Staff Software Engineer - Machine Learning

Capital One; Brighton; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme

Bonus

Generous holiday entitlement

Private medical insurance

Flexible benefits

Season-ticket loans

Cycle to work scheme

Enhanced parental leave

Capital One University training

Job summary

Capital One in London seeks a senior ML/AI engineering leader to shape the UK ML/AI technical strategy and guide multiple teams toward a shared vision.

You will mentor engineers, drive MLOps practices, and collaborate with data scientists and enterprise platform partners to deliver customer-focused AI solutions in a hybrid London office.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in Python and ML engineering.
• Experience leading ML initiatives across multiple teams.
• Strong experience with cloud-native architectures.
• Knowledge of responsible AI practices.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the ML/AI technical strategy for UK use cases.
• Lead ML engineering across teams and align with business objectives.
• Provide technical consultancy on AI use cases.
• Proactively identify ML/AI patterns and promote best practices.
• Drive MLOps standards, CI/CD, testing, monitoring and deployment.
• Collaborate with enterprise platform and data science teams.
• Build relationships with senior leadership and product owners.
• Represent Capital One in external ML/AI forums.
• Develop and advocate for strategies to manage technical debt.
• Mentor engineers and foster continuous learning.

Skills

Python

ML engineering

ML systems design

MLOps

Cloud platforms

PyTorch

TensorFlow

LangGraph

LangChain

VectorDBs

RAG

Responsible AI

Low-latency design

Technical leadership

Multi-team leadership

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

CI/CD pipelines

Model serving

Job description

White Collar Factory (95009), United Kingdom, London, London Staff Software Engineer - Machine Learning About this role

We're on a mission to transform the way we use data and AI to service our customers and drive efficiency across the business.

Do you love shaping the technical landscape and driving innovation across the organisation? Are you passionate about solving complex ML and AI challenges and supporting multiple teams toward a shared technical vision?

At Capital One, you'll be part of a community of technical leaders who drive engineering excellence, foster innovation, and deliver impactful ML/AI and Gen AI solutions that meet real customer needs.

What You'll Do

• Own and drive the ML/AI technical strategy for UK use cases, spanning multiple teams and influencing the overall technical direction for AI adoption
• Lead and coordinate ML engineering efforts across multiple teams, ensuring alignment with broader business objectives, enterprise platform capabilities, and technology strategy
• Provide technical consultancy to teams delivering AI use cases, guiding architectural decisions, solution design, and effective use of enterprise ML/AI platforms and capabilities
• Proactively identify emerging ML/AI patterns, define and evangelise best practices, and establish reusable approaches that enhance delivery of AI use cases across the business
• Drive MLOps standards and practices across teams, including CI/CD for models, automated testing, monitoring, and deployment pipelines
• Collaborate with enterprise platform and data science teams, contributing to platform capabilities where appropriate and partnering on use case delivery
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including senior leadership, product owners, data science teams, and enterprise platform partners
• Represent Capital One in external ML/AI technical forums, contributing to industry discussions
• Develop and advocate for strategies to proactively manage technical debt across ML/AI systems
• Actively mentor and develop engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning

What we're looking for

• Deep expertise in Python and ML engineering
• Deep expertise in ML/AI systems design, MLOps, and cloud-native architectures
• Track record of leading ML/AI technical initiatives across multiple teams
• Strong experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Experience with ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn) and Gen AI/Agentic frameworks (LangGraph, LangChain, VectorDBs, RAG)
• Understanding of responsible AI practices, including guardrails, hallucination mitigation, and output quality management for AI systems
• Experience designing and scaling low-latency, customer-facing ML/AI architectures
• Proven experience setting a multi-team ML/AI technical vision and strategy
• Strong track record of technical leadership and influence without authority
• Experience driving ML engineering standards and best practices across organisations
• Deep understanding of the full ML/AI development lifecycle, including model serving, data pipelines, and Gen AI systems
• Experience leveraging enterprise platforms to deliver business use cases at scale
• Experience of steering Communities of Practice or technical forums
• Strong business acumen and ability to translate ML/AI concepts for various audiences

Where and how you'll work

This is a permanent position based in our London office.

We have a hybrid working model which gives you flexibility to work from our office and from home.

We're big on collaboration and connection, so you'll be based in our London office 3 days a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

What's in it for you

• Bring us all this - and you'll be well rewarded with a role contributing to the roadmap of an organisation committed to transformation
• We offer high performers strong and diverse career progression, investing heavily in developing great people through our Capital One University training programmes (and appropriate external providers)
• Immediate access to our core benefits including pension scheme, bonus, generous holiday entitlement and private medical insurance - with flexible benefits available including season-ticket loans, cycle to work scheme and enhanced parental leave
• Open-plan workspaces and accessible facilities designed to inspire and support you. Our Nottingham head-office has a fully-serviced gym, subsidised restaurant, mindfulness and music rooms.

What you should know about how we recruit

We pride ourselves on hiring the best people, not the same people. Building diverse and inclusive teams is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. We want to work with top talent: whoever you are, whatever you look like, wherever you come from. We know it's about what you do, not just what you say. That's why we make our recruitment process fair and accessible. And we offer benefits that attract people at all ages and stages.

We also partner with organisations including the Women in Finance and Race At Work Charters, Stonewall and upReach