Applied AI Researcher, Post-Training

Distyl; New York, San Francisco (NY, CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical insurance

Flexible time off

401(k) plan

Commuter benefits

In-office lunches

Access to AI models

High-impact projects

Mission-driven culture

Job summary

Distyl AI is seeking researchers to join our Post-Training team, translating foundation models into enterprise-ready systems. You will work on supervised fine-tuning, preference optimization, and continual adaptation to align models with Distyl’s workflows.

You will shape how AI-native operations are deployed across industries, building prototypes and conducting experiments that demonstrate impact using real-world data.

Qualifications

• Deep understanding of post-training techniques including supervised fine-tuning, preference optimization (RLHF/DPO), LoRA/PEFT, and instruction-tuning pipelines.
• Experience adapting frontier models to specialized domains or behaviors through data curation or continual pretraining.
• Experience building intelligent systems using models as components rather than only training models.
• Proven track record of research results via publications or public demonstrations.
• Active use of AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Cursor, Perplexity) to accelerate workflows.
• Strong programming and data analysis skills with ability to prototype and run experiments.

Responsibilities

• The Post-Training team adapts foundation models to real-world performance and alignment, developing techniques to align models with enterprise systems.
• Researchers investigate alignment methods, considering generalization vs. specialization and data efficiency vs. robustness.

Skills

Post-training techniques

Frontier-model adaptation

Prototyping with AI systems

Research track record

Hands-on AI tooling

Tools

Python

PyTorch

RLHF/DPO

LoRA/PEFT

Job description

About Distyl AI

Distyl is an applied AI technology company partnering with the world’s most ambitious institutions to rearchitect critical operations for the frontier of AI. Our customers include the largest companies in telecom, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, consumer goods, and global social organizations.

We research and deploy technologies that power AI-native operations — both for our partners and for Distyl itself. Our work spans research into self-constructing systems, the development of the most reliable execution of AI systems, and products that transform mission-critical workflows. As a result, Distyl's technologies affect some of the world's largest operations — from hundreds of millions of consumer interactions to tens of millions of supply chain transactions and millions of patient journeys.

Distyl is backed by leading investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Coatue, DST Global, and the board members of 20+ F500s. The results reflect this approach: a 100% production deployment success rate for our customers and one of the few enterprise AI companies to run a profitable business.

What We Are Looking For

At Distyl we’re pushing the envelope of AI utilization in enterprise. This requires creative researchers who don’t just want to drive incremental improvements on benchmarks or optimize an existing process but instead are looking to creatively redefine how software is used.

Our researchers come from many academic backgrounds but have strong research track record, operate in an AI-native way, and would be bored staying on the rails of a traditional research org.

Key Responsibilities

• The Post-Training team focuses on adapting foundation models to real-world performance and alignment requirements. Researchers develop and evaluate techniques such as supervised fine-tuning, preference optimization (DPO, RLHF, RLAIF), and continual adaptation to align models with Distyl’s enterprise systems. The goal is to bridge raw model capability with trustworthy, contextually aligned system behavior

• Researchers in Post-Training investigate new methods for aligning large models with human and system-level objectives. They explore trade-offs between generalization and specialization, data efficiency and robustness, capability and controllability. Their work informs how Distyl leverages foundation models safely, effectively, and at scale across industries

What We Require

• Deep Understanding of Post-training Techniques: Familiarity with supervised fine-tuning, preference optimization (RLHF/DPO), LoRA/PEFT, and instruction-tuning pipelines.

• Experience Adapting Frontier Models: You’ve tuned or adapted LLMs/SLMs to specialized domains or behaviors through data curation, reward modeling, or continual pretraining.

• Experience Building with Models, Not Just Building Models: We develop intelligent systems using models rather than training or fine-tuning them. Ideal candidates have expertise in compound AI systems, agentic collaboration, and associated techniques (ensembling, ReAct, graph-of-thoughts, etc.).

• Proven Track Record of Research Results: Whether you’ve published in top journals, posted amazing work on twitter, or somewhere else we want to see what you’ve done.

• Uses AI Every Day: Before you can revolutionize someone else’s workflow, you need to revolutionize yours. You should be using tools like ChatGPT, Cursor, and Perplexity to accelerate your workflow.

• Strong Programming and Data Analysis Skills: While you might not consider yourself a software engineer you need to be able to build prototypes of your ideas and then perform the experiments to prove the effectiveness to a F500 Head of AI.

• Biases Towards Showing vs Telling: Our customers want to see the power of AI today vs discuss the most elegant idea that will take 5 years to realize.

What We Offer

• The base salary range for this role is $150K – $250K, depending on experience, location, and level. In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible for meaningful equity, along with a comprehensive benefits package

• 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents

• Flexible time off

• Retirement and financial planning benefits, including access to pre‑tax HSA, FSA, and commuter accounts, 401(k), and financial coaching resources

• Comprehensive wellness benefits, including physical fitness, mental well-being, and fertility and family‑building benefits through Carrot

• Complimentary in‑office lunches and snacks provided

• Access to state‑of‑the‑art AI models, generous usage of modern AI tools, and real‑world business problems

• Ownership of high‑impact projects across top enterprises

• A mission‑driven, fast‑moving culture that values curiosity, pragmatism, and excellence

Distyl has offices in San Francisco and New York. This role follows a hybrid collaboration model with 3+ days per week (Tuesday–Thursday) in‑office.

#LI-Hybrid

We believe diverse perspectives make our work stronger and more impactful. We are an equal opportunity employer and evaluate all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.