Applied AI Researcher, System Discovery

Distyl Inc.

Job Overview

Location

Indiana, USA

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• At Distyl AI, we are at the forefront of revolutionizing how Fortune 500 companies leverage Artificial Intelligence to transform their core operational workflows. We are not just building AI systems; we are architecting the future of enterprise AI, delivering production-grade solutions with remarkable speed and tangible value, often within a single quarter. Our strategic partnership with OpenAI, combined with our proprietary software accelerators and deep-seated enterprise AI expertise, empowers us to create impactful AI solutions across diverse industries, from insurance and consumer packaged goods to non-profit organizations. As a member of our System Discovery team, you will play a pivotal role in guiding these leading companies to identify, build, and realize the immense value of their Generative AI investments, often marking their first successful foray into this transformative technology.
• Our approach is fundamentally customer-centric. We operate by working backward from the customer's most pressing challenges, holding ourselves accountable not only for generating significant financial impact but also for measurably improving the daily experiences and productivity of end-users. This commitment to real-world impact is what sets Distyl apart. We are a team composed of proven leaders and innovators, drawing talent from distinguished backgrounds at companies like Palantir and Apple. Our vision is further strengthened by the backing of premier investors including Lightspeed, Khosla, Coatue, Dell Technologies Capital, and influential figures such as Nat Friedman (Former CEO of GitHub), Brad Gerstner (Founder and CEO of Altimeter), and board members from over a dozen Fortune 500 corporations.
• The System Discovery team is where innovation truly ignites. We are seeking creative researchers who are driven by a desire to push beyond incremental improvements on existing benchmarks or the optimization of established processes. Instead, we are looking for individuals who are passionate about creatively redefining the very essence of how software is utilized. Our researchers hail from a wide array of academic disciplines but share a common thread: a strong track record of research excellence, an innate AI-native operational mindset, and an aversion to the constraints of traditional research organizations. If you thrive on exploring uncharted territories and envisioning entirely new paradigms for AI application, this is the place for you.
• Your primary mission will be to explore and identify entirely new classes of AI systems, analogous to hypothesis generation in the realm of AI for scientific discovery. This involves a deep dive into a broad spectrum of architectures, modalities, and compositional strategies to uncover novel ways AI can fundamentally reshape and enhance work. You will be tasked with drawing insightful connections across disparate domains, identifying emergent patterns that lead to the conception of new system archetypes. A key aspect of this role involves experimenting with unconventional problem definitions and developing innovative prototypes that vividly demonstrate new categories of human-AI collaboration, showcasing the potential for AI to augment human capabilities in unprecedented ways.
• We are looking for individuals who have a proven history of building a wide breadth of systems. This means experience across various paradigms such as retrieval pipelines, complex reasoning agents, robust evaluation harnesses, sophisticated multimodal integrations, or intricate workflow graph systems. Crucially, you should be able to abstract the core principles that make each of these systems effective and transferable. Our development philosophy centers on building intelligent systems *using* existing models, rather than solely focusing on training or fine-tuning them. Therefore, ideal candidates will possess expertise in the design and implementation of compound AI systems, agentic collaboration frameworks, and associated advanced techniques like ensembling, ReAct patterns, and Graph-of-Thoughts methodologies.
• A strong, demonstrable track record of research results is essential. Whether this is evidenced through publications in top-tier academic journals, impactful contributions shared on platforms like Twitter, or other significant research outputs, we want to see the tangible evidence of your innovative work. Furthermore, you should be an active, daily user of AI tools yourself. Before you can revolutionize the workflows of others, you must have already integrated AI into your own processes. Proficiency with tools such as ChatGPT, Cursor, Perplexity, and similar AI-powered assistants to accelerate your personal workflow is expected.
• While you may not identify strictly as a software engineer, strong programming and data analysis skills are non-negotiable. You must possess the ability to rapidly prototype your ideas and subsequently design and execute experiments to rigorously prove their effectiveness, particularly when presenting to a Fortune 500 Head of AI. We operate with a strong bias towards showing tangible results over merely discussing theoretical concepts. Our customers are eager to witness the immediate power of AI today, not to engage in lengthy discussions about elegant ideas that may take years to materialize. Your ability to translate complex research into demonstrable prototypes and impactful results will be key to your success.

🎯 Requirements

• Proven experience in building and deploying a wide breadth of AI systems across various paradigms (e.g., retrieval pipelines, reasoning agents, multimodal integrations, workflow graphs).
• Expertise in developing compound AI systems and agentic collaboration frameworks, utilizing techniques such as ensembling, ReAct, or Graph-of-Thoughts.
• A strong, demonstrable track record of research achievements, evidenced through publications, public contributions, or impactful project outcomes.
• Daily, hands-on experience using AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Cursor, Perplexity) to accelerate personal and professional workflows.
• Strong programming skills (e.g., Python) and data analysis capabilities for prototyping and experimental validation.
• Ability to abstract effective principles from diverse system architectures and apply them to novel problem spaces.

🏖️ Benefits

• Competitive base salary range of $130K - $250K, commensurate with experience, location, and level.
• Meaningful equity participation in a high-growth startup.
• Comprehensive benefits package including 100% covered medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their dependents.
• 401(k) plan with additional perks such as commuter benefits and in-office lunches.
• Access to state-of-the-art AI models and generous usage of modern AI tools.
• Opportunity to work on high-impact projects with leading Fortune 500 enterprises.
• A mission-driven, fast-paced culture that values curiosity, pragmatism, and excellence.

Skills & Technologies

React

Rails

GitHub

Remote

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Distyl Inc.

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About Distyl Inc.

Distyl is a cloud-native platform designed to simplify and accelerate the development and deployment of machine learning (ML) models. It provides a unified environment for data preparation, model training, versioning, and deployment, enabling data scientists and ML engineers to move from experimentation to production faster. The platform offers features such as automated data pipelines, managed training infrastructure, and scalable model serving. Distyl aims to reduce the complexity and operational overhead associated with MLOps, allowing organizations to focus on building and deploying impactful ML solutions. It supports various ML frameworks and integrates with existing cloud infrastructure.

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