Applied AI Researcher, System Discovery

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

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical/dental/vision insurance

Flexible time off

Retirement planning (401k)

Wellness benefits via Carrot

In-office lunches

Job summary

Distyl AI is seeking researchers to pioneer AI-native operations, building across diverse AI system paradigms and deploying prototypes that redefine how software is used. You will work in a fast-moving, research-driven environment that values practical impact and real-world applications.

We value hands-on researchers who publish and share results, use AI tools daily, and collaborate across domains to deliver high-impact solutions for Fortune 500 partners.

Qualifications

• Experience building across many system paradigms (retrieval pipelines, reasoning agents, evaluation harnesses, multimodal integrations, or workflow graph systems).
• Experience building with models, not just building models; expertise in compound AI systems, agentic collaboration, and related techniques.
• Proven track record of research results (publications, notable work, etc.).
• Active daily use of AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Cursor, Perplexity) to accelerate workflows.

Responsibilities

• Identify entirely new classes of AI systems; explore architectures, modalities, and compositions to reshape work.
• Draw connections across domains to uncover new system archetypes and prototype novel human–AI collaboration.

Skills

AI research

Systems design

Prototyping

Data analysis

Coding

Agentic collaboration

Experimentation

Tools

ChatGPT

Cursor

Perplexity

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.

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 records, operate in an AI-native way, and would be bored staying on the rails of a traditional research org.

Key Responsibilities

• Analogous to hypothesis generation in the space of AI for scientific discovery, the System Discovery team focuses on identifying entirely new classes of AI systems. Researchers explore a wide range of architectures, modalities, and compositions to uncover how AI can most effectively reshape work
• Draw connections across disparate domains to uncover new system archetypes. Experiment with unconventional problem definitions and develop prototypes that reveal new categories of human–AI collaboration

Who You Are

• Experience Building a Wide Breadth of Systems: You’ve built across many paradigms—retrieval pipelines, reasoning agents, evaluation harnesses, multimodal integrations, or workflow graph systems—and can abstract what makes each effective
• 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.

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.