Principal Associate, Physical Security Engineer (Systems / Technical Operations - Physical Security), Global Workplace Services, Technology & Security Ops
We are seeking a highly capable Principal Associate Engineer to support and evolve enterprise-scale physical security technology platforms across a global footprint. This role sits at the intersection of engineering, operations, and program execution, supporting mission-critical systems that protect people, assets, and facilities.
This is not a narrow support role. You will operate as a trusted technical owner, driving system reliability, troubleshooting complex issues, improving operational processes, and contributing to strategic initiatives across alarm, video surveillance, and access control systems. You will work directly with engineering leadership, cross-functional partners, and vendors to ensure our platforms remain stable, scalable, and continuously improving.
The Ideal Candidate Should:
- Deliver clear, concise, and tailored communication to appropriate audiences across all levels.
- Build and maintain stakeholder relationships, proactively inform them, and apply relevant prior experience.
- Contribute to solutions with confidence, achieve desired outcomes effectively, and demonstrate leadership among peers.
- Consistently apply expertise, deeply understand day-to-day operations, and operate with little oversight and high success.
- Manage work effectively, consider multiple perspectives, and lead through ambiguity to gain buy-in and declare next steps.
- Hold self and others accountable to Capital One values and constructively challenges non-aligned decisions.
- Be open to creative solutions, collaborate with others to solve problems, and ground issue severity on level of impact.
- Manage work to deliver results per timelines, prioritize business-critical work, and manage high volume effectively.
- Respect individual contributions, actively helps others succeed, and consistently volunteers for staffing and training support.
- Be able to make decisions, while under stress, that provides for the safety and security of the Capital One associates, visitors and assets
- Be comfortable working with physical, field-deployed systems such as cameras, alarm panels, access control devices, or other physical security IoT/edge technologies
- Demonstrate a balance of technical depth and practical execution, with the ability to operate effectively in real-world environments
- Thrive in a mission critical, life safety operational environment, managing multiple priorities while maintaining a high standard of system reliability
Key Responsibilities
Platform Ownership & System Reliability
- Own day-to-day health and performance of physical security platforms (intrusion alarm, video surveillance, access control, case management, situational awareness, video analytics)
- Monitor system performance, identify risks, and proactively address issues before impact
- Lead troubleshooting of complex system issues across hardware, software, and network layers
- Ensure systems meet uptime, compliance, and operational standards across all supported sites
- Participate in an on-call rotation to support critical, time-sensitive incidents impacting system availability and life safety operations.
Technical Execution & Problem Solving
- Diagnose and resolve escalated incidents involving distributed systems and field devices
- Analyze trends across incidents to identify root causes and systemic improvements
- Partner with vendors and internal engineering teams to drive resolution of defects and performance issues
- Translate ambiguous problems into structured solutions with clear next steps
Process Improvement & Automation
- Identify opportunities to reduce manual effort through automation and tooling
- Improve monitoring, alerting, and reporting capabilities for system health
- Contribute to building scalable processes for configuration management, testing, and deployment
- Support development and evolution of internal tools (e.g., configuration tracking, audit workflows)
Program & Project Support
- Support delivery of key initiatives (e.g., system upgrades, new deployments, integrations)
- Coordinate across stakeholders to ensure alignment, timelines, and successful execution
- Track dependencies, risks, and progress across initiatives
- Contribute to documentation, runbooks, and operational standards
- Travel to sites as needed to support new system deployments, equipment commissioning, validation, and end-user-training
Stakeholder Engagement & Communication
- Communicate system status, risks, and issues clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Provide concise updates that enable decision-making and action
- Build strong working relationships across engineering, operations, and vendor teams
Basic Qualifications
- At least 3 years of experience in physical security integration or technical operations
- At least 3 years of hands-on experience supporting physical security technologies (for example: intrusion alarms, access control, video management systems) in IT environments
- At least 3 years of experience supporting distributed systems or IoT environments (for example: cameras, sensors, edge devices)
- At least 3 years of experience troubleshooting incidents across networking, hardware, and software layers
- At least 3 years of experience working with vendors and third-party systems
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related technical field or equivalent practical experience
- 1+ years experience with physical security systems (for example: video surveillance, access control, intrusion detection)
- 1+ years experience operating in regulated or compliance-driven environments ( for example: financial services, healthcare, or critical infrastructure)
- 1+ years experience with Network diagnostics (for example: packet capture, port scanning)
- 1+ year of experience with monitoring and alerting systems
- 1+ years of scripting and automation experience (for example: Python, Google Apps Script, SQL, JQL, and Jira)
- 1+ years experience supporting large-scale environments (thousands of devices across multiple locations)
- 1+ years of experience working on AWS cloud services or integrations
- 1+ years of experience contributing to process design, automation, or internal tooling
At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new 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.
Sales Territory: $98,900 - $112,900 for Pr Assoc, Workplace Services
McLean, VA: $108,900 - $124,300 for Pr Assoc, Workplace Services
Richmond, VA: $98,900 - $112,900 for Pr Assoc, Workplace Services
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.
