Data Science Intern

Westat • Bethesda, MD

10d • Hybrid

About The Position

Westat is seeking a Data Science Intern to join our Statistics and Data Science Center from hire through December 2026. The position requires a commitment of 20 hours per week, on average, and involves programming in R, Python, and SQL; applying data science and artificial intelligence (AI) methods (e.g., natural language processing, machine learning, and large language models) to structured and unstructured data; data analytics and visualization. This role is based out of Bethesda, Maryland and requires 2 days per week on site.

Requirements

• Must be enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program in math, statistics, data science or related field.
• Experience working in data science related projects.
• Proficiency in R, Python, SQL.
• Demonstrated experience developing machine learning and natural language processing methods.
• Developed, queried, and managed large data files in databases.
• Proven experience using Git as version control system.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working in a professional services research environment.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills for presenting technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Develop and test R and Python to collect, process, link, and analyze data in various formats.
• Develop SQL code to query, process, and manage large data files in databases.
• Apply supervised and unsupervised machine learning frameworks to data collected from a variety of sources.
• Use natural language processing methods and large language models to clean, parse, link, summarize and analyze large and unstructured data.
• Develop data visualizations using open-source libraries in R and Python and proprietary software such as Tableau and PowerBI.
• Develop and maintain code documentation using Git, implement coding standards, and apply best practices.
• Present to internal and external clients.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Intern