Principal Associate, Data Scientist - Alternative Data Strategy

Capital One • McLean, VA

2d • $161,800 - $201,400 • Hybrid

About The Position

Capital One’s Alternative Data Strategy team advances credit decisioning by integrating non-traditional datasets into US Card strategies. The Principal Associate, Data Scientist evaluates emerging vendors and data products, engineers impactful features, builds scalable data processing and monitoring systems, and serves as a data-domain expert guiding dataset applications. The role also involves navigating risk governance for vendor models and building challenger models using new data to improve existing models, in close collaboration with cross-functional partners.

The data scientist partners with data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to deliver customer-focused products. They use technologies including Python, Conda, AWS, H2O, and Spark to analyze large volumes of numeric and textual data, and develop machine-learning models through design, training, evaluation, validation, and implementation. The role is designated hybrid, with on-site presence required in accordance with Capital One’s hybrid policy.

The position requires a quantitative education and data analytics experience, with requirements varying by degree level. Preferred qualifications include STEM education and experience with AWS, Python, Scala or R, machine learning, and SQL. The listed annual salary ranges are $161,800–$184,600 in McLean, Virginia, and $176,500–$201,400 in New York, New York. The role is also eligible for performance-based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonuses and/or long-term incentives. Capital One offers a comprehensive health, financial, and other benefits package; eligibility varies by employment and management status.

Requirements

• Currently has, or is obtaining by the scheduled start date, a bachelor's degree in a quantitative field and at least 5 years of data analytics experience; or a master's degree in a quantitative field or an MBA with a quantitative concentration and at least 3 years of data analytics experience; or a PhD in a quantitative field.
• Quantitative fields include Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.
• Experience with data analytics commensurate with the applicable degree pathway.

Nice To Haves

• A master's degree in a STEM field plus at least 3 years of data analytics experience, or a PhD in a STEM field.
• At least 1 year of experience working with AWS.
• At least 3 years of experience in Python, Scala, or R.
• At least 3 years of experience with machine learning.
• At least 3 years of experience with SQL.
• Hands-on experience developing data science solutions using open-source tools and cloud computing platforms.
• Experience with model development, validation, and backtesting; interpreting confusion matrices or ROC curves; and methods such as clustering, classification, sentiment analysis, time series, and deep learning.
• Ability to retrieve, combine, and analyze data from varied sources and structures.
• Interest in researching emerging technologies and applying current state-of-the-art methods.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate emerging vendors and alternative data products for use in US Card credit strategies.
• Engineer high-impact features from non-traditional datasets.
• Build scalable data processing and monitoring systems.
• Serve as the data-domain expert guiding users on dataset applications.
• Navigate risk governance for vendor models and build challenger models using new data to enhance existing models.
• Partner with data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to deliver customer-focused products.
• Use technologies such as Python, Conda, AWS, H2O, and Spark to extract insights from large volumes of numeric and textual data.
• Develop machine-learning models through design, training, evaluation, validation, and implementation.
• Translate technical work into tangible business goals.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, financial, and other benefits supporting total well-being.
• Performance-based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonuses and/or long-term incentives.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior