His thesis was entitled "Some Aspects of the Local and Global Theory of Pfaffian Systems" and was written under the supervision of Robert Gardner.

Between 2007 and 2013 he worked as full professor at University of California, Berkeley, where he served as the director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).

[3][15] Bryant is on the board of directors of EDGE, a transition program for women entering graduate studies in the mathematical sciences.

[22] Later, he also contributed to the classification of exotic holonomy groups of arbitrary (i.e. non-Riemannian) torsion-free affine connections.

[23][24] Together with Phillip Griffiths and others co-authors, Bryant developed the modern theory of Exterior Differential Systems, writing two influential monographs, which have become the standard reference in the topic.