Sr. Director Software Engineering

Relha LLC; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 315,000 - 359,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One in McLean, VA seeks a Senior Director of Software Engineering to lead multiple engineering teams, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product managers on capabilities and testing. The role emphasizes agile practices, cloud-native architectures, and a data-driven, AI-enabled development lifecycle.

You'll drive velocity, craftsmanship, and resilience across distributed systems, including microservices and high‑volume fintech platforms, with a strong emphasis on mentoring and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
• At least 9 years of software engineering experience.
• At least 7 years of people management experience.
• Master’s degree in CS or Software Engineering preferred.
• 13+ years of software engineering experience preferred.
• 8+ years of Agile practices.
• Experience leveraging interactive AI tooling to accelerate productivity.

Responsibilities

• Lead, manage and grow multiple teams of product focused software engineers.
• Mentor engineers on professional and technical development.
• Work with product managers to understand required capabilities and testing.
• Continuously improve software engineering practices across Agile teams.
• Lead efforts to deploy new and existing applications into AWS environments.

Skills

Software engineering

People management

Leadership

Agile practices

AI tooling

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Job description

As a Capital One Senior Director of Software Engineering, you'll work on everything from customer-facing web and mobile applications using cutting‑edge open source frameworks, to highly‑available RESTful microservices, to back‑end Java based systems using the hottest techniques in Big Data. You'll bring solid experience in emerging and traditional technologies such as: node.js, Java, GO, AngularJS, React, Python, REST, JSON, XML, Ruby, Perl, NoSQL databases, relational databases, Hadoop, Chef, Maven, iOS, Android, and AWS/Cloud Infrastructure to name a few.

The Global Payment Network (GPN) Digital Payments Technology organization designs, builds, and operates the mission‑critical systems and infrastructure that seamlessly power complex money movement across domestic and international rails. We build and operate a high‑volume, low‑latency, and highly resilient distributed ecosystem that is simultaneously secure, performant, accurate, and nimble. The Digital Payments team provides a tokenization platform that is critical in enabling secure commerce both online and with devices including ApplePay and GooglePay. Digital Payments are a rapidly evolving space with constant innovation in how consumers pay.

This team operates with a startup mindset backed by enterprise scale. We are 100% cloud‑native, deeply committed to engineering excellence, and aggressive in adopting cutting‑edge AI tooling (including Claude Code, Windsurf, and custom AI agents) to dramatically accelerate our development lifecycle. You’ll be working hands‑on with Senior Lead Engineers that are building the resilient, ultra‑low‑latency backbone of future global commerce.

You will:

• Lead, manage and grow multiple teams of product focused software engineers
• Mentor and guide the professional and technical development of engineers on your team.
• Work with product managers to understand desired application capabilities and testing scenarios

Continuously improve software engineering practices

• Work within and across Agile teams to design, develop, test, implement, and support technical solutions across a full‑stack development tools and technologies
• Lead the craftsmanship, availability, resilience, and scalability of your solutions
• Bring a passion to stay on top of tech trends, experiment with and learn new technologies, participate in internal & external technology communities, and mentor other members of the engineering community
• Encourage innovation, implementation of cutting‑edge technologies, inclusion, outside‑of‑the‑box thinking, teamwork, self‑organization, and diversity

Work across to improve the velocity of your and other teams

Lead efforts to deploy new and existing applications into AWS environments

Break existing monolithic applications into micro service architectures and build new microservices

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree
• At least 9 years of experience in software engineering
• At least 7 years of experience in people management

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science or a Master’s Degree in Software Engineering
• 13+ years of experience in software engineering
• 8+ years of experience in Agile practices
• Experience leveraging interactive AI tooling to accelerate productivity, utilizing capabilities beyond basic code completion

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.

Chicago, IL: $286,200 - $326,700 for Sr. Dir, Software Engineering

McLean, VA: $314,800 - $359,300 for Sr. Dir, Software Engineering

Plano, TX: $286,200 - $326,700 for Sr. Dir, Software Engineering

Riverwoods, IL: $286,200 - $326,700 for Sr. Dir, Software Engineering

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.

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.