Director AI Engineer

Requirements:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field, plus at least 8 years of experience developing AI/ML algorithms or technologies; or a relevant masters degree plus at least 6 years of that experience
• At least 3 years of people leadership experience
• Preferred: 5+ years managing and leading an engineering team
• Preferred: 7+ years deploying scalable, responsible AI solutions on cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or equivalent private cloud
• Preferred: Experience developing AI/ML technologies using Python, C++, C#, Java, CUDA, or Golang, including LLM inference, similarity search, vector databases, guardrails, or memory
• Preferred: Experience building agentic AI systems and workflows
• Preferred: Familiarity with current AI research and applying new techniques in production
• Preferred: Strong communication and presentation skills, including explaining complex AI concepts
• Preferred: Experience leading multi-team AI organizations delivering multiple enterprise products or capabilities
• Preferred: Ability to develop and execute long-term AI platform strategies aligned with enterprise priorities and regulatory frameworks
• Preferred: Experience establishing cross-functional operating rhythms and review cadences, such as OKRs, AI governance councils, or quarterly reviews
• Preferred: Experience selecting model sizes, instance counts, and hardware types based on requirements such as context length and token volumes
• Strong engineering and mathematical foundations, technical depth across hardware, software, and AI, and sound judgment in applying research
• Ability to navigate ambiguous challenges, investigate root causes, communicate findings clearly, adapt to change, and pursue new approaches
• Interest in mentoring and coaching others, leading by example, and fostering continued learning

Responsibilities:

• Partner with engineers, research scientists, technical program managers, and product managers to deliver AI-powered products for associates and customers
• Lead the design, development, testing, deployment, and support of AI software components, including foundation model training, LLM inference, similarity search, guardrails, model evaluation, experimentation, governance, and observability
• Make build-versus-buy decisions across open-source and SaaS AI technologies
• Develop and introduce foundation-model optimization techniques to improve production system scalability, cost, latency, and throughput
• Shape the technical vision and long-term roadmap for foundational AI systems
• Attract and retain AI talent, support team members development, and foster a learning culture
• Translate enterprise AI strategy into portfolio-level execution plans across product areas, balancing innovation with delivery
• Expand AI engineering practices across teams through shared infrastructure, reusable components, and consistent observability and governance frameworks
• Establish enterprise standards for Responsible AI, including fairness metrics, model evaluation protocols, documentation, and audit readiness
• Work with research, compliance, and enterprise risk teams to help ensure deployed systems meet evolving ethical and regulatory standards

Technologies:

• Agentic AI
• AI
• AWS
• Azure
• C#
• Cloud
• CUDA
• Golang
• Hardware
• Support
• Java
• LLM
• Machine Learning
• Model Training
• Python
• PyTorch

More

We are building responsible, reliable AI systems to improve banking, drawing on our machine learning experience, technology infrastructure, and applied science and engineering teams. Our Intelligent Foundations and Experiences team partners across Capital One to advance AI science and engineering, build proprietary solutions, and deliver scalable AI capabilities to millions of customers. This Director AI Engineer role supports that work across our products and platforms. We will consider sponsoring a qualified new applicant for employment authorization. The posted annual salary ranges are $269,100–$307,200 in Cambridge, MA and McLean, VA, and $293,600–$335,100 in New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, and San Jose, CA; pay for other locations varies. The role may also include performance-based bonuses and/or long-term incentives. We offer health, financial, and other benefits, with eligibility based on role and employment status.

last updated 44 week of 2026