Applied AI Researcher, AI Systems

Distyl AI seeks an Applied AI Researcher on its AI Systems team to research and build intelligent systems for dynamic, mission-critical enterprise workflows. The role emphasizes building with existing models rather than training or fine-tuning models. Distyl works with organizations in sectors including telecom, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing and consumer goods.

Responsibilities

• Design compound, end-to-end AI architectures that orchestrate perception, reasoning, planning and execution. Integrate LLMs, retrievers, evaluators, memory systems and execution agents into robust, scalable systems.
• Investigate coordination, information flow and emergent behavior across multiple agents and models. Identify principles of robustness, composability and alignment that can guide system design.
• Prototype ideas and run experiments that demonstrate their effectiveness for enterprise customers, with an emphasis on showing practical results.

Candidate profile:

• Expertise in compound AI systems, agentic collaboration and techniques such as ensembling, ReAct and graph-of-thoughts.
• A demonstrated research track record, whether through publications or other publicly shared work. Strong programming and data analysis skills are needed to build prototypes and evaluate results.
• Regular use of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Cursor and Perplexity to accelerate work. Researchers may come from varied academic backgrounds; no specific degree or years of experience are stated.

Location and compensation:

• The role is listed in San Francisco and New York and follows a hybrid model requiring 3+ days per week in the office, including Tuesday–Thursday.
• Base salary is $150K–$250K, depending on experience, location and level, plus eligibility for equity. Benefits include 100% medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and dependents, flexible time off, retirement and financial-planning resources, wellness and family-building benefits, and in-office lunches and snacks.