Lead AI Engineer

About the role

About The Company

Capital One is a leading financial services company dedicated to transforming banking through innovative technology and customer-centric solutions. Renowned for its pioneering use of machine learning and artificial intelligence, Capital One strives to deliver personalized, real-time experiences that enhance customer engagement and satisfaction. With a strong commitment to responsible banking, the company invests heavily in cutting-edge infrastructure and attracts top-tier talent to maintain its industry leadership. Capital One's mission is to reimagine banking by harnessing the power of emerging AI capabilities, creating scalable and high-performance systems that benefit millions of customers and businesses worldwide.

About The Role

The Lead AI Engineer (AI Foundations, VLM Customization) at Capital One plays a pivotal role in advancing the company's AI initiatives. This position involves designing, developing, and deploying sophisticated AI systems that leverage large language models (LLMs) and foundational AI technologies to enhance banking products and services. The successful candidate will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including engineers, research scientists, product managers, and technical program managers, to deliver innovative AI-powered solutions. They will be responsible for optimizing large-scale AI models, implementing best practices in model governance and observability, and contributing to the long-term technical vision of Capital One’s AI infrastructure. This role offers an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of AI research and engineering, directly impacting how the company serves its customers and streamlines operations.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will possess a strong technical foundation with relevant educational qualifications, including a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, or related fields, complemented by a minimum of 4 years of experience in AI and machine learning development. A Master’s degree with at least 2 years of experience is also acceptable. Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Go, Scala, or Java is essential, with at least 4 years of hands-on experience. Preferred candidates will have extensive experience deploying scalable AI solutions on cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure, and a deep understanding of AI algorithms, including LLM inference, similarity search, and vector databases. Familiarity with AI optimization techniques for training and inference, as well as a passion for staying current with AI research, is highly valued.

Responsibilities

Partner with a multidisciplinary team to develop and deliver AI-enabled products that improve operational efficiency and customer experience.

Design, develop, test, deploy, and support AI software components, including foundation model training, large language model inference, similarity search, guardrails, and model evaluation tools.

Leverage a broad stack of open-source and SaaS AI technologies such as AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, VectorDBs, Nemo Guardrails, and PyTorch to build scalable AI solutions.

Innovate and implement state-of-the-art optimization techniques to enhance the performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency of large-scale AI systems.

Contribute to the strategic technical roadmap and vision for foundational AI systems at Capital One, ensuring alignment with business goals and technological advancements.

Ensure AI models and systems adhere to governance, ethical standards, and compliance requirements, maintaining transparency and accountability.

Continuously monitor, evaluate, and improve AI models and infrastructure to ensure robustness, scalability, and high performance in production environments.

Benefits

Capital One offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the health, financial well-being, and personal development of its employees. This includes competitive health insurance plans, retirement savings options, paid time off, and wellness programs. The company also provides opportunities for professional growth through training, mentorship, and participation in innovative projects. Additionally, employees enjoy a collaborative and inclusive work environment that fosters diversity and encourages new ideas. The organization values work-life balance and offers flexible work arrangements to accommodate individual needs. Performance-based incentives, including bonuses and long-term incentives, are also part of the compensation package, recognizing individual and team contributions.

Equal Opportunity

Capital One is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. We promote a drug-free workplace and consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations. Our hiring practices are designed to ensure fairness and equal opportunity for all candidates. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences who are eager to contribute to our innovative and dynamic team.