Senior Software Engineer - AI (Materia AI)

Senior Software Engineer – AI (Materia AI)

We’re building the next generation of AI‑powered systems for tax and accounting professionals, and we need a Senior Software Engineer who can architect high‑performance backend platforms that make real‑world AI possible. If you thrive in fast‑moving environments, love solving complex distributed‑systems challenges, and want to see your work directly power intelligent, production‑scale features, this role is for you.

About the Role

As a Senior Software Engineer – AI, you will design, build, and optimize backend services that power AI‑native experiences across our Materia‑inspired product ecosystem. You will play a key role in shaping the architecture, performance, and reliability of the systems that orchestrate LLM interactions, serve high‑traffic APIs, and process large‑scale content.

Own Backend Architecture for AI‑Native Products

• Design and implement backend services using Python, FastAPI, and PostgreSQL.

• Build distributed systems that support real‑time AI interactions and high‑volume data flows.

• Define architectural patterns, service boundaries, and system interfaces for our AI platform.

Engineer High‑Performance Services

• Build APIs and microservices supporting AI agents, orchestration engines, and content pipelines.

• Optimize performance across concurrency, caching, throughput, and large‑scale document processing.

• Ensure backend systems scale seamlessly under demanding compute and data workloads.

Integrate AI Components Into Production Systems

• Connect backend services to LLM providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

• Implement orchestration logic, safe execution flows, request routing, and latency‑tuned real‑time AI capabilities.

• Productionize AI components with robust error handling, guardrails, and observability.

Raise the Engineering Bar

• Lead architecture discussions, code reviews, and key technical decisions.

• Champion engineering best practices in testing, resiliency, observability, and maintainability.

• Support CI/CD pipelines, DevOps workflows, and cloud automation patterns.

Collaborate Across Product & AI Teams

• Work closely with ML engineers, product managers, and designers to translate requirements into scalable solutions.

• Turn conceptual AI features into reliable backend capabilities used by thousands of professionals.

About You

Required Qualifications

• 4+ years of backend engineering experience building scalable APIs and microservices.

• Strong proficiency in Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and AWS-based cloud services.

• Solid understanding of distributed systems, architecture, and data modeling.

• Strong debugging skills and experience delivering production-grade systems.

• Excellent communication and cross‑functional collaboration abilities.

• Comfortable in fast‑paced, iterative environments with evolving requirements.

• Curiosity about AI technologies and enthusiasm for integrating them into real systems.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with AI‑driven systems or agent architectures.

• Familiarity with embeddings, vector search, or RAG-style retrieval systems.

• Strong opinions on backend testing, automation, and operational quality.

• Experience with modern LLM APIs or orchestration frameworks.

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What’s in it For You?

• 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.

• 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.

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 $127,000 USD - $235,000 USD. For any eligible US locations, unless otherwise noted, the base compensation range for this role is $110,000 USD - $204,200 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.

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.

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