Staff Engineer -Developer Insights & AI Telemetry

Capital One; Wilmington (DE); On-site; USD 245,000 - 279,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One in McLean, VA is seeking a Staff Data Engineer to architect and scale our enterprise data platforms. You will lead end-to-end data strategies, real-time architectures, and AI-enabled analytics across global regions.

You will mentor senior engineers, contribute code and patterns, and drive innovation while upholding privacy by design and secure data practices across the Capital One Tech organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree or higher in Computer Science or a related quantitative field
• At least 7 years of experience in data engineering
• At least 3 years of experience in data architecture
• At least 2 years of experience building applications in AWS
• At least 5 years of experience programming with Python, Java, or Scala
• At least 5 years of experience designing and developing data pipelines
• At least 3 years of experience in data modeling and end-to-end data solutions using relational and non-relational databases

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 evolution of internal developer telemetry platform for billions of annual events across global regions.
• ML/AI & Intelligence Layer: Deploy advanced inference capabilities, including LLM-as-a-Judge models, to score code complexity and ROI of generative AI tools.
• Data Engineering & Architecture: Own end-to-end data strategy and real-time event-driven architectures feeding into the enterprise data lake.
• Business Metric Correlation: Link AI code density data with core business outcomes like Feature Lead Time and PR cycle time.
• Risk & Privacy Governance: Enforce privacy-by-design with automated PII masking, token management, and secret filtering.
• Culture & Technical Contribution: Lead through prototyping, evaluating make-vs-buy, authoring code patterns, mentoring engineers.

Skills

Python

Java

Scala

Data engineering

AWS

Data modeling

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Master’s degree (preferred)

Tools

AWS

EMR

Spark

Glue

Databricks

NoSQL databases

Job description

As a 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 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.

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.

What You’ll Do:

• 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 or higher in Computer Science or a related quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Engineering)
• At least 7 years of experience in data engineering
• At least 3 years of experience in data architecture
• At least 2 years of experience building applications in AWS
• At least 5 years of experience programming with at least one of the following languages: Python, Java, or Scala
• At least 5 years of experience designing and developing data pipelines
• At least 3 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
• 10+ years of experience in data engineering
• 6+ years of data modeling experience
• 2+ years of experience with ontology standards for defining a domain
• 1+ year of experience deploying machine learning models
• 10+ years of experience in application development with demonstrated proficiency in Python, SQL, Scala, or Java
• 7+ years of hands-on experience designing, deploying and operating data workloads in at least one public cloud environment (AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud)
• 6+ years of experience building or supporting distributed data or compute workloads using tools such as EMR, Spark, Glue, or Databricks
• 6+ years of experience designing, implementing, and operating real-time or streaming data pipelines
• 4+ years of experience working on data observability (e.g., Monte Carlo, Splunk) or data orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, Dagster)
• 6+ years of experience with unstructured/semistructured data using NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB)
• 6+ years of experience designing and supporting data warehousing solutions (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift)
• 4+ years of experience working in an Agile development environment
• 4+ years of experience developing user-centric reusable data products

Capital One will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this position.

McLean, VA: $269,100 - $307,200 for Staff Data Engineer

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

Plano, TX: $244,700 - $279,200 for Staff Data Engineer

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

Wilmington, DE: $244,700 - $279,200 for Staff Data 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. 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 regarding criminal background inquiries.

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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).