System & soul: Balancing an AI career

At Capital One, Arjun Roychowdhury currently leads a team developing a groundbreaking data compliance platform and the overall AI Strategy for Core, Payments & Partnerships in Card Tech+. Prior to that, he managed Card’s AI/ML models across the full customer lifecycle, built out high-performance data mesh products that connected isolated data sets into accessible, well-managed data products, and helped drive AI-native transformation at scale. Before joining Capital One, he spent 25 years building embedded, IoT and computer vision systems for the communications market. He’s also an avid open source contributor.

Whenever anyone asks me who I am, my answer is always immediate: I’m an engineer. For nearly 30 years, my career in the technology industry has allowed me to work on everything from building kernels and device drivers to mission-critical systems for the U.S. government and consumer market. Today, I lead a team developing a groundbreaking data compliance platform and the overall AI Strategy for Core, Payments & Partnerships in Card Tech+. Before this, I led ML, AI and data platform teams, modernizing the core infrastructure that powers seamless financial tools for millions of customers.

Throughout my journey, I’ve worn almost every hat imaginable. I’ve worked as a product manager, a pre-sales engineer, and a core engineering developer, and I genuinely enjoyed every single role. (I also did sales for six months and realized I’m terrible at it.) At Capital One, I’ve worked across data, AI/ML, real time, big data and AI developer experience. In these roles, I gained a deep appreciation for perspectives beyond engineering, mainly because I’ve tripped, stumbled and learned from every single mistake along the way.

This kind of fluid career mobility and exploration is something we actively protect here at Capital One. Technologists have the autonomy to try new roles and navigate between people management and our Distinguished Engineer track, leveling up their skillsets through diverse hands-on experiences. In this new era of AI-native transformation, the ultimate “player-coach” is someone who can apply an engineer's optimization mindset to both code and people. 

To do that successfully, no matter where we are in our technology journey, I’ve found that building a truly fulfilling career relies on balancing what I think of as System and Soul: the technical discipline it takes to build world-class software, and the personal boundaries it takes to sustain a rewarding life.

The System: Solving complex technical challenges at scale

When I interviewed with Capital One six years ago, I quickly realized we’re a platform company that happens to build financial products. I took a leap of faith and joined, and six years later, I’m glad I did. 

As technologists, we’re solving massive AI/ML & data problems and super high-speed events across billions of transactions. We’re also building products using serverless architectures, real-time big data, AI and machine learning at a huge scale. When we combine the technical architecture we’ve built with the incredible talent we have here, it allows us to make bold moves that are honestly unprecedented, not just in the financial industry, but across many other verticals. The balance of work, life, respect, scale and talent at Capital One is unmatched.

Keeping a tech stack like this moving requires an ongoing commitment to sharpening our craft. Here’s the personal framework I use to keep my technical edge:

• Read a lot to keep a grounded destination: I spend at least three to four hours every single week just reading. I scour engineering blogs, tech sites and a constant trove of emerging AI papers (arXiv, Capital One Science and others). My goal isn’t just to track trends—it’s to keep myself informed on what the broader industry is doing so we can shape a technical destination that is grounded in reality.
• Code to cut through the noise: I am a tinkerer at heart, and I still spend time building. I don’t do this to push production code. I do it for the pure joy of learning. This is particularly critical with disruptive technologies like generative AI. As fast as this space is moving, it is near impossible to know what the right technology and framework is for adoption as the answer to the case changes every month. Just reading is not sufficient. When we actually write a proof of concept, we get a firsthand appreciation of what really works and what doesn’t, which allows us to engage much deeper with our teams.
• Have strong opinions, but be prepared to change your mind: Being a good engineer means starting from a solid foundation of experience. It’s perfectly fine to lead technical discussions from the front, but we have to keep an open mind and collaborate. A better way to put this: We should always fall in love with the problem, not our specific solution. I’m a big believer in that tech adage: strong opinions, loosely held. The most exciting part of a technical discussion for me is being proven wrong by data. When someone shows me a better way to solve a complex infrastructure challenge, I don’t view it as a loss. I view it as an amazing moment where I just learned something new.

The Soul: Prioritizing work-life balance and avoiding burnout in tech

Building great technology shouldn’t come at the expense of a well-rounded life. Burnout doesn’t make anyone a better engineer, and long-term innovation requires sustainable pacing. As a leader, my job is to create an environment where everyone has the freedom to experiment, the autonomy to explore new career opportunities and challenges, and the clear support to log off at the end of the day. Managing that balance requires intentional habits:

• Evaluate life holistically: Every role has its highs and lows, which is why I always recommend taking a ‘360-view’ of your life. Instead of focusing on a single challenge, assign a value to everything that matters to you including family time, the tech you work with and the quality of the work itself. If the sum is positive, you’re in the right place. For me, Capital One is a massive positive. When I look at the balance of our culture and the impact we have on customers, I feel incredibly fortunate to be here.
• Embrace JOMO (Joy of Missing Out): Early in my career, I had FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). I felt like I needed to be in every single meeting and included in every conversation. Today, I actively love not being included if my presence isn’t required. Embracing JOMO means using our time selectively and having the discernment to focus only on what truly matters to our career and our lives. It means delegating with total trust, giving our teams and colleagues the space to fail safely and trusting that if we’re needed, we’ll be pinged.
• Assume positive intent: At Capital One, assuming positive intent is what keeps us sane when project timelines shift. When we assume our peers want the best for the product, our whole dynamic shifts from adversarial to collaborative. The flip side of this is truth-seeking. Sometimes, when people ask for validation or offer a different view, it can be misinterpreted as a lack of trust. In reality, healthy debate is a form of positive intent. When we combine trust with a relentless pursuit of the facts, we get to the right answers faster and build much stronger products.
• Treat feedback as a gift with a return receipt: Growing as an engineer requires a unique balance: the humility to receive feedback and the courage to stand out at the same time. Processing feedback can sometimes feel like a gut punch, but almost every piece of input contains a nugget of gold that can help us course-correct our blind spots. That said, a former colleague once told me that feedback comes with a return receipt. We’ve got to balance what we hear with our own sense of identity. We all own our careers. Be thoughtful about what you process, learn from what matches your goals and feel free to put the rest in a parking lot.

Ultimately, our careers should be an acceleration of our expertise, not a compromise on our lifestyle and perspectives. When we treat technical growth and personal well-being as equal priorities, we can solve incredibly complex challenges while still protecting our peace of mind.

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