Current PhD, Applied Research Internship Program - Summer 2027

Capital One; McLean (VA); Hybrid; USD 172,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One's AI Foundations team invites PhD students for a 12-week summer applied research internship. You will work on real-world, large-scale problems, driving applied AI across customer experiences and contributing to publications.

You will partner with researchers, data scientists and engineers to design AI-powered products, using PyTorch, HuggingFace and AWS tools, while aligning work with business goals and innovation strategy.

Qualifications

• Enrolled in an accredited PhD program with 1st year completed by June 2027.
• PhD in CS/ML/CE/Applied Math/EE or related fields.
• Python programming and experience with at least one DL framework (e.g., PyTorch).
• Publications in top conferences (ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, NAACL, EMNLP, KDD, CVPR).
• Research focus areas include Foundation Models, LLMs, RL, Causal Inference, Sequential User Behavior, Model Inference Optimization, Interpretability, Recommendation Systems, Uncertainty Estimation, Agentic Systems.

Responsibilities

• Join Capital One for a full-time, 12 week, summer applied research experience.
• Engage in high impact applied research with goal of publishing or advancing AI in customer experiences.
• Collaborate with a cross-functional team of researchers, data scientists, software engineers, ML engineers, and product managers.
• Utilize PyTorch, AWS Ultraclusters, HuggingFace, Lightning, VectorDBs to analyze large data sets.
• Translate complex work into tangible business goals and present findings to stakeholders.
• Publish papers at top academic conferences and participate in technical sessions.
• Develop professionally through networking and executive speaker sessions.

Skills

Python

Deep Learning

PyTorch

Publications

Research mindset

Education

PhD program in CS/ML/CE/Applied Math/EE

1st year PhD coursework completed by June 2027

Tools

PyTorch

AWS Ultraclusters

HuggingFace

Lightning

VectorDBs

Job description

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 delivering 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.

Participation in the program requires that you are located in the continental United States with in-person attendance at your assigned location, in accordance with Capital One’s hybrid working model.

This is a paid internship. This is a limited-time internship position, and Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position. However, a full-time Applied Research role, for which you may be considered upon completion of the internship (subject to business need, market conditions, and other factors) is eligible for employer immigration sponsorship.

Basic Qualifications:

• Currently enrolled in an accredited PhD Program
• 1st year of PhD coursework must be completed by June 2027

Preferred Qualifications:

• Completed 2nd or 3rd of PhD Program
• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Electrical Engineering or related fields
• Programming experience (e.g. Python) and experience with at least one deep learning framework (e.g. PyTorch)
• Publications in leading conferences such as ICLR, NeurIPs, ICML, ACL, NAACL, EMNLP, KDD, or CVPR
• Focused area of research in one of the following areas:
  • Foundation Models (Language, Vision, Graphs, Time Series and Event Sequences, Tabular), including finetuning and pre-training
  • LLMs (Agentic AI, Reasoning, Test Time Compute Models, Mixture of Experts)
  • Reinforcement Learning (World Models, Reasoning, GRPO, PPO, RLHF)
  • Causal Inference and Decision Making
  • Sequential User Behavior Modeling
  • Model Inference Optimization
  • Interpretability, Responsible/Trustworthy AI Models
  • Recommendation Systems
  • Uncertainty Estimation
  • Agentic Systems

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.

In this role, you will:

• Join Capital One for a full-time, 12 week, summer applied research experience, discovering solutions to real world, large-scale problems.
• Engage in high impact applied research with the goal of taking the latest AI developments and pushing them into the next generation of customer experiences, or contributing to publications in this field.
• Partner with a cross-functional team of applied researchers, data scientists, software engineers, machine learning engineers and product managers to test and design AI- powered products that change how customers interact with their money.
• Leverage a broad stack of technologies — Pytorch, AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, Lightning, VectorDBs, and more — to reveal the insights hidden within huge volumes of numeric and textual data.
• Flex your interpersonal skills to translate the complexity of your work into tangible business goals.
• Partner with leading researchers to publish papers at top academic conferences.
• Develop professionally through networking sessions, technical deep dives and executive speaker sessions from across Capital One.

The Ideal Candidate:

• You love the process of analyzing and creating, but also share our passion to do the right thing. You want to work on problems that will help change banking for good.
• 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.
• Technical. You possess a strong foundation in mathematics, deep learning theory, and the engineering required for contributing to the development of AI.
• Determined. Strengthen your field of study by applying theory to practice. Bring your ideas to life in industry.

The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part‑time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.

McLean, VA: $191,000 - $191,000 for Applied Research PhD Intern

New York, NY: $209,000 - $209,000 for Applied Research PhD Intern

San Jose, CA: $209,000 - $209,000 for Applied Research PhD Intern

Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate’s offer letter.

Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits that support your total well‑being. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website. Eligibility varies based on full or part‑time status, exempt or non‑exempt status, and management level.

This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.

Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non‑discrimination in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Capital One promotes a drug‑free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23‑A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901‑4920; New York City’s Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries.

Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).