Applied Researcher I (AI Foundations, LLM Customization, Finetuning, Reinforcement Learning)

Capital One is hiring an Applied Researcher I in McLean, Pierce County, US to advance AI foundations, LLM customization, finetuning, and reinforcement learning for trustworthy banking solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement research experiments on large language models (LLMs) and reinforcement learning algorithms.
• Develop custom model fine‑tuning pipelines that meet regulatory and security standards.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, and data science teams to integrate AI prototypes into production banking services.
• Publish findings internally and externally, contributing to the scientific community and Capital One’s AI knowledge base.
• Evaluate model performance, bias, and robustness, ensuring reliability and trustworthiness of AI systems.

Required Qualifications

• PhD or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, or a related field.
• Strong background in natural language processing, LLM architecture, and reinforcement learning.
• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Experience with model training, hyper‑parameter optimization, and large‑scale data pipelines.
• Excellent problem‑solving skills and ability to communicate complex concepts to cross‑functional teams.

Preferred Skills

• Publications in top AI conferences or journals.
• Knowledge of AI ethics, fairness, and compliance in financial services.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) for distributed training.

Compensation

Annual salary: $266,722.78

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of AI research will I work on at Capital One?

You will focus on large language model customization, finetuning, reinforcement learning, and building trustworthy AI systems for banking applications.

What education is required for this role?

A PhD or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, or a related discipline is required.

Is the salary fixed for this position?

Yes, the annual salary is $266,722.78.