5-7 years of experience in AI research or related fields
Experience building feedback-driven systems that enhance performance
Strong programming skills and data analysis capabilities
Proven track record of impactful AI research, including published works
Regular daily use of AI tools like ChatGPT and Cursor
Ability to present clear, demonstrable results rather than theoretical ideals
Responsibilities
Design architectures that enable systems to self-evaluate and improve performance
Create feedback-driven systems for continuous learning and enhancement
Explore techniques for reflective reasoning and reward modeling in AI systems
Develop autonomous systems capable of self-improvement and adaptation
Bridge the domains of reinforcement learning, interpretability, and meta-optimization
Benefits
Opportunity to influence cutting-edge LLM research and enterprise applications
Autonomy in researching innovative AI methodologies
Access to top-tier AI models and proprietary data across industries
Comprehensive health benefits, including 100% coverage for dependents
401K plan with competitive options
Mission-driven work environment focused on AI's transformative potential
Collaborative workspace that fosters innovation and growth
Full Job Description
Key Responsibilities
The System Self-Improvement team builds architectures that continuously evaluate and enhance their own performance. Researchers design feedback-driven systems capable of detecting weaknesses, generating corrective hypotheses, and implementing their own improvements through reflection, retraining, or workflow adaptation. The goal: build AI systems that compound in capability through use.
Researchers in Self-Improvement study how systems can form self-models-understanding when, why, and how they succeed or fail. They explore reflective reasoning, reward modeling, and self-evaluation techniques to enable autonomous evolution. This work bridges reinforcement learning, interpretability, and meta-optimization to pioneer continuously learning enterprise systems.
Who You Are
Experience Building Feedback-Driven Systems: You've built or studied systems that monitor, score, and adapt-evaluators, retrievers, iterative refinement loops, or performance dashboards that close the feedback loop.
Experience Building with Models, Not Just Building Models: We develop intelligent systems using models rather than training or fine-tuning them. Ideal candidates have expertise in compound AI systems, agentic collaboration, and associated techniques (ensembling, ReAct, graph-of-thoughts, etc.).
Proven Track Record of Research Results: Whether you've published in top journals, posted amazing work on twitter, or somewhere else we want to see what you've done.
Uses AI Every Day: Before you can revolutionize someone else's workflow, you need to revolutionize yours. You should be using tools like ChatGPT, Cursor, and Perplexity to accelerate your workflow.
Strong Programming and Data Analysis Skills: While you might not consider yourself a software engineer you need to be able to build prototypes of your ideas and then perform the experiments to prove the effectiveness to a F500 Head of AI.
Biases Towards Showing vs Telling: Our customers want to see the power of AI today vs discuss the most elegant idea that will take 5 years to realize.
What We Offer
The base salary range for this role is $150K - $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% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents
Flexible time off
Retirement and financial planning benefits, including access to pre-tax HSA, FSA, and commuter accounts, 401(k), and financial coaching resources
Comprehensive wellness benefits, including physical fitness, mental well-being, and fertility and family-building benefits through Carrot
Complimentary in-office lunches and snacks provided
Access to state-of-the-art AI 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 values 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.
