Lead Software Engineer, Back End ( Enterprise Platforms Technology)(Apache Spark & Java)

Overview

Lead Software Engineer, Back End ( Enterprise Platforms Technology)(Apache Spark & Java)

Do you love building and pioneering in the technology space? Do you enjoy solving complex business problems in a fast-paced, collaborative, inclusive, and iterative delivery environment? At Capital One, you'll be part of a big group of makers, breakers, doers and disruptors, who love to solve real problems and meet real customer needs. We are seeking a forward-thinking Lead Back End Software Engineer to spearhead the architecture, development, and scaling of our core data infrastructure. As a Capital One Software Engineer, you’ll be on the forefront of driving a major transformation—leveraging traditional big data technologies alongside AI-native engineering workflows.

Enterprise Platforms Technology (EPTech) comprises many of Capital One’s most important enterprise platforms. We play an essential role in establishing practices for building technology solutions across the company, while also delivering capabilities that exemplify those practices.

What You’ll Do:

• Architect & Build: Lead a portfolio of diverse technology projects and design robust, highly scalable data pipelines and microservices using Java, Apache Spark, Scala and Spring Boot.

• Scale for Billions: Engineer systems capable of ingesting, processing, and serving billions of customer data points with low latency, high availability, and strong data consistency.

• AI-Enhanced Development: Drive developer productivity by actively integrating AI coding assistants and autonomous agents (e.g., Claude Code, Co Pilot etc ) into daily development workflows, automated testing, and code refactoring.

• AI & LLM Integration: Design backend architectures and APIs that interface with AI/ML models and LLM endpoints for intelligent data enrichment and automated pipeline monitoring.

• Technical Leadership: Lead, mentor, and inspire a team of back-end and data engineers. Establish best practices for human-in-the-loop AI coding, conduct rigorous code reviews, and maintain high standards for system reliability.

• Cloud & Data Optimization: Leverage AWS services (EMR, Glue, lambda, step functions, S3, RDS, DynamoDB, Kinesis) to build cost-effective cloud architectures. Write optimized SQL queries with Open Source RDBMS and NoSQL databases and tune Spark jobs to minimize compute costs and maximize throughput.

• System Reliability: Implement robust monitoring, alerting, and automated pipelines to ensure data quality, pipeline integrity, and zero-downtime deployments.

Basic Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s Degree

• At least 4 years of professional software engineering experience (Internship experience does not apply)

• At least 1 year experience with cloud computing (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree

• 7 + years of professional engineering experience utilizing Java, Scala, Python, or Go

• 4 + years of experience with Advanced SQL and NoSQL database systems

• 3 + years of hands-on cloud experience (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud)

• 3 + years of experience working with various open source frameworks

• 2 + years of experience in Apache Spark performance tuning, specifically addressing memory configuration, data partitioning, and DAG optimization

• Proficiency in leveraging AI-native development tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or OpenAI Canvas) to drive engineering velocity

At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization, or offer any immigration related support for this position (e.g. H1B, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, F-1 CPT, J-1, TN, E-3, and O-1, or any other forms of work authorization that require immigration support from an employer).

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: $197,300 - $225,100 for Lead Software Engineer

Richmond, VA: $179,400 - $204,700 for Lead Software 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.

If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Capital One Recruiting at Show phone number or via email at View email address on capitalonecareers.com . All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

For technical support or questions about Capital One's recruiting process, please send an email to View email address on capitalonecareers.com

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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).