Staff Software Engineer — Search Platform, API & Infrastructure

This posting is for proactive recruitment purposes and may be used to fill current openings or future vacancies within our organization.

Overview of the Role:
Advanced Content Engineering (ACE) is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the design and delivery of the search platforms control-plane API and cloud infrastructure. The platforms core promise is self-service: internal client teams must be able to create a search system configure an ingestion topology promote a new index to production and monitor system health entirely through APIs without requiring direct involvement from the platform team. Building operating and continuously improving that self-service experience is the heart of this role.
This is a high-ownership high-leverage position at the intersection of platform engineering API design and cloud infrastructure. Staff Engineers on this team define build test deploy scale and operate what they ship full-stack ownership is the baseline not a bonus. Delivery friction is treated as an urgent engineering problem: the team ships to production constantly AI-assisted development is the norm and removing obstacles to fast safe delivery is everyones responsibility. The successful candidate brings enterprise-grade security instincts deep AWS expertise and a product-minded approach to developer experience treating the platforms API as a product in its own right.

About the Role
In this position you will focus on:
Platform Control-Plane API
Plan design develop and own the platforms management API the self-service interface through which client teams create and configure search systems manage ingestion topologies register reusable components promote index versions and monitor system health resolving problems of diverse scope with innovative thinking and little or no precedent to guide solutions
Architect the platforms multi-tenant access model: implement strict data isolation between client tenants integrate with enterprise identity providers establish role-based access control across all API endpoints and define the governance framework that ensures the platform can make credible security commitments to enterprise customers
Establish API strategy and cross-system integration patterns designing versioned backward-compatible interfaces with clear contracts comprehensive documentation and developer-experience patterns drawn from best-in-class
search platform providers and set governance standards that the team follows for all future API surface
Design and expose the API surface required to support the platforms evaluation and experimentation workflows including endpoints that enable the search grading tool to consume experiment run outputs query/result pairs and relevance judgments and that allow client teams to configure and trigger A/B search experiments through self-service interfaces
Design the configuration data model and persistence layer (DynamoDB and related services) that stores search system definitions component registry entries index lifecycle state and audit logs applying architectural patterns that scale to the platforms multi-tenant and multi-region ambitions
Break down complex business requirements into functional and technical requirements with consideration for security ethical AI implementation and operational efficiency; contribute to recommendations where technology transformation can spark business growth

Cloud Infrastructure & DevOps
Own the platforms AWS infrastructure as code defining provisioning and maintaining ECS services MSK clusters OpenSearch/Vespa deployments DynamoDB tables networking (VPC security groups NAT) and IAM roles using Terraform or AWS CDK establishing infrastructure governance standards and a cloud strategy for multi-environment and eventual multi-region operation
Design and own the CI/CD pipeline for platform services establishing DevOps culture and toolchain strategy for the team with a clear mandate to eliminate delivery friction: the team ships to production constantly and any obstacle to doing so safely is an engineering problem to be solved not a process to be accepted
Drive adoption of AI-assisted development practices across the teams infrastructure and API work establishing the tooling patterns and norms that enable engineers to leverage AI to move faster while maintaining the quality and reliability bar the platform demands
Own infrastructure cost management: monitor AWS spend across platform components evaluate architectural trade-offs at the system level and implement an enterprise performance and optimization framework that keeps the platforms economics sustainable as it scales including compute cost governance for inference workloads as custom model serving is introduced
Implement and operate customer-controlled encryption key (CMK) support applying security strategy risk assessment frameworks and security governance to give enterprise clients control over their encryption keys while preserving multi-tenant reliability

Reliability Engineering
Define and own platform-level SLOs covering API availability query latency ingestion throughput and end-to-end document freshness and build the
monitoring infrastructure (CloudWatch distributed tracing alerting) that makes SLO compliance continuously visible to the team and to client teams
Design the observability infrastructure for agentic retrieval paths where standard request/response logging is insufficient: implement trace-level instrumentation that captures tool invocation sequences per-hop latency and retrieval inputs enabling reliable diagnosis of failures and quality regressions in non-deterministic agent workflows
Take full operational responsibility for platform API and infrastructure you built it you own it you run it: triage and resolve incidents write thorough post-mortems and drive systematic improvements that prevent recurrence
Design enterprise performance strategy for the platforms API layer: load testing capacity planning performance profiling and system-level optimization ensuring the platform can handle planned growth in tenants content volumes and query traffic
Embed security architecture throughout the platforms infrastructure: least-privilege IAM secrets management encryption at rest and in transit audit logging and compliance implementation aligned with TRs enterprise security requirements

Technical Leadership
Establish architectural principles and cross-system design patterns for the platforms control plane and infrastructure functioning as the technical authority that other engineers and teams turn to for API and infrastructure guidance
Lead significant projects and business initiatives that span multiple engineers and interact with partner teams; determine work priorities and make adjustments to short-term priorities while maintaining strategic focus; provide specialist advice to senior management on complex infrastructure and security issues
Mentor and develop Senior and mid-level engineers providing coaching technical direction and educational opportunities in cloud infrastructure platform API design reliability engineering and AI-assisted development practices
Engage with client teams as a technical partner understanding their integration experience and pain points feeding structured requirements back into the platform API roadmap and proactively reducing time-to-value for new platform adopters
Deliver effective presentations on complex infrastructure and security concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders; champion ethical AI practices and responsible technology deployment across the teams work

About You
Youre an ideal fit if you have:
Required Experience
Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science Engineering or a related field
8 years of software engineering experience with demonstrated progression to staff-level or equivalent technical leadership including ownership of a functional area and leadership of significant cross-functional projects
Deep expertise in cloud-native platform and infrastructure engineering on AWS: VPC architecture IAM ECS Lambda DynamoDB MSK and related managed services with hands-on infrastructure-as-code experience (Terraform and/or AWS CDK) and the ability to establish infrastructure governance frameworks
Production experience with OpenSearch Vespa or Elasticsearch at an operational level cluster sizing backup and restore index lifecycle management and multi-tenant access controls
Mastery of Python with strategic awareness of language selection and migration; strong software engineering fundamentals including testing architecture security architecture and system design
Demonstrated enterprise security practice: security strategy risk assessment frameworks least-privilege IAM secrets management encryption at rest and in transit and compliance implementation in production cloud environments
Track record of establishing API governance frameworks cross-system integration patterns and documentation standards; experience designing multi-tenant SaaS-style platform APIs with versioning access control and first-class developer experience
Demonstrated reliability engineering ownership: SLO definition observability implementation on-call leadership and a track record of improving platform reliability through data-driven retrospectives with a clear philosophy that shipping frequently and operating reliably are complementary not in tension
Comfort and fluency with AI-assisted development tools; you use them to move faster and produce higher-quality infrastructure and API code and you actively help the team do the same

Preferred Experience
Experience operating Kafka (MSK) or other distributed messaging infrastructure in production including partition management consumer group monitoring and schema registry governance
Background in Kubernetes or ECS container orchestration including service mesh autoscaling and health check patterns
Experience building developer-facing internal platforms where API quality and documentation are treated as first-class product concerns
Knowledge of enterprise encryption patterns including customer-managed keys (AWS KMS) and their architectural implications for multi-tenant systems
Familiarity with distributed tracing infrastructure for non-deterministic or agentic workflows where trace design must capture tool call sequences and per-hop context not just request/response pairs
Familiarity with AI service architecture: evaluating AI vendors cost-benefit analysis and integrating AI API services with fallback strategies into production platform infrastructure.

What Success Looks Like
In the first 90 days:
Build a thorough understanding of the platforms current infrastructure API surface and operational posture including known gaps in reliability security and developer experience
Establish relationships with key client teams to understand their integration experience and pain points with the current platform
Take on-call ownership for your functional area and identify and begin delivering the highest-leverage near-term improvements to platform API or infrastructure reliability

In the first year:
Deliver a materially improved self-service platform API with strong multi-tenant isolation documented governance standards and measurably better developer experience for client teams
Establish end-to-end SLO coverage across platform services with automated alerting clear on-call runbooks documented architectural decision records and a track record of fast high-quality incident resolution
Own and deliver a major infrastructure initiative CMK support multi-environment maturity agentic observability infrastructure or a comparable project from architectural design through production establishing the principles and patterns that guide the platforms infrastructure evolution
Become the recognized technical authority for platform API and infrastructure shaping team standards influencing platform architecture and providing specialist guidance to leadership on complex infrastructure and security challenges.

#LI-TH1

Whats in it For You

• Hybrid Work Model: Weve 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 tomorrows 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 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 $136000 USD - $253000 USD. For any eligible US locations unless otherwise noted the base compensation range for this role is $118400 USD - $219800 USD. For Ontario Canada the base compensation range for this role is $140600 CAD - $190600 CAD. Base pay is positioned within the range based on several factors including an individuals 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 26000 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. 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