Staff Engineer - GPN Digital Payments Technology

Capital One; Deerfield (IL); On-site; USD 245,000 - 279,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance-based incentives

Job summary

Capital One is seeking a Staff Engineer to help define the future of banking in the cloud. You will lead as a trusted technical advisor across platforms and capability domains, shaping architectural decisions and accelerating modernization of the Digital Payments platform.

Collaborate with engineers, ML experts, product managers and leaders to deliver scalable, secure, low-latency systems and to drive innovative AI-powered tooling, including Claude Code and Windsurf.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 7+ years of general software experience.
• 7+ years of software engineering and solution architecture experience.

Responsibilities

• Articulate and evangelize a bold technical vision for your domain.
• Decompose complex problems into practical, operational solutions.
• Ensure the quality of technical design and implementation.
• Serve as an authoritative expert on non-functional system characteristics such as performance and scalability.
• Continue learning and injecting advanced technical knowledge into the community.
• Handle several projects simultaneously to maximize impact.
• Mentor and coach engineers and the product community.

Skills

General software

Software architecture

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

Job description

As a Staff Engineer at Capital One, you will be a part of a community of technical experts working to define the future of banking in the cloud.

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 work alongside our talented team of developers, machine learning experts, product managers and people leaders. Our Staff Engineers are leading experts in their domains, helping devise practical and reusable solutions to complex problems. You will drive innovation at multiple levels, helping optimize business outcomes while driving towards strong technology solutions. We are looking for the right candidate to help us accelerate both our modernization to the cloud of our Digital Payments platform as well as development of brand new capabilities in this space.

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 internal talent and actively recruiting to keep building our community.

Staff Engineers are expected to lead through technical contribution. You will operate as a trusted advisor for our key technologies, platforms and capability domains, creating clear and concise communications, code samples, blog posts and other material 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.

If you are ready to provide thought leadership and build engineering excellence across Capital One's engineering teams, come join us in our mission to change banking for good.

Key responsibilities

• Articulate and evangelize a bold technical vision for your domain
• Decompose complex problems into practical and operational solutions
• Ensure the quality of technical design and implementation
• Serve as an authoritative expert on non-functional system characteristics, such as performance, scalability and operability
• Continue learning and injecting advanced technical knowledge into our community
• Handle several projects simultaneously, balancing your time to maximize impact
• Act as a role model and mentor within the tech community, helping to coach and strengthen the technical expertise and know‑how of our engineering and product community

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree
• At least 7 years of experience in General software
• At least 7 years of experience in Software engineering and solution architecture

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master’s Degree in Computer Science or a related field
• 10+ years of professional experience coding in commonly used languages like Java, Python, Go, JavaScript/TypeScript, Swift, etc.
• 8+ years of professional experience in the full lifecycle of system development, from conception through architecture, implementation, testing, deployment and production support
• 3+ years of experience with public or private cloud technologies
• 8+ years of experience with Networking (BGP, Wi-Fi, SD-WAN, Cloud Networking and Data Center Networking)
• 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.

Chicago, IL: $244,700 - $279,200 for Distinguished Engineer

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

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

Riverwoods, IL: $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. 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.