Sr. Staff Data Engineer (Remote -Eligible)

Capital One; McLean (VA); Remote; USD 315,000 - 359,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One is seeking a Sr. Staff Data Engineer, remote-eligible, to lead and mentor in building next-generation data platforms in the cloud.

You’ll influence architecture, drive data strategy, and own end-to-end data projects across multiple lines of business while collaborating with data scientists, ML experts, and product managers. You will excel in AWS, lakehouse concepts, and modern streaming/batch pipelines using Spark, Flink, and Snowflake.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS or a related quantitative field.
• 9+ years in data engineering with 5+ years in data architecture.
• 3+ years building apps in AWS with 7+ years data pipelines experience.
• 6+ years designing end-to-end data solutions using relational and non-relational DBs.

Responsibilities

• Lead data engineering strategy across data platforms and pipelines.
• Mentor engineers and recruit to grow Capital One Tech talent.
• Own end-to-end data projects, guiding architecture and implementation.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to align data strategy with business goals.
• Drive innovation in data, AI, and platform capabilities.

Skills

Python

Java

Scala

SQL

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related field

Master’s Degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

AWS

Spark

Kafka

Flink

Snowflake

Databricks

EMR

Glue

Airflow

MongoDB

Cassandra

DynamoDB

Job description

Sr. Staff Data Engineer (Remote -Eligible)

As a Senior Staff Data Engineer at Capital One, you will be part of a community of technical experts working to define the future of data platforms and banking in the cloud. You will work alongside our talented team of data engineers, data scientists, machine learning experts, product managers and people leaders. Our Senior Staff Data Engineers are leading experts in their domains, helping devise practical, scalable and reusable data solutions to complex problems. You will drive innovation at multiple levels, helping optimize business outcomes while delivering strong data and technology solutions. At Capital One, we believe diversity of thought strengthens our ability to influence, collaborate and provide the most innovative solutions across organizational boundaries. You will promote a culture of engineering excellence and strike the right balance between lending expertise and providing an inclusive environment where the ideas of others can be heard and championed. You will lead the way in creating next‑generation talent for Capital One Tech, mentoring engineers and actively recruiting to keep building our community. Senior Staff Data Engineers are expected to lead through technical contribution. You will operate as a trusted advisor for our key data technologies, platforms and capability domains, creating clear and concise communications, code samples, blog posts and other materials to share knowledge both inside and outside the organization. You will specialize in a particular subject area, but your input and impact will be sought and expected throughout the organization.

About the Team

You will join the Pipelines and External Data team within Enterprise Data, serving as a Senior Director‑level Individual Contributor (IC). This role demands a visionary and hands‑on leader to drive the technical strategy for data pipelines and sharing capabilities leveraged by all lines of business inclusive of both internal and external data availability. Your focus is on driving innovation, best practices, engineering / delivery acceleration, platform scalability, operational excellence, performance, resiliency, and being a beacon for other ICs. We require deep expertise in AWS infrastructure, Lakehouse architecture, Kafka, Flink, Spark, Snowflake, and Databricks mature these enterprise‑scale systems and execute technical strategy. You will be both visionary, influential, and hands‑on writing Python, SQL, Java, and/or Scala code.

What You’ll Do

• Build awareness, increase knowledge and drive adoption of modern technologies, sharing consumer and engineering benefits to gain buy‑in
• Strike the right balance between lending expertise and providing an inclusive environment where others’ ideas can be heard and championed; leverage expertise to grow skills in the broader Capital One team
• Promote a culture of engineering excellence, using opportunities to reuse and innersource solutions where possible
• Effectively communicate with and influence key stakeholders across the enterprise, at all levels of the organization
• Operate as a trusted advisor for a specific technology, platform or capability domain, helping to shape use cases and implementation in a unified manner
• Lead the way in creating next‑generation talent for Tech, mentoring internal talent and actively recruiting external talent to bolster Capital One’s Tech talent
• Drive the strategic direction of the data engineering practice by continuously researching and assessing emerging trends in data, AI, and engineering, and developing a roadmap to integrate relevant innovations into the overall data platform
• Lead strategic alignment and integration decisions across multiple data systems and business units, championing a unified data architecture that supports seamless, scalable, and governed data flow across the organization
• Own the creation, management, and socialization of data strategy artifacts, ensuring comprehensive documentation is available to inform and guide enterprise‑level decisions and initiatives (e.g., data governance policies, architecture blueprints, data product roadmaps)
• Serve as a technical “force‑multiplier,” independently owning the end‑to‑end design and coding of critical data projects while influencing architectural standards and mentoring junior engineers to scale the team’s capabilities and output

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or a related quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Engineering)
• At least 9 years of experience in data engineering
• At least 5 years of experience in data architecture
• At least 3 years of experience building applications in AWS
• At least 7 years of experience programming with at least one of the following languages: Python, Java, or Scala
• At least 6 years of experience designing and developing data pipelines
• At least 4 years of experience in data modeling and designing end‑to‑end data solutions using both relational and non‑relational database systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science or a related field
• 11+ years of experience in data engineering
• 8+ years of data modeling experience
• 3+ years of experience with ontology standards for defining a domain
• 2+ years of experience deploying machine learning models
• 12+ years of experience in application development with demonstrated proficiency in Python, SQL, Scala, or Java
• 8+ years of hands‑on experience designing, deploying and operating data workloads in at least one public cloud environment (AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud)
• 8+ years of experience building or supporting distributed data or compute workloads using tools such as EMR, Spark, Glue, or Databricks
• 8+ years of experience designing, implementing, and operating real‑time or streaming data pipelines
• 6+ years of experience working on data observability (e.g., Monte Carlo, Splunk) or data orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, Dagster)
• 8+ years of experience with unstructured/semistructured data using NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB)
• 8+ years of experience designing and supporting data warehousing solutions (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift)
• 6+ years of experience working in an Agile development environment
• 6+ years of experience developing user‑centric reusable data products

Salary

• Remote (Regardless of Location): $286,200 - $326,700 for Sr. Staff Data Engineer
• McLean, VA: $314,800 - $359,300 for Sr. Staff Data Engineer
• NewYork, NY: $343,400 - $392,000 for Sr. Staff Data Engineer
• Richmond, VA: $286,200 - $326,700 for Sr. Staff Data Engineer

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 NewYork Correction Law; SanFrancisco, California Police Code Article49, Sections4901-4920; NewYork 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 CapitalOne’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). At Capital One, we’re building a leading information‑based technology company. Still founder‑led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fairbank, Capital One is on a mission to help our customers succeed by bringing ingenuity, simplicity, and humanity to banking. We measure our efforts by the success our customers enjoy and the advocacy they exhibit.