Staff Engineer -Developer Insights & AI Telemetry

Capital One; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 269,000 - 307,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One is seeking a Staff Engineer to lead Developer Insights and AI Telemetry. You will define the enterprise roadmap for distributed AI telemetry, data engineering strategies, and ML/AI lifecycles.

The role blends hands-on engineering with strategic leadership across Global regions and a vendor-agnostic telemetry platform. You will mentor senior engineers, drive build-vs-buy decisions, and advance a scalable, fault-tolerant telemetry architecture that connects AI tooling to business

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 7+ years in software engineering, solution architecture, or enterprise architecture.
• 5+ years big data engineering, distributed computing, or data architecture (e.g., Spark, Kafka, Kinesis, Snowflake).
• 3+ years building/optimizing production-grade ML/AI lifecycles, pipelines, or frameworks.
• 2+ years cloud computing experience (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud).

Responsibilities

• Vision & Strategy: Architect the long-term enterprise roadmap for distributed AI telemetry and data engineering.
• Enterprise Scaling & Telemetry: Evolve internal developer telemetry platform for billions of annual events.
• ML/AI & Intelligence Layer: Deploy inference capabilities, including LLM-based models to score code complexity and ROI of AI tools.
• Data Engineering & Architecture: Own end-to-end data strategy with real-time event-driven architectures feeding an enterprise data lake.
• Risk & Privacy Governance: Enforce privacy-by-design with automated PII masking and secret filtering.

Skills

Software engineering

Solution architecture

Enterprise architecture

Big data engineering

Distributed computing

Cloud computing

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree (preferred)

Tools

Spark

Kafka

Kinesis

ClickHouse

Snowflake

OpenTelemetry

Protobuf

Python

Go

Java

TypeScript

Job description

Staff Engineer -Developer Insights & AI Telemetry

As a Staff Engineer at Capital One, you will be part of a community of technical experts working to define the future of banking in the cloud. You will operate as a hands-on technical visionary, leading the strategy, implementation, and long-term vision for our enterprise Developer Insights domain, with a dedicated focus on Data Engineering strategies, ML/AI engineering, distributed AI telemetry, and AI Insights.

In this role, you will work alongside our talented team of developers, data engineers, machine learning experts, product managers, and people leaders. Our domain-driven organizational structure drives higher accountability and ownership, empowering you to bridge the gap between deep technical implementation and executive-level business value. You will champion Capital One’s native, vendor-agnostic AI impact telemetry platform, scaling it into an enterprise-grade "Mission Control" layer that captures, analyzes, and optimizes human-AI collaboration for multi-disciplinary users.

If you are ready to provide thought leadership, inject high-engineering rigor into the software delivery lifecycle, and build engineering excellence across Capital One, come join us in our mission to change banking for good.

Key Responsibilities

• Vision & Strategy: Architect the long-term enterprise roadmap for distributed AI telemetry, streaming data engineering, and automated developer insight frameworks.


• Enterprise Scaling & Telemetry: Lead the technical evolution of our internal developer telemetry platform from a high-performance Agent Hook Architecture into a stateless, low-latency utility capable of handling billions of annual high-fidelity events across global regions.


• ML/AI & Intelligence Layer: Spearhead the deployment of advanced inference capabilities, including LLM-as-a-Judge models, to autonomously score code complexity, categorize AI use cases (e.g., Core Logic vs. Testing), and calculate the TrueThroughput and return on investment (ROI) of generative AI tools.


• Data Engineering & Architecture: Own the end-to-end data strategy, shifting from traditional batch reporting to real-time event-driven architectures utilizing a scalable Medallion (Bronze/Silver/Gold) data structure feeding directly into our enterprise data lake.


• Business Metric Correlation: Partner with Bank Tech Analytics to link AI code density data and telemetry directly with core business outcomes - such as lowering Feature Lead Time (FLT) and PR cycle time - without compromising quality and risk bars.


• Risk & Privacy Governance: Design and enforce rigorous privacy-by-design principles, implementing automated PII masking, token management, and secret filtering to guarantee a completely safe space for engineering innovation.


• Culture & Technical Contribution: Lead through direct technical contribution - prototyping systems, evaluating build vs. buy paths, authoring code patterns, and deeply mentoring principal and senior engineers across the Developer Enablement tower.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree.


• At least 7 years of experience in software engineering, solution architecture, or enterprise architecture.


• At least 5 years of experience with big data engineering, distributed computing, or data architecture (e.g., Spark, Kafka, Kinesis, ClickHouse, Snowflake, or cloud data warehouses).


• At least 3 years of experience with Big Data and data streaming


• At least 4 years of experience building and optimizing production-grade ML/AI lifecycles, pipelines, or frameworks.


• At least 2 years of cloud computing experience (AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.


• 10+ years of professional experience coding in commonly used languages like Python, Go, Java, or TypeScript.


• 6+ years of experience designing and managing high-throughput distributed streaming architectures or edge collection telemetry platforms (e.g., OpenTelemetry, Protobuf interception hooks).


• 3+ years of experience in a technical leadership role directly influencing VP/SVP/Executive stakeholders on multi-million dollar technology or AI strategy initiatives.


• Deep understanding of compliance, data privacy, and cybersecurity constraints within a highly regulated environment (BankTech), including experience co-authoring risk assessments alongside Cyber and Risk teams.


• Proven track record of operating within a product-centric organization (Domain Category Owner/Technical Product Owner model), delivering tactical values in continuous validation cycles.


• Experience utilizing advanced engineering metrics (DORA, SPACE, AI Telemetry, Feature Lead Time) to demonstrate how developer tool investments translate into measurable corporate velocity and efficiency gains.

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: $269,100 - $307,200 for Distinguished Engineer

New York, NY: $293,600 - $335,100 for Distinguished Engineer

Richmond, VA: $244,700 - $279,200 for Distinguished Engineer

Wilmington, DE: $244,700 - $279,200 for Distinguished 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 (https://www.capitalonecareers.com/benefits) . 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 concerning 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]

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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).