Principal AI Engineer Visa Sponsorship Jobs in Virginia
Principal AI engineer roles in Virginia are concentrated in the Northern Virginia tech corridor, where major employers like Amazon Web Services, Leidos, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Capital One actively hire for applied AI leadership. The region's proximity to federal agencies and defense contractors creates sustained demand for principal-level AI talent with security clearances and production ML systems experience.
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INTRODUCTION
Data is at the center of everything we do. As a startup, we disrupted the credit card industry by individually personalizing every credit card offer using statistical modeling and the relational database, cutting edge technology in 1988! Fast-forward a few years, and this little innovation and our passion for data has skyrocketed us to a Fortune 200 company and a leader in the world of data-driven decision-making.
As a Data Scientist at Capital One, you’ll be part of a team that’s leading the next wave of disruption at a whole new scale, using the latest in computing and machine learning technologies and operating across billions of customer records to unlock the big opportunities that help everyday people save money, time and agony in their financial lives.
Team Description
Small businesses make up 99% of U.S. firms and drive 44% of the nation's GDP. At Small Business Bank (SBB), our mission is to advocate for these entrepreneurs and empower their long-term success. The SBB Data Science team brings a relentless focus to the craft of data science—spanning statistics, machine learning, and emerging AI technologies. We partner across the organization to optimize the performance and impact of the financial products, policies, and services delivered to our customers.
ROLE DESCRIPTION
In this role, you will:
- Partner with a cross-functional team of data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to deliver a product customers love
- Leverage a broad stack of technologies — Python, Conda, AWS, H2O, Spark, and more — to reveal the insights hidden within huge volumes of numeric and textual data
- Build machine learning models through all phases of development, from design through training, evaluation, validation, and implementation
- Flex your interpersonal skills to translate the complexity of your work into tangible business goals
- Develop modeling solutions and conduct analyses to drive customer engagement, improve retention, and elevate the overall customer experience
THE IDEAL CANDIDATE IS:
- Technical. You’re comfortable with open-source languages and are passionate about developing further. You have hands-on experience developing data science solutions using open-source tools and cloud computing platforms.
- Statistically-minded. You’ve built models, validated them, and back tested them. You know how to interpret a confusion matrix or a ROC curve. You have experience with clustering, classification, sentiment analysis, time series, and deep learning.
- A data guru. “Big data” doesn’t faze you. You have the skills to retrieve, combine, and analyze data from a variety of sources and structures. You know understanding the data is often the key to great data science.
- 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.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
- Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining one of the following with an expectation that the required degree will be obtained on or before the scheduled start date:
- A Bachelor's Degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field) plus 5 years of experience performing data analytics
- A Master's Degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field) or an MBA with a quantitative concentration plus 3 years of experience performing data analytics
- A PhD in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field)
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Master’s Degree in “STEM” field (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) plus 3 years of experience in data analytics, or PhD in “STEM” field (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics)
- At least 3 years’ experience with machine learning and statistical modeling
- At least 3 years’ experience in Python, Dask, Spark etc.
- At least 3 years’ experience with SQL
- At least 1 year of experience working with AWS
- At least 1 year of experience with deep learning/emerging AI e.g. graphs, embeddings, sequence models, or transformer models
Capital One will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this position.
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.
McLean, VA: $161,800 - $184,600 for Princ Associate, Data Science
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 the Capital 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).
Principal AI Engineer Job Roles in Virginia
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Search Principal AI Engineer Jobs in VirginiaPrincipal AI Engineer Jobs in Virginia: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies sponsor visas for principal AI engineers in Virginia?
Northern Virginia's tech and defense sectors produce consistent H-1B visa LCA filings for principal AI engineer roles. Amazon Web Services in Arlington, Capital One in McLean, Leidos and Booz Allen Hamilton in the Tysons-Reston corridor, and Microsoft's Northern Virginia operations have all filed for senior AI and machine learning engineering positions. Federal contractor adjacency means many roles require U.S. citizenship or clearance eligibility, so not every opening is accessible to visa-sponsored candidates.
Which visa types realistically fit principal AI engineer roles in Virginia?
Principal AI engineer roles qualify as specialty occupations requiring at least a bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, or a related field, making H-1B the primary path. H-1B1 visa applies to Chilean and Singaporean nationals, and E-3 visa applies to Australian nationals, both also requiring specialty occupation status and an employer-filed Labor Condition Application. Canadian and Mexican nationals with an engineering degree may qualify under TN visa status as engineers. OPT and STEM OPT cover F-1 students in STEM-designated degree programs.
Which cities in Virginia have the most principal AI engineer sponsorship jobs?
Northern Virginia dominates, with Reston, McLean, Tysons, and Arlington accounting for the overwhelming share of principal AI engineer postings in the state. The Amazon HQ2 build-out in Arlington has expanded demand considerably. Richmond hosts a smaller but growing cluster tied to Capital One's technology hub. Fairfax City and Herndon also see activity from federal IT contractors and cloud infrastructure firms with dedicated AI practices.
How to find principal ai engineer visa sponsorship jobs in Virginia?
Migrate Mate lists principal AI engineer roles in Virginia filtered to employers with verified visa sponsorship history, so you can focus on companies that have filed Labor Condition Applications for similar positions rather than applying broadly and discovering sponsorship limitations late in the process. Search by role and state on Migrate Mate to surface active openings at Northern Virginia employers across defense tech, cloud, and financial services.
Are there state-specific factors that affect visa sponsorship for principal AI engineers in Virginia?
Virginia's high concentration of federal contractors introduces a clearance dimension that affects sponsorship availability. Many senior AI roles in the Reston-Tysons corridor require active security clearances, which are generally unavailable to foreign nationals, narrowing the pool of sponsor-eligible openings. Commercial-sector employers, particularly in fintech and cloud infrastructure, face no such restriction and represent the more accessible sponsorship pathway for international principal AI engineer candidates in Virginia.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored principal ai engineer jobs in Virginia?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.