Principal Associate, Data Scientist - Alternative Data Strategy

Capital One; McLean (VA); Hybrid; USD 162,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One is seeking a Principal Associate Data Scientist in McLean, VA for the Alternative Data Strategy. You will collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and product managers to deliver data-driven credit decisioning using non-traditional datasets.

The role requires ML model development, feature engineering, and operating across large data volumes with cloud technologies. You will evaluate vendors, build scalable systems, and guide users on dataset applications while navigating risk

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative field plus 5 years analytics experience.
• Master’s degree in quantitative field or MBA with quantitative concentration plus 3 years analytics experience.
• PhD in quantitative field.
• Master’s Degree in STEM field plus 3 years analytics, or PhD in STEM field

Responsibilities

• Partner with cross‑functional teams to deliver data products.
• Engineer features and scalable processing for large datasets.
• Build ML models from design through deployment.
• Translate complex work into clear business goals

Skills

Python

Scala

R

SQL

Machine Learning

AWS

Spark

Conda

H2O

Education

Bachelor's degree in quantitative field

Master's degree in quantitative field or MBA with quantitative concentration

PhD in quantitative field

Tools

Spark

H2O

Conda

Job description

Principal Associate, Data Scientist - Alternative Data Strategy

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.

The Alternative Data Strategy team drives credit decisioning forward by integrating non-traditional datasets into US Card strategies. As a Data Scientist, you will evaluate emerging vendors and data products, engineer high-impact features, build scalable processing and monitoring systems, and serve as the dedicated data domain expert guiding all users on dataset applications. In this role, you will also navigate risk governance for vendor models and build challenger models using new data to enhance existing ones. The scope involves rich cross‑functional collaboration and continuous learning opportunities.

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

This role is designated as a hybrid position. You are expected to adhere to Capital One's hybrid policy regarding required on‑site presence at your designated office location.

The Ideal Candidate is:

• 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.
• Creative. You thrive on bringing definition to big, undefined problems. You love asking questions and pushing hard to find answers. You’re not afraid to share a new idea.
• 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 backtested 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.

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 1 year of experience working with AWS At least 3 years’ experience in Python, Scala, or R At least 3 years’ experience with machine learning At least 3 years’ experience with SQL Capital One will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this position.

McLean, VA: $161,800 - $184,600 for Princ Associate, Data Science New York, NY: $176,500 - $201,400 for Princ Associate, Data Science

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.

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. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations. 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). At Capital One, we’re building a leading information‑based technology company. Still founder‑led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fairbank, Capital One is on a mission to help our customers succeed by bringing ingenuity, simplicity, and humanity to banking.