Staff Software Engineer - Card Tech

Capital One; California; Hybrid; USD 269,000 - 335,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for Card Tech. You will lead as a high‑agency player‑coach, shipping production‑level code rapidly while mentoring a team to build AI‑native capabilities. You’ll define technical benchmarks and govern platform strategy across domains.

You will influence design standards, drive scalable architectures, and collaborate with senior engineers to modernize systems and improve performance. This role emphasizes mentorship and technical excellence.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science or a related quantitative field.
• At least 7 years of experience in software engineering, enterprise architecture, and cloud computing.

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.
• Balance multiple projects to maximize impact.
• Mentor and coach engineers to strengthen the technical expertise of the team.
• Drive modernization of monolithic systems into microservice architectures and event‑driven platforms.
• Define long‑term platform strategy and API standards with senior leadership.
• Lead cross‑divisional projects and promote best practices.

Skills

Programming languages

Cloud platforms

Data architecture

System design

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's Degree in CS or related field

Master's Degree in CS/Software Eng

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

Staff Software Engineer - Card Tech
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 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 delivering strong 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 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 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:

Card Tech is seeking a Staff Engineer to join our team and fundamentally redefine the speed and quality of software development. We are a high‑velocity, mission‑driven group obsessed with bridging the gap between Intent and Execution (I=E). In this role, you won't just manage; you will operate as a "Player‑Coach," functioning both as a high‑leverage developer who ships production‑ready code in hours as well as mentoring a team to become elite AI‑native builders. You will own the technical benchmark, leveraging agentic development tools to its absolute limits through rigorous, spec‑driven design to solve complex problems with unprecedented urgency.

This leader must have the ability to attract top‑tier talent and the technical "whisperer" skills to ensure AI‑generated output is flawless, secure, and scalable. Success requires an innovative mind, a proven track record of delivering next‑generation products, and a passion for AI‑native execution. You are a master of technical specifications who can translate complex architectures into simple, actionable reality. If you are a high‑agency leader ready to define the 100x engineer era and make a massive, visible impact on our company trajectory, this is your team.

What You’ll Do:

• 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
• Drive modernization of monolithic systems into microservice architectures and event‑driven platforms
• Collaborate with senior engineering and architecture leaders to define long‑term platform strategy and API standards
• Serve as a force‑multiplier for the team, balancing deep, hands‑on technical contribution and innovation with mentoring and elevating the skills of peers and junior engineers.
• Lead cross‑divisional projects and impacts that promote technological best practices and enhancements

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 all of the following:
  • Software engineering and solution architecture
  • Enterprise architecture and design patterns
  • Cloud computing (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud)
  • Data architecture

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering
• 10+ years of experience in all of the following:
  • Software engineering and solution architecture
  • Enterprise architecture and design patterns
  • Web technologies (JavaScript, TypeScript and SPA frameworks)
  • Designing and building distributed HPC and ML systems
  • Cloud computing (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud)
  • Data architecture
• 10+ years of professional experience coding in commonly used languages like Go, Java, JavaScript/Typescript, Python, Rust, C#, Scala
• 8+ years of experience with database and database management systems
• 10+ years of professional experience in the full lifecycle of system development, from conception through architecture, implementation, testing, deployment and production support
• 5+ years of experience with public cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), cloud‑based productivity tools, or virtualization technologies
• 10+ years of experience with Networking protocols and integration with third party distributed systems
• 5+ years of experience mentoring senior engineers and driving professional development within technical teams
• 2+ years of experience leading cross‑domain architectural reviews and establishing coding and design standards
• Expertise in the strategic application of agentic AI coding tools to solve systemic development challenges

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

Salary Ranges

Chicago, IL: $244,700 - $279,200 for Staff Full-stack Engineer McLean, VA: $269,100 - $307,200 for Staff Full-stack Engineer New York, NY: $293,600 - $335,100 for Staff Full-stack Engineer Richmond, VA: $244,700 - $279,200 for Staff Full-stack Engineer San Francisco, CA: $293,600 - $335,100 for Staff Full-stack 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.

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.

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).