Current PhD, Applied Research Internship Program - Summer 2027

At Capital One, we are creating trustworthy and reliable AI systems, changing banking for good. For years, Capital One has been leading the industry in using machine learning to create real-time, intelligent, automated customer experiences. From informing customers about unusual charges to answering their questions in real time, our applications of AI and ML bring humanity and simplicity to banking. We are committed to building world-class applied science and engineering teams and continue delivering industry-leading capabilities with breakthrough product experiences and scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure. In this role, you will help bring the transformative power of emerging AI capabilities to reimagine how we serve our customers and the businesses who have come to love the products and services we build.

Participation Requirements

This internship requires that you are located in the continental United States with in-person attendance at your assigned location, in accordance with Capital One’s hybrid working model.

Position Details

This is a paid internship and a limited-time position. Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position. However, a full-time Applied Research role (for which you may be considered upon completion of the internship, subject to business need, market conditions, and other factors) is eligible for employer immigration sponsorship.

Basic Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in an accredited PhD program.
• 1st year of PhD coursework must be completed by June 2027.

Preferred Qualifications

• Completed 2nd or 3rd year of the PhD program.
• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Programming experience (e.g., Python) and experience with at least one deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch).
• Publications in leading conferences such as ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, NAACL, EMNLP, KDD, or CVPR.
• Focused area of research in one or more of the following:
  • Foundation Models (Language, Vision, Graphs, Time Series and Event Sequences, Tabular), including finetuning and pre-training
  • LLMs (Agentic AI, Reasoning, Test Time Compute Models, Mixture of Experts)
  • Reinforcement Learning (World Models, Reasoning, GRPO, PPO, RLHF)
  • Causal Inference and Decision Making
  • Sequential User Behavior Modeling
  • Model Inference Optimization
  • Interpretability, Responsible/Trustworthy AI Models
  • Recommendation Systems
  • Uncertainty Estimation
  • Agentic Systems

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 state-of-the-art AI to our business.

What You Will Do

• Join Capital One for a full-time, 12-week summer applied research experience, discovering solutions to real-world, large-scale problems.
• Engage in high-impact applied research with the goal of taking the latest AI developments and pushing them into the next generation of customer experiences, or contributing to publications in this field.
• Partner with a cross-functional team of applied researchers, data scientists, software engineers, machine learning engineers, and product managers to test and design AI-powered products that change how customers interact with their money.
• Leverage a broad stack of technologies—PyTorch, AWS Ultraclusters, Hugging Face, Lightning, VectorDBs, and more—to reveal insights hidden within huge volumes of numeric and textual data.
• Translate the complexity of your work into tangible business goals.
• Partner with leading researchers to publish papers at top academic conferences.
• Develop professionally through networking sessions, technical deep dives, and executive speaker sessions across Capital One.

The Ideal Candidate

• Enjoys analyzing and creating, and is motivated by solving problems that help change banking for good.
• Innovative: continually researches and evaluates emerging technologies, stays current on state-of-the-art methods and applications, and looks for opportunities to apply them.
• Creative: thrives on defining solutions for big, undefined problems; asks questions and works to find answers; shares new ideas.
• Technical: has a strong foundation in mathematics, deep learning theory, and the engineering required to contribute to AI development.
• Determined: strengthens your field of study by applying theory to practice and bringing ideas to life in industry.

Compensation

The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. 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 on the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.

• McLean, VA: $191,000 - $191,000 (Applied Research PhD Intern)
• New York, NY: $209,000 - $209,000 (Applied Research PhD Intern)
• San Jose, CA: $209,000 - $209,000 (Applied Research PhD Intern)

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 in the candidate’s offer letter.

Benefits

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.

Additional Information

• 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 and considers qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

If you require an accommodation, contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@capitalone.com. All information you provide will be kept confidential and used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

For technical support or questions about Capital One's recruiting process, send an email to Careers@capitalone.com.

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Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Positions posted in Canada are for Capital One Canada; positions posted in the United Kingdom are for Capital One Europe; and positions posted in the Philippines are for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).