Senior AI Engineer

Capital One; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 162,000 - 201,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One is seeking a Senior AI Engineer in San Jose to build and deploy responsible AI systems at scale. You will collaborate with engineers, scientists, PMs, and stakeholders to deliver AI-powered products that impact millions of customers and internal teams.

Responsibilities include designing and evaluating AI software, optimizing model training and inference, and guiding governance and observability across platforms.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in CS/AI/EE/CE with relevant AI/ML experience
• 3+ years programming with Python, Go, Scala, or Java
• 4 years of cloud-based AI services experience (preferred)

Responsibilities

• Partner with cross-functional team to deliver AI-powered products
• Design, develop, test, deploy, and support AI software components
• Leverage Open Source and SaaS AI technologies (AWS Ultraclusters, HuggingFace, VectorDBs, Nemo Guardrails, PyTorch)
• Invent and apply LLM optimization techniques to improve performance, cost, latency, and throughput
• Contribute to the technical vision and long-term roadmap of foundational AI systems

Skills

Python

Go

Scala

Java

Machine learning

AI systems

Education

Bachelor's in CS/AI/EE/CE

Master's in CS/AI/EE/CE

Tools

AWS

Google Cloud

Azure

Nemo Guardrails

PyTorch

VectorDBs

HuggingFace

Job description

Sep 10, 2026

$161,800 - $201,400/year

Overview:

At Capital One, we are creating responsible and reliable AI systems, changing banking for good. For years, Capital One has been an industry leader in using machine learning to create real-time, personalized customer experiences. Our investments in technology infrastructure and world-class talent — along with our deep experience in machine learning — position us to be at the forefront of enterprises leveraging AI. 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 continuing to build world-class applied science and engineering teams to deliver 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 Intelligent Foundations and Experiences (IFX) team is at the center of bringing our vision for AI at Capital One to life. We work hand-in-hand with our partners across the company to advance the state of the art in science and AI engineering, and we build and deploy proprietary solutions that are central to our business and deliver value to millions of customers. Our AI models and platforms empower teams across Capital One to enhance their products with the transformative power of AI, in responsible and scalable ways for the highest 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 our associates work and how our 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, etc.

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 the performance — scalability, cost, latency, 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 also share our passion to do the right thing. You want to work on problems that will help change banking for good.

Passion for staying abreast of the latest research, and an ability to intuitively understand scientific publications and judiciously apply novel techniques in production.

You adapt quickly and thrive on bringing clarity to big, undefined problems. You love asking questions and digging deep to uncover the root of problems and can articulate your findings concisely with clarity. You have the courage to share new ideas even when they are unproven.

You are deeply Technical. You possess a strong foundation in engineering and mathematics, and your expertise in hardware, software, and AI enable you to see and exploit optimization opportunities that 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 3 years of experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies, or a Master's degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields plus at least 1 year of experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies

At least 3 years of experience programming with Python, Go, Scala, or Java

Preferred Qualifications:

4 years of experience deploying scalable and responsible AI solutions on cloud platforms (e.g. AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or equivalent private cloud)

Experience 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

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. 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: $161,800 - $184,600 for Senior AI Engineer

New York, NY: $176,500 - $201,400 for Senior AI Engineer

San Jose, CA: $176,500 - $201,400 for Senior AI Engineer

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.

This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan.

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.

No agencies please. 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.

If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at [e-mail] . All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

For technical support or questions about Capital One's recruiting process, please send an email to [e-mail]

Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee and is not liable for third-party products, services, educational tools or other information available through this site.

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).

Capital One is an innovative bank committed to transforming the financial landscape, ensuring accessibility and empowering customers to improve their financial lives.

Company size 10,001+ employees

Company type Public company

Total funding $5.4B Post IPO Debt