Senior Lead AI Engineer

About the role

About The Company

Capital One is a leading financial services company committed to transforming banking through innovative technology and responsible AI deployment. With a history of leveraging machine learning and AI to enhance customer experiences, Capital One continuously invests in cutting-edge infrastructure and top-tier talent to stay at the forefront of technological advancements. The company's mission is to create responsible, reliable, and scalable AI systems that revolutionize how banking services are delivered, making them more personalized, efficient, and accessible. Capital One's dedication to innovation is reflected in its industry-leading applications, from detecting unusual charges to providing real-time customer support, all aimed at simplifying banking for millions of customers worldwide.

About The Role

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Lead AI Engineer specializing in AI Foundations, Large Language Model (LLM) Core, and Agentic AI to join our dynamic team. In this role, you will be instrumental in designing, developing, and deploying advanced AI systems that underpin Capital One’s strategic initiatives. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including engineers, research scientists, product managers, and technical program managers, to build innovative AI-powered products that transform customer interactions and operational workflows. Your expertise will help shape the technical vision and long-term roadmap of our foundational AI systems, ensuring scalable, responsible, and high-performance solutions.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in AI and ML, with a passion for building robust systems, staying abreast of the latest research, and applying state-of-the-art techniques in real-world applications. You will be responsible for developing AI software components such as foundation model training, large language model inference, similarity search, and governance, utilizing a broad stack of open-source and SaaS AI technologies. Your role will also involve optimizing large-scale AI systems for performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency, contributing to the evolution of Capital One’s AI capabilities.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will possess a strong technical foundation and relevant experience, including:

A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields with a minimum of 6 years of experience developing AI and ML algorithms, or a Master’s degree with at least 4 years of relevant experience.

Extensive programming experience with Python, Go, Scala, or Java, totaling at least 6 years.

Preferred qualifications include 7+ years of deploying scalable AI solutions on cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure, and experience designing complex AI systems.

Proficiency in developing and applying advanced AI techniques, including LLM inference, similarity search, vector databases, guardrails, and optimization strategies for training and inference software.

Demonstrated leadership capabilities, with experience mentoring engineering teams and influencing cross-functional stakeholders.

Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex AI concepts clearly and effectively.

Responsibilities

As a Senior Lead AI Engineer, your core responsibilities will include:

Partnering with multidisciplinary teams to deliver AI-powered products that enhance customer engagement and operational efficiency.

Designing, developing, testing, deploying, and supporting AI software components, including foundation models, large language models, and related systems.

Leveraging open-source and SaaS AI technologies such as AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, VectorDBs, Nemo Guardrails, and PyTorch to build scalable solutions.

Inventing and integrating state-of-the-art optimization techniques to improve the performance, scalability, latency, and cost-efficiency of large-scale AI systems.

Contributing to the technical vision and strategic roadmap for foundational AI systems at Capital One.

Ensuring responsible AI practices, including model governance, experimentation, and observability, are embedded into all development processes.

Benefits

Capital One offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well-being, and professional growth. Employees are eligible for competitive compensation, performance-based incentives, and long-term incentives. The company provides health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and wellness programs. Additionally, Capital One emphasizes a collaborative and inclusive workplace culture that fosters innovation, continuous learning, and career development. Opportunities for remote work, flexible schedules, and ongoing training are also available to help employees thrive both personally and professionally.

Equal Opportunity

Capital One is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We promote a drug-free workplace and consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in accordance with applicable laws. We encourage all qualified individuals to apply and join our team dedicated to transforming banking through responsible AI innovation.