Sr. Distinguished AI Engineer (Remote Eligible)

Capital One; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 343,400 - 392,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One in San Francisco seeks a senior AI systems engineer to design, train, and deploy production-ready AI components, including foundation models, inference, and governance.

You will collaborate with engineers, researchers, PMs, and SREs to push scalable AI across banking products, applying open source tools like PyTorch, HuggingFace, and VectorDBs.

Strong math and software engineering fundamentals, plus leadership potential, are valued as we build inspiring, responsible AI platforms.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field plus at least 10 years of experience developing AI/ML algorithms or a Master's degree plus at least 8 years of experience.
• At least 10 years of experience programming with Python, Go, Scala, or Java.

Responsibilities

• Deliver AI-powered products with cross-functional teams including engineers, researchers, PMs, and product managers.
• Design, develop, test, deploy, and support AI software components including foundation model training, LLM inference, similarity search, guardrails, model evaluation, experimentation, governance, and observability.
• Leverage Open Source and SaaS AI tools such as AWS Ultraclusters, HuggingFace, VectorDBs, Nemo Guardrails, PyTorch, and more.

Skills

Python

Go

Scala

Java

LLM optimization

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/AI/EE/CE or related field

Master's degree in CS/AI/EE/CE or related field

Tools

AWS Ultraclusters

HuggingFace

VectorDBs

Nemo Guardrails

PyTorch

Job description

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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

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 10 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 8 years of experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies.
• At least 10 years of experience programming with Python, Go, Scala, or Java.

Preferred Qualifications

• 9 years of experience deploying scalable and responsible AI solutions on cloud platforms (e.g. AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or equivalent private cloud).
• Experience architecting, designing, developing, integrating, delivering, and supporting complex enterprise AI systems.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor an engineering organization and influence cross‑functional stakeholders up to the SVP level.
• 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.
• Passion for staying abreast of the latest AI research and AI systems, and judiciously apply novel techniques in production.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex AI concepts to peers.
• Experience building and deploying multi‑modal models for technologies like computer vision, speech recognition, optical character recognition, or other sensor systems in application such as robotics, digital assistants, industrial automation, autonomous driving, or related.

Salary and Benefits

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. Remote (Regardless of Location): $286,200 - $326,700 for Sr. Distinguished AI Engineer; Cambridge, MA: $314,800 - $359,300; McLean, VA: $314,800 - $359,300; New York, NY: $343,400 - $392,000; San Francisco, CA: $343,400 - $392,000; San Jose, CA: $343,400 - $392,000. Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location. 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. Eligibility varies based on full or part‑time status, exempt or non‑exempt status, and management level.

EEO and Legal

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.