Research Engineers, Post-Training

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. What We Are Looking ForAt Distyl, Research Engineers build the bridge between frontier AI research and production systems that deliver real business value. This role is for engineers who are excited to investigate how AI systems should be designed, rapidly prototype new ideas, and turn promising concepts into reliable systems that work inside real customer environments.Research Engineers operate at the intersection of applied research, systems engineering, and customer-facing deployment. They design and implement compound AI systems, run experiments to understand system behavior, build evaluation frameworks, and collaborate closely with AI Researchers, AI Engineers, and customer stakeholders. Their work is not limited to demos or isolated prototypes: they help turn new techniques into robust systems that can be measured, operated, and improved in production.Key ResponsibilitiesDesign and run post-training workflows that improve the behavior, reliability, and usefulness of AI systemsDevelop datasets, preference signals, evaluation suites, reward models, fine-tuning workflows, and feedback loops for applied AI use casesInvestigate how different post-training techniques affect system behavior across enterprise workflows and production constraintsBuild infrastructure for experimentation, model comparison, regression testing, and behavior analysisPartner with AI Researchers to explore new post-training methods and with AI Engineers to apply successful techniques in deployed systemsAnalyze model outputs, failure modes, human feedback, and production traces to identify opportunities for behavioral improvementCreate repeatable processes for adapting AI systems to customer domains while preserving robustness, transparency, and maintainabilityCommunicate clearly with internal teams and customer stakeholders about model behavior, evaluation results, limitations, and tradeoffsWho You AreExperience Improving Model Behavior: You have worked with fine-tuning, preference optimization, reinforcement learning, reward modeling, synthetic data, evals, or related post-training techniquesStrong Programming and Experimentation Skills: You can build training and evaluation pipelines, run controlled experiments, analyze results, and iterate quicklyResearch-Oriented Builder: You care about understanding why behavior changes, not just whether a benchmark improvesAI Systems Mindset: You understand that model behavior is shaped by data, prompts, tools, retrieval, evaluators, and deployment context—not model weights aloneAI-Native Working Style: You use AI tools daily to accelerate coding, analysis, debugging, experimentation, and research explorationBias Towards Measurement: You make behavioral improvements concrete through evaluations, comparisons, regression tests, and production-relevant metricsComfort with Applied Constraints: You can balance research ambition with practical constraints around cost, latency, reliability, data availability, and customer requirementsOwnership Mentality: You take responsibility for whether post-training work improves real system outcomes, not just offline scoresWhat We OfferThe 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 package100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependentsFlexible time offRetirement and financial planning benefits, including access to pre-tax HSA, FSA, and commuter accounts, 401(k), and financial coaching resourcesComprehensive wellness benefits, including physical fitness, mental well-being, and fertility and family-building benefits through CarrotComplimentary in-office lunches and snacks providedAccess to state-of-the-art AI models, generous usage of modern AI tools, and real-world business problemsOwnership of high-impact projects across top enterprisesA mission-driven, fast-moving culture that values curiosity, pragmatism, and excellenceDistyl has offices in San Francisco and New York. This role follows a hybrid collaboration model with 3+ days per week (Tuesday–Thursday) in‑office.#LI-HybridWe 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.LocationSan Francisco; New YorkEmployment TypeFull timeLocation TypeHybridDepartmentResearch