AI Engineer, Lead

Distyl; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% covered medical, dental, and vision

401(k) with additional perks

Access to modern AI tools

Job summary

Distyl in San Francisco is seeking a Lead Forward Deployed AI Engineer to drive the architecture and delivery of critical AI systems for large enterprises. This role requires hands-on leadership, project delivery, and technical decision-making with significant customer interaction.

Ideal candidates have over 5 years of engineering experience, an ownership mentality for AI systems, and strong solutions architecture fundamentals. The company offers a competitive salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits in a hybrid collaboration model.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of engineering experience, including tech lead roles.
• Ownership mentality for AI systems and accountability for production outcomes.
• Experience with cloud systems, API design, and data engineering.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of Forward Deployed AI Engineers.
• Design and implement AI systems aligned with business outcomes.
• Operate and improve live AI systems.

Skills

Engineering experience

Technical leadership

Solutions architecture fundamentals

AI-Native Working Style

Experience with cloud systems

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

Lead Forward Deployed AI Engineers are hands‑on technical leaders who own the architecture, execution, and delivery of critical production AI systems for large enterprise customers. They make technical decisions, lead project delivery, coach engineers, and partner closely with customer stakeholders and Distyl’s AI strategy team to ensure systems deliver real business value. This role is for engineers who want ownership over production outcomes: shaping system architecture, leading technical execution, working directly with customers, and improving AI systems under real‑world constraints.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of Forward Deployed AI Engineers—owning technical direction, code quality, execution standards, and individual growth
• Design and implement AI systems that combine models, agents, retrieval, evaluation, and execution into coherent, production‑ready systems aligned with real business outcomes
• Work directly with customer stakeholders, often in high‑visibility settings, and communicate clearly about system behavior, tradeoffs, limitations, and paths to improvement
• Operate and improve live AI systems by measuring behavior, identifying failure modes, debugging issues, and rapidly iterating on quality, reliability, and usefulness
• Integrate AI systems into customer data platforms, APIs, and existing applications. Make pragmatic system design decisions that balance speed, robustness, maintainability, and long‑term operability
• Take accountability for outcomes in production and adapt systems as requirements evolve

Who You Are

• 5+ years of engineering experience, including experience as a tech lead or engineering lead on customer‑facing or production AI projects
• Ownership mentality for AI systems. You take responsibility for whether an AI system delivers its intended value in production. You are comfortable making independent technical decisions across system design, evaluation, integration, and iteration
• Technical leadership in teams. Management experience is not required, but you should have led engineers through technical decision‑making, execution, mentorship, and delivery. Growth in this role includes taking on broader technical and leadership scope over time
• Strong solutions architecture fundamentals: You have experience with cloud systems, system integrations, API design, and data engineering. You can understand how an AI system fits into a broader enterprise ecosystem and operate as a peer to customer architecture and engineering teams
• AI‑Native Working Style: You use AI tools daily to write and debug code, explore designs, analyze data, and automate repetitive work. You are curious about new model capabilities and techniques, and actively incorporate them into how you build and iterate on systems
• Willingness to travel: Travel is typically 10–30%, depending on the project, customer needs, and your role on the engagement

What We Offer

• The base salary range for this role is $180K‑$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% covered medical, dental, and vision for employees and dependents
• 401(k) with additional perks (e.g., commuter benefits, in‑office lunch)
• Access to state‑of‑the‑art 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 prizes 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.