Senior Director, Data Science - Customer Core Specialist Models

Senior Director, Data Science - Customer Core Specialist Models
Data is at the center of everything we do. As a startup, we disrupted the credit card industry by individually personalizing every credit card offer using statistical modeling and the relational database, cutting edge technology in 1988! Fast-forward a few years, and this little innovation and our passion for data has skyrocketed us to a Fortune 200 company and a leader in the world of data-driven decision-making.

As an Data Scientist Leader at Capital One, you'll be part of a team that's leading the next wave of AI-driven disruption at a whole new scale, using the latest in computing and AI/ML technologies and operating across billions of customer records to unlock the big opportunities that help everyday people save money, time and agony in their financial lives.

Team Description:

The Specialist Models Team in AI Foundations engages in active research in GenAI and AI powered capabilities to build scalable futuristic solutions to enhance our customers digital experience and provide them with superior protection in their financial lives. You will be the driving force to lead research, innovate and develop applications with emerging AI/ML technologies. Our areas of research include advanced LLM powered search, natural language interfaces, advanced biometrics, recommendation and personalization systems, Highly Sensitive Human Data detection systems, Guardrails, and Red-teaming to build safe and reliable AI systems.

In this role, you will:

• Lead a cross-functional team of data scientists, software engineers, machine learning engineers and work with product managers and Engineers to deliver AI powered products.
• Lead cutting-edge research and development in Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance our fraud detection, device trust and customer data models, including model architecture design, hyperparameter optimization, and evaluation metrics.
• Fine-tune advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) for domain-specific applications, inference optimization, and multi-agentic workflows, leveraging techniques like transfer learning, prompt engineering, curriculum learning, and reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF).
• Leverage a broad stack of technologies - Python, AWS, Pyspark, LangChain, LangGraph, HuggingFace Transformers, vLLM and VectorDBs, and more, for model development, deployment, and monitoring.
• Be the expert in Graph ML, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to harness the power of Large Language Models (LLMs), adapt and finetune them for business specific applications and features, including entity recognition, sentiment analysis, and summarization.
• Drive innovation by designing, training, evaluating, and deploying state-of-the-art AI models, partnering with engineering teams to integrate them into scalable and resilient production systems with robust MLOps practices.
• Translate complex AI/ML research into tangible business outcomes, improving customer experience through real-time, intelligent digital assistance, by identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and designing A/B tests to measure impact.

The Ideal Candidate is:

• Innovative. You are deeply engaged in AI/ML research and stay ahead of the curve on emerging GenAI advancements. You seek out opportunities to apply state-of-the-art methods to real-world problems, with a strong understanding of model limitations and ethical considerations.
• Creative. You excel at defining and solving complex, ambiguous problems, constantly questioning and pushing boundaries to develop novel solutions, and can translate business needs into technical requirements.
• A leader. You challenge conventional thinking, drive breakthroughs in conversational AI, and mentor teams to achieve innovation excellence, fostering a culture of continuous learning and experimentation.
• Technical. You have hands-on experience in AI/ML development, working with open-source tools, cloud computing platforms, and DevOps technologies. You are proficient in the state of the art AI systems, including model lifecycle management, data governance, and explainable AI (XAI).
• Influential. You are passionate about GenAI and can bring together cross-functional teams to drive adoption and innovation. You communicate complex ideas clearly to technical and non-technical audiences, influencing stakeholders at all levels.

Basic Qualifications:

• Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining one of the following with an expectation that the required degree will be obtained on or before the scheduled start date :
  
  • A Bachelor's Degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field) plus 11 years of experience performing data analytics
  • A Master's Degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field) or an MBA with a quantitative concentration plus 9 years of experience performing data analytics
  • A PHD in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field) plus 6 years of experience performing data analytics
• At least 6 years of experience leveraging open source programming languages for large scale data analysis
• At least 6 years of experience working with machine learning
• At least 6 years of experience utilizing relational databases

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD in Computer Engineering plus 10 years of relevant experience, prior publication/research experience referred
• At least 5 years of specialized experience in GenAI application development.
• At least 5 years of experience in LLM model training, evaluation, inference optimization and parallelization in GPU cluster
• At least 6 years of experience working with AWS or equivalent GPU Clusters
• At least 6 years of experience in PyTorch/Tensorflow

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: $308,700 - $352,300 for Sr Dir, Data Science
New York, NY: $336,700 - $384,200 for Sr Dir, Data Science San Jose, CA: $336,700 - $384,200 for Sr Dir, Data Science
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 . 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).