Junior Data Scientist

ARA Career • Fort Belvoir, VA

22h

About The Position

The Capabilities, Analysis and Development (CAD) division of Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) has an outstanding opportunity for a Junior Data Scientist to support a multi‑disciplinary team providing data analysis and visualization support across the Department of War (DoW) mission space. You will support data-driven decision making by analyzing data, developing basic models, creating visualizations, and generating actionable insights as part of a multi-disciplinary team delivering analytical and software solutions for national security missions. This role is ideal for early-career data scientists passionate about solving real operational problems and building prototypes in an agile environment. This position is contingent upon award of a contract expected in January 2027

Requirements

• Current TS clearance with SCI eligibility
• Bachelor’s degree in data science, statistics, computer science, mathematics, or a related field with 2+ years’ experience, or a Master’s degree in data science, statistics, computer science, mathematics, or a related field.
• Experience performing analysis on large datasets and knowledge of machine learning tools and statistical techniques to produce solutions
• Proficiency with common data science (Python, R, SQL, SAS) and data visualization (Tableau, Power BI) tools
• Ability to write clearly and produce documentation, user guides, and training materials.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with common data packages such as pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, matplotlib, and data visualization frameworks such as Plotly or D3
• Experience with APIs, CSV/JSON datasets, relational databases
• Experience conducting data analyses in cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
• Familiarity with Agile development practices and collaborative tools such as Jira and Gitlab

Responsibilities

• Assist with processing, cleaning, and transforming structured and unstructured data.
• Support development of analytics, machine learning and statistical models, and exploratory data analysis.
• Create basic visualizations to identify patterns, trends, and performance indicators.
• Work with senior data scientists and developers to translate user needs into analytic tasks.
• Contribute to the design, testing, and deployment of data and analytic workflows.
• Build and deploy scripts and tools to automate routine data tasks.
• Help prepare documentation, user guides, and training materials.
• Stay current on emerging technologies, analytic methods, and industry best practices.
• Collaborate as part of an agile team and contribute to sprint activities.

Benefits

• employees are our greatest assets
• employee ownership fosters greater creativity and initiative along with higher performance and customer satisfaction levels
• ARA gives its employees the tools, training, and opportunities to take more active roles as owners
• Employees are eligible for contributions which not only add to the company’s success, but also their own through the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees