Applied Researcher 5 (AI Foundations)

Capital One; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One is seeking an Applied Researcher 5 (AI Foundations) to advance AI methods that transform how customers interact with their money. You will work with data scientists, engineers, and product teams to develop foundation models and apply state-of-the-art ML to production systems.

The role emphasizes applied research in AI, collaboration across disciplines, and translating research into practical business outcomes for Capital One's customers.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing or holding a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, AI, Mathematics, or related fields with start date by scheduled date plus 2 years of experience in Applied Research.
• Alternative: MS in Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Science, AI or Mathematics with relevant research.
• Strong foundations in AI methodologies and deep learning.
• Experience with large deep learning models and model training optimization is preferred.
• Track record of high-quality ideas or publications in ML.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver AI-powered products that reimagine customer interactions with money.
• Utilize PyTorch, AWS Ultraclusters, Hugging Face, Lightning to extract insights from large numerical and textual data.
• Build AI foundation models from design through training, evaluation, validation, and deployment.
• Translate cutting-edge AI research into scalable production capabilities.
• Lead research threads bridging prototype models and ML engineering to drive production impact.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Innovative mindset

Creative problem-solving

Leadership

Technical

AI foundations

Model deployment

Education

PhD in Electrical Engineering

PhD in Computer Science

MS in AI or related field

Tools

PyTorch

AWS Ultraclusters

Hugging Face

Lightning (PyTorch Lightning)

Cloud computing

Job description

Applied Researcher 5 (AI Foundations)

Overview:

At Capital One, we are creating trustworthy and reliable AI systems, changing banking for good. For years, Capital One has been leading the industry in using machine learning to create real-time, intelligent, automated customer experiences. From informing customers about unusual charges to answering their questions in real time, our applications of AI & ML are bringing humanity and simplicity to banking. We are committed to building world-class applied science and engineering teams and continue our industry leading capabilities with breakthrough product experiences and scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure. At Capital One, you will help bring the transformative power of emerging AI capabilities to reimagine how we serve our customers and businesses who have come to love the products and services we build.

Team Description:

The AI Foundations team is at the center of bringing our vision for AI at Capital One to life. Our work touches every aspect of the research life cycle, from partnering with Academia to building production systems. We work with product, technology and business leaders to apply the state of the art in AI to our business.

What You’ll Do:

• Partner with a cross-functional team of data scientists, software engineers, machine learning engineers and product managers to deliver AI-powered products that change how customers interact with their money.
• Leverage a broad stack of technologies — Pytorch, AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, Lightning, and more — to reveal the insights hidden within huge volumes of numeric and textual data.
• Build AI foundation models through all phases of development, from design through training, evaluation, validation, and implementation.
• Engage in high impact applied research to take the latest AI developments and push them into the next generation of customer experiences.
• Flex your interpersonal skills to translate the complexity of your work into tangible business goals.
• Lead cross-functional research threads that bridge prototype model development and deployment with ML engineering partners, ensuring scientific insights translate to production impact

The Ideal Candidate:

• You love the process of analyzing and creating, but also share our passion to do the right thing. You know at the end of the day it’s about making the right decision for our customers
• Innovative. You continually research and evaluate emerging technologies. You stay current on published state-of-the-art methods, technologies, and applications and seek out opportunities to apply them
• Creative. You thrive on bringing definition to big, undefined problems. You love asking questions and pushing hard to find answers. You’re not afraid to share a new idea
• A leader. You challenge conventional thinking and work with stakeholders to identify and improve the status quo. You’re passionate about talent development for your own team and beyond
• Technical. You’re comfortable with open-source languages and are passionate about developing further. You have hands-on experience developing AI foundation models and solutions using open-source tools and cloud computing platforms
• Has a deep understanding of the foundations of AI methodologies
• Experience building large deep learning models, whether on language, images, events, or graphs, as well as expertise in one or more of the following: training optimization, self-supervised learning, robustness, explainability, RLHF.
• An engineering mindset as shown by a track record of delivering models at scale both in terms of training data and inference volumes
• Experience in delivering libraries, platform level code or solution level code to existing products
• A professional with a track record of coming up with high quality ideas or improving upon existing ideas in machine learning, demonstrated by accomplishments such as first author publications or projects
• Possess the ability to own and pursue a research agenda, including choosing impactful research problems and autonomously carrying out long-running projects

Basic Qualifications:

• Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining, PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, AI, Mathematics, or related fields, with an exception that required degree will be obtained on or before the scheduled start date plus 2 years of experience in Applied Research or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, AI, Mathematics