Senior Applied Researcher, AI Foundations Leader

Capital One; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 350,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One seeks a Sr. Staff Applied Researcher to lead strategic AI initiatives, building foundation models and driving applied research across the organization.

You will collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and product managers to deliver AI-powered experiences for customers. You’ll mentor a team of applied scientists, contribute to the research agenda, and influence technology choices across Capital One’s AI platform.

Qualifications

• PhD or MS with significant applied research experience in AI/ML
• Experience with large language models or foundation models
• Strong publication record in AI/ML fields preferred
• Experience delivering libraries or platform-level ML solutions to products

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to ship AI-powered products
• Advance AI foundation models from design through training and evaluation
• Translate complex research into business-relevant goals and outcomes
• Mentor and guide a team of applied scientists without direct people management
• Represent Capital One in external research communities and academia

Skills

Applied Research

AI/ML leadership

LLM development

PyTorch

Cloud/ML infra

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Education

PhD in Electrical Engineering / Computer Science / AI or related fields

MS in Electrical Engineering / Computer Science / AI or related fields

Tools

PyTorch

AWS Ultraclusters

Hugging Face

Lightning

Job description

Capital One seeks a Sr. Staff Applied Researcher to lead strategic AI initiatives, building foundation models and driving applied research across the organization.

You will collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and product managers to deliver AI-powered experiences for customers. You’ll mentor a team of applied scientists, contribute to the research agenda, and influence technology choices across Capital One’s AI platform.