Applied Research PhD Intern

Job Description

About the Applied Research PhD Internship at Capital One

At Capital One, we are at the forefront of creating trustworthy and reliable AI systems to revolutionize banking for good. For years, Capital One has led the industry in leveraging machine learning to deliver real-time, intelligent, and automated customer experiences. Our applications of AI & ML, ranging from alerting customers about unusual charges to providing instant answers to their questions, aim to bring humanity and simplicity to banking.

We are dedicated to building world-class applied science and engineering teams to continuously deliver industry-leading capabilities through breakthrough product experiences and scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure. As an Applied Research PhD Intern at Capital One, you will play a crucial role in harnessing the transformative power of emerging AI capabilities to reimagine how we serve our customers and businesses.

Program Requirements & Details:

• Location: Participation requires location in the continental United States with in-person attendance at your assigned location, adhering to Capital One’s hybrid working model.
• Duration: This is a paid, limited-time 12-week full-time summer internship position.
• Sponsorship: Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this internship 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.
• Completed 2nd year of PhD coursework by program start date (e.g., 2nd year of PhD program completed by program start date OR qualifies, at minimum, as a 2nd year in PhD program because of completed Master’s).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Completed 3rd or 4th year of PhD Program.
• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, or related fields.
• 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 of the following areas:
  • Foundation Models (Language, Vision, Graphs, Time Series), 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.
  • User Behavior Modeling.
  • Model Inference Optimization.
  • Interpretability, Responsible/Trustworthy AI Models.

Team Description:

The AI Foundations team is central to realizing Capital One’s vision for AI. Our work spans every aspect of the research life cycle, from academic partnerships to building production systems. We collaborate with product, technology, and business leaders to apply state-of-the-art AI to our business challenges.

In this role, you will:

• 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 translating the latest AI developments into next-generation 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 transform how customers interact with their money.
• Leverage a broad stack of technologies — Pytorch, AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, Lightning, VectorDBs, and more — to reveal insights hidden within huge volumes of numeric and textual data.
• Flex your interpersonal skills to 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 from across Capital One.

The Ideal Candidate:

• Passionate & Principled: You love the process of analyzing and creating, but also share our passion to do the right thing. You want to work on problems that will help change banking for good.
• Innovative: You continually research and evaluate emerging technologies. You stay current on published state-of-the-art methods, technologies, and applications and seek out opportunities to apply them.
• Creative: You thrive on bringing definition to big, undefined problems. You love asking questions and pushing hard to find answers. You’re not afraid to share a new idea.
• Technical: You possess a strong foundation in mathematics, deep learning theory, and the engineering required for contributing to the development of AI.
• Determined: Strengthen your field of study by applying theory to practice. Bring your ideas to life in industry.

Compensation:

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.

• Cambridge, MA: $191,000 – $191,000 for Applied Research PhD Intern
• McLean, VA: $191,000 – $191,000 for Applied Research PhD Intern
• New York, NY: $209,000 – $209,000 for Applied Research PhD Intern
• San Jose, CA: $209,000 – $209,000 for 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 solely 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. Eligibility varies based on full or part-time status, exempt or non-exempt status, and management level. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website.

Application 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.
• 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.
• If you require an accommodation to apply, please contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@capitalone.com.
• For technical support or questions about Capital One’s recruiting process, please send an email to Careers@capitalone.com.