Capital One is expanding its AI program with a Senior Lead AI Engineer who will architect and deploy production AI and ML systems that enhance both internal workflows and customer interactions. This onsite role in New York, NY blends hands-on engineering leadership with strategic influence over foundational AI platforms, guiding cross-functional teams to deliver scalable, responsible AI products. The position offers a salary range of USD 250,800 to 286,200 per year.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with a cross-functional team of engineers, research scientists, technical program managers, and product managers to deliver AI-powered products that transform how associates work and how customers engage with Capital One.
Design, develop, test, deploy, and support AI software components including foundation model training, large language model inference, similarity search, guardrails, model evaluation, experimentation, governance, and observability.
Utilize a broad stack of open source and SaaS AI technologies such as AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, VectorDBs, Nemo Guardrails, PyTorch, and more.
Invent and apply state-of-the-art LLM optimization techniques to enhance production AI systems in terms of scalability, cost, latency, and throughput.
Contribute to the technical vision and the long-term roadmap of foundational AI systems at Capital One.

Technologies

Python
Go
Scala
Java
AWS Ultraclusters
Huggingface
VectorDBs
Nemo Guardrails
PyTorch

Benefits

Health, financial and other benefits that support total well-being
Performance-based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonuses and/or long term incentives (LTI); incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan

Team Description

The Intelligent Foundations and Experiences (IFX) team sits at the center of Capital One's AI strategy, working alongside partners across the company to push the boundaries of AI engineering. We build and deploy proprietary solutions that are central to the business and deliver value to millions of customers, empowering teams to leverage AI to enhance products and services.

The Ideal Candidate

Enjoys building systems, takes pride in code quality, and is motivated to apply the right solution to real banking problems.
Keeps pace with the latest AI research and can translate complex publications into production-ready techniques.
Thrives in undefined problem spaces, asks probing questions, and communicates findings clearly without hesitation to share new ideas.
Deeply technical with a strong foundation in engineering and mathematics; capable of seeing optimization opportunities across hardware and software.
Resilient and experienced in forging new paths to meet business goals when the route is uncertain.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields plus at least 6 years of AI/ML development experience, or a Master's degree in the same fields plus at least 4 years of AI/ML development experience
At least 6 years of programming experience in Python, Go, Scala, or Java

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

7 years of experience deploying scalable and responsible AI solutions on cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or equivalent private cloud)
Experience designing, developing, integrating, delivering, and supporting complex AI systems
Proven ability to lead and mentor an engineering team and influence cross-functional stakeholders
Experience developing AI/ML algorithms or technologies (e.g., LLM Inference, Similarity Search and VectorDBs, Guardrails, Memory) using Python, C++, C#, Java, or Golang
Experience optimizing training and inference software to improve hardware utilization, latency, throughput, and cost
Passion for staying current with AI research and judiciously applying novel techniques in production
Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex AI concepts to peers

Senior Lead AI Engineer

Job Description