Skip to main content
R239575 Posted 04/09/2026

Sr. Director, Software Engineering SWE, HR Tech & Platforms (People Tech)

McLean, Virginia | Plano, Texas | Richmond, Virginia | New York, New York
  • Category Engineering
  • Experience Sr. Director
  • Primary Address McLean, Virginia

Overview

Sr. Director, Software Engineering SWE, HR Tech & Platforms (People Tech)

Capital One is a world-class, cloud-native engineering organization, leveraging a modern technology stack and the latest technologies to deliver groundbreaking financial services and breakthrough customer experiences. This is an exciting opportunity to build and lead a best-in-class HR Tech engineering and platform organization for a Fortune 100 company. As a strategic partner to the business, you will drive our Human Resources Technology journey, extending our enterprise tech capabilities for HR professionals, executives, and associates by dedicatedly building world-class teams and enhancing industry-leading capabilities with scalable, high-performance applications and breakthrough product experiences. Our investment in HR Technology and Data is virtually unmatched by peer banks, rivaling the scope and ambition seen at leading global technology companies.

As a Capital One Senior Director of Software Engineering, you'll work on everything from customer-facing web and mobile applications using cutting-edge open source frameworks, to highly-available RESTful microservices, to back-end Java based systems using the newest techniques in Big Data. You'll bring solid experience in emerging and traditional technologies such as: node.js, Java, GO, React, Python, REST, JSON, NoSQL databases, and AWS/Cloud Infrastructure to name a few.


The Position:

  • Senior Director of Software Engineering to lead HR Tech and Platforms organization within People Tech. This tech leader will be pivotal in defining and executing the long-term technical strategy, providing strong technical leadership and mentorship, and spearheading the modernization of our associate-facing HR experiences. 

  • Focus on key initiatives including pioneering AI for HR and Enterprise, transforming Talent Acquisition and Onboarding, and/or reimagining Performance Management. 

  • This role is crucial for delivering consumer-grade experiences across HR, including Workday and associated Platforms, and driving critical Discover data migration.

  • Build and lead a lean best-in-class data organization responsible for enterprise-wide stability, resiliency, and chaos testing of data platforms.

  • Successfully develop engineering patterns applied to data platforms that will transform the way we operate our data applications moving forward. 

  • Understand current capabilities and needs, and then chart the course for the future. Serve as a thought leader, not only reacting to enterprise HR business needs but also gaining buy-in for the adoption of forward-leaning solutions. 

  • Ability to leverage industry credibility to influence senior tech leaders across our 18,000-person tech organization. 

  • Have an enterprise vs project-focused mindset, driving large-scale change. 

  • Assess current tools and frameworks ensuring the adoption of cutting-edge technology not simply because it’s shiny and new, but because it’s the best overall solution. 

  • Lead strategy to build tools and services for application service teams to operate highly reliable software systems at scale 

  • Experience working in agile environment and empower teams to increase efficiency, ship faster, learn more and solve faster

  • Drive the business and technology roadmaps and ensure alignment to the technology strategy and standards. 

  • Instill KPIs and key metrics to determine success. 

  • Set a high bar for engineering and operational excellence and reduction of technical debt. 

  • Place a key focus on talent. Build and manage a high performing team. 

  • Serve as an inspiring role model, a leader the team wants to emulate. 

  • Inspire a highly talented next level of leaders, ensuring succession as well as their own people development objectives. 

  • Attract, hire and retain key engineering talent, building a world-class organization.

You will:

  • Lead, manage and grow multiple teams of product focused software engineers

  • Mentor and guide the professional and technical development of engineers on your team.

  • Work with product managers to understand desired application capabilities and testing scenarios

  • Continuously improve software engineering practices

  • Work within and across Agile teams to design, develop, test, implement, and support technical solutions across a full-stack development tools and technologies

  • Lead the craftsmanship, availability, resilience, and scalability of your solutions

  • Bring a passion to stay on top of tech trends, experiment with and learn new technologies, participate in internal & external technology communities, and mentor other members of the engineering community

  • Encourage innovation, implementation of cutting-edge technologies, inclusion, outside-of-the-box thinking, teamwork, self-organization, and diversity

  • Work across to improve the velocity of your and other teams

  • Lead efforts to deploy new and existing applications into AWS environments

  • Break existing monolithic applications into micro service architectures and build new microservices

The Person:

  • Deep technical expert and thought leader that help accelerate adoption of the very best engineering practices, while maintaining knowledge on industry innovations, trends and practices.

  • They will have demonstrated a track record of developing innovative solutions and open-ended research to solve real-world problems, preferably in technology companies, along with publications in top tier conferences.

  • They will have a demonstrated ability to influence senior leadership, stakeholders, technical and non-technical audiences, and shape company strategy to drive results.

  • Role model and mentorship, coaching and strengthening the technical expertise and know-how of our engineering and product community.

  • Evangelists, both internally and externally, helping to elevate Engineering Excellent, Consumer Grade Products and Experiences, and Innovation within the tech community

  • Establish themselves as a go-to resource on given technologies and technology-enabled capabilities

  • Willingness to travel to support key initiatives, as well as attend meetings, conferences, or training.

Ideal Experience:

  • Strong communication and influencing skills to effectively convey complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences

  • Deep understanding of cloud migration strategies and processes, including experience with migrating complex workloads.

  • Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, disciplines and organizations.

  • Passionate people leader that optimizes the capabilities of peers and business partners, recruits top talent, develops bench strengths, and maintains an engaged workforce

  • Highly developed interpersonal, presentation, and communication skills

  • Built and operated distributed platforms in the public cloud

Basic Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s Degree

  • At least 9 years’ experience in software development

  • At least 7 years’ experience in people management

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Master’s Degree in a related technical field (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Engineering) or equivalent experience

  • 10+ years’ of experience in software development

  • 8+ years’ of experience in Agile practices

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.

Richmond, VA: $286,200 - $326,700 for Sr. Dir, Software Engineering


New York, NY: $343,400 - $392,000 for Sr. Dir, Software Engineering


McLean, VA: $314,800 - $359,300 for Sr. Dir, Software Engineering


Plano, TX: $286,200 - $326,700 for Sr. Dir, Software Engineering








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 theCapital One Careers website. 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.

If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please 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 will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

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

Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee and is not liable for third-party products, services, educational tools or other information available through this site.

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).

Hiring Process
Stories
Benefits
Career Journey

How We Hire

We take finding great coworkers pretty seriously.

Illustration of Man using laptop then excitedly pumping both arms
  • Step 1 Apply

    It only takes a few minutes to complete our application and assessment.

  • Step 2 Screen and Schedule

    If your application is a good match you’ll hear from one of our recruiters to set up a screening interview.

  • Step 3 Interview(s)

    Now’s your chance to learn about the job, show us who you are, share why you would be a great addition to the team and determine if Capital One is the place for you.

  • Step 4 Decision

    The team will discuss — if it’s a good fit for us and you, we’ll make it official!

How to Pick the Perfect Career Opportunity

Overwhelmed by a tough career choice? Read these tips from Devon Rollins, Senior Director of Cyber Intelligence, to help you accept the right offer with confidence.

Your wellbeing is our priority

Our benefits and total compensation package is designed for the whole person. Caring for both you and your family.

  • Illustration of a stethoscope

    Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

    You have options and we have the tools to help you decide which health plans best fit your needs.

  • Illustration of a jar with acorns in it

    Save Money, Make Money

    Secure your present, plan for your future and reduce expenses along the way.

  • Illustration of a mountain peak with a flag

    Time, Family and Advice

    Options for your time, opportunities for your family, and advice along the way. It’s time to BeWell.

Career Journey

Here’s how the team fits together. We’re big on growth and knowing who and how coworkers can best support you.

Visual illustration of a career path at Capital One. Text version included in the Image Description button that follows

A possible career journey at Capital One:

  1. Coordinator
  2. Senior Coordinator
  3. Principal Coordinator
  4. Associate
  5. Senior Associate
  6. Principal Associate
  7. Manager
  8. Senior Manager
  9. Director
  10. Senior Director
  11. VP
Illustration of woman chatting on a mobile device

Want more jobs like this?  

Set a job alert

Sign up

Job Alerts

Don’t miss a thing. Stay in the know about opportunities you may be interested in!

Interested InTo create job alerts, you can either select a job category from the list of options or search by location. For location, you can search by city, state, zip or “remote”, then click 'Add'. Once done, click ‘Sign up’ to receive your job alerts.

  • Engineering, McLean, Virginia, United StatesRemove
  • Engineering, Plano, Texas, United StatesRemove
  • Engineering, Richmond, Virginia, United StatesRemove
  • Engineering, New York, New York, United StatesRemove
  • Technology, McLean, Virginia, United StatesRemove
  • Technology, Plano, Texas, United StatesRemove
  • Technology, Richmond, Virginia, United StatesRemove
  • Technology, New York, New York, United StatesRemove
  • Software Engineer, McLean, Virginia, United StatesRemove
  • Software Engineer, Plano, Texas, United StatesRemove
  • Software Engineer, Richmond, Virginia, United StatesRemove
  • Software Engineer, New York, New York, United StatesRemove
By submitting your information, you acknowledge that you have read our privacy policy and consent to receive email communication from Capital One.

*Required Field