Distinguished Software Engineer

Overview Distinguished Software Engineer

As a Distinguished Engineer in Solutions Engineering, you will be the technical cornerstone of Bank Tech's internal professional services organization — a team that deploys cross-domain expertise to accelerate Bank Tech's most critical initiatives.

Unlike other roles embedded in a single product, you will operate across multiple domains, teams, and technology stacks simultaneously. You will build trusted relationships with senior leaders across Bank Tech, serve as the technical authority on our engagements, and provide hands-on contributions that set the standard for engineering excellence. You will move between high-priority initiatives in a SWAT-style model, rapidly orienting to new problem spaces and delivering technical direction that unblocks teams and de-risks delivery.

Our team works on Bank Tech's top priorities: Integration, Modernization, Reliability, Automated Testing, and Machine Learning. You will shape technical strategy across these engagements while mentoring a team of ~30 engineers spanning full-stack development, Cloud/DevOps, SRE, and AI/ML.

If you thrive at the intersection of deep technical expertise, relationship building, and rapid context switching — and you want to have outsized impact across the entire bank rather than a single product — this role is for you .

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Hands-On Contribution

• Provide hands-on technical contributions across active engagements — architecture decisions, code reviews, prototypes, and proof-of-concepts that set the quality bar

• Define and drive technical direction for engagements spanning multiple domains (payments, account servicing, observability, cloud infrastructure, ML)

• Decompose complex, ambiguous problems into practical solutions with clear milestones and exit criteria

• Ensure non-functional quality across engagements: performance, scalability, operability, and security

• Make pragmatic technology choices that balance engineering ideals with delivery timelines

Relationship Building & Stakeholder Influence

• Build and maintain trusted advisor relationships with VPs, Senior Directors, and engineering leaders across Bank Tech

• Communicate technical strategy, risks, and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Navigate organizational complexity — understand who owns what, how decisions get made, and how to unblock teams through influence rather than authority

• Represent Solutions Engineering credibility in intake conversations, helping sponsors understand what's possible and scoping engagements realistically

• Partner with receiving teams during knowledge transfer to ensure clean handovers and long-term ownership

Domain Expertise & Bank Context

• Develop and maintain deep knowledge of Bank Tech's systems landscape: payments, account servicing, data platforms, core banking systems, and cloud infrastructure

• Leverage understanding of how the bank's technical systems interconnect to identify risks, dependencies, and integration challenges early

• Apply institutional context to accelerate onboarding and delivery — understanding regulatory constraints, deployment patterns, and operational realities that external hires or contractors would miss

• Stay current on bank-wide technical strategy and translate that into actionable guidance for engagement teams

Mentorship & Engineering Culture

• Mentor and grow engineers across multiple teams, building a bench of technical leaders who can own engagements independently

• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, continuous learning, and knowledge sharing

• Lead by example through high-quality technical contributions, clear documentation, and principled decision-making

• Actively recruit and develop talent suited to the unique demands of a professional services engineering model

Engagement Model

• Operate effectively in a SWAT-style model: rapidly orient to new problem domains, deliver high-impact contributions in compressed timelines, then transition cleanly to the next priority

• Balance multiple concurrent engagements, allocating time and attention to maximize organizational impact

• Thrive with variety — this role serves multiple stakeholders across different domains rather than deep-diving into a single product for years

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree

• At least 7 years of experience in software engineering 

• At least 7 years of experience with cloud computing (AWS)

• At least 5 years of experience working across multiple technical domains or in a consulting or professional services engineering capacity

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science or a related field

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with broad exposure across distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, data pipelines, and application development

• 10+ years of professional experience in Java, Python, Go, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar

• 8+ years of full lifecycle system development — conception through architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, and production support

• Experience at Capital One or a large financial institution with understanding of regulated environments, compliance requirements, and enterprise-scale systems

• Demonstrated track record of building relationships and influencing technical decisions across organizational boundaries without direct authority

• Experience leading technical direction in a consulting, professional services, or rotational engineering model where context-switching across domains is the norm

• Experience with multiple of the following: serverless architectures (Fargate, Lambda), event-driven systems, observability platforms, ML/AI pipelines, automated testing frameworks, cloud migration at scale

• Experience leveraging interactive AI tooling to accelerate productivity, utilizing capabilities beyond basic code completion

• Strong written and verbal communication skills — ability to produce clear ADRs, technical briefs, and stakeholder-facing materials

What Sets This Role Apart

You should apply if:

• You prefer breadth and variety over deep single-product ownership — you'll work across payments, cloud infrastructure, testing, observability, and ML in a single quarter

• You are energized by building relationships and earning trust with stakeholders as much as writing code

• You excel at rapid context switching — onboarding to a new domain in days, not months

• You want outsized organizational impact — your technical decisions will shape the bank's most critical initiatives, not just one team's roadmap

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

The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.

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

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

Philadelphia, PA: $244,700 - $279,200 for Distinguished Engineer

Wilmington, DE: $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.

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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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).