Sr. Lead AI Engineer (Inference Optimization, FM hosting, AI Platform)

In this role, you will serve as a Senior Lead AI Engineer at Capital One, onsite in McLean, VA. You will focus on inference optimization and AI platform development, leading cross-functional efforts to design and deploy AI systems with emphasis on foundation models, LLM inference, optimization, and scalable infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with a cross-functional team of engineers, research scientists, technical program managers, and product managers to deliver AI powered products that impact how associates work and how customers interact with Capital One.
• Design, develop, test, deploy, and support AI software components including foundation model training, large language model inference, similarity search, guardrails, model evaluation, experimentation, governance, and observability.
• Utilize a broad stack of open source and SaaS AI technologies such as AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, VectorDBs, Nemo Guardrails, PyTorch, and more.
• Invent and apply state-of-the-art LLM optimization techniques to enhance performance metrics such as scalability, cost, latency, and throughput for large scale production AI systems.
• Contribute to the technical vision and the long-term roadmap of foundational AI systems at Capital One.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields plus at least 6 years of experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies; or Master’s degree in the same fields plus at least 4 years of experience.
• At least 6 years of experience programming with Python, Go, Scala, or Java.
• 7 years of experience deploying scalable and responsible AI solutions on cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or equivalent private cloud).
• Experience designing, developing, integrating, delivering, and supporting complex AI systems.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor an engineering team and influence cross-functional stakeholders.
• Experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies (e.g., LLM Inference, Similarity Search, VectorDBs, Guardrails, Memory) using Python, C++, C#, Java, or Golang.
• Experience developing and applying state-of-the-art techniques to optimize training and inference software for better hardware utilization, latency, throughput, and cost.
• Passion for staying current with AI research and AI systems, and the ability to judiciously apply novel techniques in production.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex AI concepts to peers.

Technologies

• AWS Ultraclusters
• Huggingface
• VectorDBs
• Nemo Guardrails
• PyTorch
• Programming languages: Python, Go, Scala, Java, C++, C#, Golang

Compensation

Salary: USD 229,900 - 262,400 per year

Benefits

• Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial, and other benefits to support total well-being.
• This role is eligible for performance-based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonuses and long-term incentives (LTI).

Overview

Capital One is committed to building responsible and reliable AI systems that transform banking for good. The company has a history of leveraging machine learning to deliver real-time, personalized customer experiences and indices its ongoing investments in technology infrastructure and talent to stay at the forefront of AI-enabled enterprises.

Team Description

The Intelligent Foundations and Experiences (IFX) team drives Capital One's AI strategy by partnering across the organization to advance science and engineering in AI. We build and deploy proprietary solutions central to the business, delivering value to millions of customers. Our AI models and platforms empower teams to enhance products with AI at scale.

The Ideal Candidate

• You enjoy building systems, taking pride in code quality, and share a commitment to doing the right thing.
• You stay current with the latest AI research and can translate publications into production-ready approaches.
• You adapt quickly, bring clarity to undefined problems, ask probing questions, and communicate findings concisely. You are comfortable sharing new ideas, even if unproven.
• You are deeply technical, with a strong foundation in engineering and mathematics, and you can identify optimization opportunities across hardware and software.
• You are a resilient trailblazer who can forge new paths to achieve business goals when the route is unclear.