Applied AI Researcher, Benchmarking

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.

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.

• Define how progress is measured. Researchers design evaluation frameworks that capture reasoning depth, interaction quality, reliability, and operational impact. They construct benchmarks that reflect real‑world complexity. Their systems become the standard by which new architectures, techniques, and releases are judged.
• Explore new paradigms for evaluating intelligent systems: adversarial robustness testing, longitudinal performance tracking, and human‑in‑the‑loop assessment. Investigate how metrics shape model behavior and establish rigorous methodologies for quantifying emergent capability. Drive both Distyl’s internal research priorities and industry‑wide standards.

• Experience designing and running evaluations: built or maintained benchmarks, test suites, or experimental frameworks to measure model or system performance.
• Statistical and analytical rigor: design fair, reproducible experiments and extract signal from noisy empirical results.
• Experience building with models, not just building models: develop intelligent systems using models rather than training or fine‑tuning them. Expertise in compound AI systems, agentic collaboration, and associated techniques.
• Proven track record of research results: published work in top journals, shared work on twitter, or other relevant publications.
• Uses AI every day: use tools like ChatGPT, Cursor, and Perplexity to accelerate workflow.
• Strong programming and data analysis skills: build prototypes of ideas and perform experiments to prove effectiveness.
• Biases toward showing vs telling: customers want to see the power of AI today rather than discuss ideas that take years to realize.

• The base salary range for this role is $150K – $250K, depending on experience, location, and level. Eligible for meaningful equity and 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.