Lead AI Engineer (Gen AI Platform Services, Python, Kubernetes)

Overview

Lead AI Engineer (Gen AI Platform Services, Python, Kubernetes). At Capital One, we are creating responsible and reliable AI systems, changing banking for good. Our applications of AI & ML bring humanity and simplicity to banking, delivering real-time, personalized customer experiences and scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure.

Team Description

The Intelligent Foundations and Experiences (IFX) team is at the center of bringing our vision for AI at Capital One to life. We work with partners across the company to advance the state of the art in science and AI engineering, building and deploying proprietary solutions that are central to our business and deliver value to millions of customers. Our AI models and platforms empower teams to enhance products with AI in responsible and scalable ways for high leverage impact.

In this role, you will

• Partner with a cross-functional team of engineers, research scientists, technical program managers, and product managers to deliver AI-powered products that change how associates work and how customers interact 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.
• Leverage a broad stack of Open Source and SaaS AI technologies such as AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, VectorDBs, Nemo Guardrails, PyTorch, and more.
• Invent and introduce state-of-the-art LLM optimization techniques to improve performance, scalability, cost, latency, and throughput of large-scale production AI systems.
• Contribute to the technical vision and the long-term roadmap of foundational AI systems at Capital One.

The Ideal Candidate

• You love to build systems, take pride in the quality of your work, and share our passion to do the right thing. You want to work on problems that will help change banking for good.
• You stay abreast of the latest research and can apply novel techniques in production after reviewing scientific publications.
• You adapt quickly and thrive on bringing clarity to big, undefined problems; you ask questions, dig deep, and articulate findings concisely. You have the courage to share new ideas even when unproven.
• You are deeply technical with a strong foundation in engineering and mathematics, and your expertise in hardware, software, and AI enables you to exploit optimization opportunities others miss.
• You are a resilient trail blazer who can forge new paths to achieve business goals when the route is unknown.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields plus at least 4 years of experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies, or a Master's degree in these fields plus at least 2 years of experience.
• At least 4 years of experience programming with Python, Go, Scala, or Java.

Preferred Qualifications

• 6 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, delivering, and supporting AI services.
• Experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies (e.g., LLM Inference, Similarity Search and VectorDBs, Guardrails, Memory) using Python, C++, C#, Java, or Golang.
• Experience developing and applying state-of-the-art techniques for optimizing training and inference software to improve hardware utilization, latency, throughput, and cost.
• Passion for staying abreast of the latest AI research and AI systems, and judiciously applying novel techniques in production.

Capital One will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Salaries are for candidates hired to work within these locations. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based on hours worked.

Cambridge, MA: $193,400 - $220,700 for Lead AI Engineer

McLean, VA: $193,400 - $220,700 for Lead AI Engineer

New York, NY: $211,000 - $240,800 for Lead AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA: $211,000 - $240,800 for Lead AI Engineer

San Jose, CA: $211,000 - $240,800 for Lead AI Engineer

Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range for that location, and the actual salary offered will be reflected in the offer letter. This role is also eligible to earn performance-based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonuses and/or long-term incentives (LTI).

Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website. Eligibility varies based on status and level.

This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days. No agencies please. Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non-discrimination in compliance with applicable laws. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable laws.

If you need accommodations, contact Capital One Recruiting at or via email at All information will be kept confidential and used to provide needed accommodations.

For technical support or questions about Capital One’s recruiting process, please email

Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee third-party products or services available through this site. Capital One Financial is made up of several entities. Positions posted in Canada, the United Kingdom, or the Philippines are for respective Capital One entities.