and specialists across a variety of AI research areas to drive the company's digital transformation. The science and engineering of AI are rapidly evolving. We are looking for a lead who drives strategy across initiatives, shapes engineering practices and standards, and who force multiplies the capabilities of our teams through mentorship and technical leadership.
Is this you? Come join us!
About the Role
In this opportunity as a Lead Research Engineer, you will:
  • Be a Leader: Provide technical leadership partnering with other engineers to develop and improve methodology and evolve the technology stack by establishing standards and best practices that scale.
  • Develop and Deliver: Applying modern software development practices, you will be involved in the entire software development lifecycle, building, testing and delivering high-quality solutions.
  • Build Scalable ML Solutions: You will create large scale data processing pipelines to help researchers build and train novel machine learning algorithms. You will develop high performing scalable systems in the context of large online delivery environments.
  • Be a Team Player: Working in a collaborative team-oriented environment, you will share information, value diverse ideas, partner with cross-functional and remote teams.
  • Be an Agile Person: With a strong sense of urgency and a desire to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, you will deliver timely solutions.
  • Be Innovative: You are empowered to try new approaches and learn new technologies. You will contribute innovative ideas, create solutions, and be accountable for end-to-end deliveries.
  • Be an Effective Communicator: Through dynamic engagement and communication with cross-functional partners and team members, you will effectively articulate ideas and collaborate on technical developments.

About You
  • A Bachelor of Science degree, computer science or related field
  • At least 8 years software engineering experience, ideally in the context of machine learning and natural language processing
  • Experience leading technical workstreams within a software engineering organization.
  • Skilled and have a deep understanding of Python software development stacks and ecosystems, experience with other programming languages and ecosystems is ideal.
  • Driving innovation throughout the entire software lifecycle - specify, design, build, scale and maintain Machine Learning systems and capabilities in production environments.
  • Familiarity with the Python data science stack through exposure to libraries such as Numpy, Scipy, Pandas, Dask, spaCy, NLTK, scikit-learn, PyTorch.
  • Take pride in writing clean, reusable, maintainable and well-tested code
  • Experience in collaborating with research scientists to evaluate, prototype and productionize research concepts
  • Proficiency in automation, system monitoring, and cloud-native applications, with familiarity in AWS or Azure (or a related cloud platform)
  • Proficiency in system analysis and design & Consider DevOps and automation as fundamental pillars of your work
  • A desire to learn and embrace new and emerging technology
  • Familiarity with probabilistic models and have an understanding of the mathematical concepts underlying machine learning methods
  • Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, elevate team technical practise
  • Experience integrating Machine Learning solutions into production-grade software with a sound understanding of ModelOps and MLOps principles and the ability to translate between language and methodologies used both in research and engineering fields
  • Previous exposure to Natural Language Processing (NLP) problems and have familiarity with key tasks such as Named Entity Recognition (NER), Information Extraction, Information Retrieval, etc.
  • Hands-on experience in other programming and scripting languages (Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, etc.)

#LI-SM2
This posting is for proactive recruitment purposes and may be used to fill current openings or future vacancies within our organization.
What's in it For You?
  • Hybrid Work Model: We've adopted a flexible hybrid working environment for our office-based roles while delivering a seamless experience that is digitally and physically connected.
  • 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.

Our use of AI within the recruitment process Thomson Reuters utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our global recruitment process. Unless you opt-out, our AI system will assess the information provided by you and compare it to the requirements listed for the role, and present the result to our recruitment personnel for further review. The AI system acts as a supporting tool, but there is always a human making the decision if you will be considered for the role.
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.Eligible office location(s) for this role include one or more of the following: New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and/or Irvine, CA; McLean, VA; Washington, DC. The base compensation range for the role in any of those locations is $146,800 USD - $272,600 USD.For any eligible US locations, unless otherwise noted, the base compensation range for this role is $127,400 USD - $236,600 USD.For Ontario, Canada, the base compensation range for this role is $140,000 CAD - $175,000 CAD.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.
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.
Thomson Reuters makes reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities, including veterans with disabilities, and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law. If you reside in the United States and require an accommodation in the recruiting process, you may contact our Human Resources Department at HR.Leave-Expert@thomsonreuters.com. Disability accommodations in the recruiting process may include things like a sign language interpreter, making interview rooms accessible, providing assistive technology, or other relevant accommodations. Please note this email is not intended for general recruitment questions and we will promptly respond to inquiries regarding accommodations. 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

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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

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