System Discovery AI Researcher — Build Next‑Gen AI Systems

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

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.