Applied Researcher II (AI Foundations, LLM Core and Agentic AI)

Overview At Capital One, we are creating trustworthy and reliable AI systems, changing banking for good. Our applications of AI & ML enable real-time, intelligent, automated customer experiences. We are committed to building world-class applied science and engineering teams and leading capabilities with scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure. At Capital One, you will help bring the transformative power of emerging AI capabilities to reimagine how we serve our customers and businesses who rely on our products and services. Team Description The AI Foundations team is at the center of bringing our vision for AI at Capital One to life. Our work touches every aspect of the research life cycle, from partnering with academia to building production systems. We work with product, technology and business leaders to apply the state of the art in AI to our business. In this role, you will Partner with a cross-functional team of data scientists, software engineers, machine learning engineers and product managers to deliver AI-powered products that change how customers interact with their money. Leverage a broad stack of technologies — Pytorch, AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, Lightning, VectorDBs, and more — to reveal insights within large volumes of numeric and textual data. Build AI foundation models through all phases of development, from design through training, evaluation, validation, and implementation. Engage in high-impact applied research to translate the latest AI developments into next-generation customer experiences. Translate complex work into tangible business goals using strong interpersonal communication. The Ideal Candidate You love the process of analyzing and creating, and strive to do the right thing for customers. Innovative. You continually evaluate emerging technologies and stay current on state-of-the-art methods, technologies, and applications. Creative. You bring clarity to big, undefined problems and are willing to share new ideas. Leader. You challenge conventional thinking and work with stakeholders to improve the status quo, with a focus on talent development. Technical. You are comfortable with open-source languages and have hands-on experience developing AI foundation models and solutions using open-source tools and cloud platforms. Have a deep understanding of AI methodologies and experience with large deep learning models, including training optimization, self-supervised learning, robustness, explainability, and RLHF. Engineering mindset with a track record of delivering models at scale (training data and inference). Experience delivering libraries, platform-level code, or solution-level code to existing products. A track record of new ideas or improvements in machine learning, demonstrated by publications or notable projects. Ability to own and pursue a research agenda, including selecting impactful problems and carrying out long-running projects. Basic Qualifications PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, AI, Mathematics, or related fields, or an MS with 4+ years of applied research experience; PhD completion required by start date or within two years of start (with appropriate experience requirements). Preferred Qualifications PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Electrical Engineering or related fields. LLM-focused qualifications including NLP emphasis and relevant publications; experience training large language models; contributions to the field via ACL/NAACL/EMNLP, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, etc. Optimization expertise in training and inference for very large models (e.g., model sparsification, quantization, parallelism, gradient checkpointing, model compression); experience optimizing training for 10B+ parameter models. Finetuning expertise (Supervised Finetuning, Instruction-Tuning, Dialogue-Finetuning, Parameter Tuning) and transfer learning knowledge. 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. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based on hours. Location-based ranges apply; the actual offer will be in the offer letter. This role is eligible for performance-based incentives. Cambridge, MA: $262,500 - $299,600 for Applied Researcher II McLean, VA: $262,500 - $299,600 for Applied Researcher II New York, NY: $286,400 - $326,800 for Applied Researcher II San Francisco, CA: $286,400 - $326,800 for Applied Researcher II San Jose, CA: $286,400 - $326,800 for Applied Researcher II Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range for that location. The actual salary offered will be in the offer letter. This role may be eligible for incentive compensation (cash bonuses and/or long-term incentives). Capital One offers a comprehensive benefits package that supports total well-being. Eligibility varies by status. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days. No agencies. Capital One is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a drug-free workplace. Information on accommodations for applicants is available upon request. If you require accommodation during the application process, please contact Capital One Recruiting at View phone number on click.appcast.io or View email address on click.appcast.io. For technical questions about the recruiting process, please email View email address on click.appcast.io. Capital One does not endorse third-party products and is not liable for external materials. Capital One Financial is composed of multiple entities; positions posted in other regions may refer to different Capital One entities. #J-18808-Ljbffr Capital One