Senior Data Scientist - Operational Analytics

Peraton; Bowie (MD); On-site; USD 104,000 - 166,000; Full time

Job summary

Peraton Labs is seeking a Senior Data Scientist in Operational Analytics to transform complex workstream and program data into trusted metrics, dashboards, and analytics products for FAA modernization initiatives. The role involves building insights and decision-support tools that inform leadership and mission stakeholders.

The candidate should have deep experience with data modeling, validation, and dashboard logic, plus strong skills in Python, SQL, R, and visualization platforms.

Qualifications

• 8+ years with a BS/BA, 6+ years with an MS/MA, or 3+ with a PhD in Data Science, CS, Statistics, Math, or related technical field.
• Experience analyzing complex structured, semi-structured, operational, program, or business datasets to support decision‑making.
• Proficiency with Python, R, SQL, or similar analytical tools, with the ability to develop notebooks, scripts, queries, and reusable analysis artifacts.
• Experience with exploratory data analysis, data cleaning, statistical analysis, trend analysis, anomaly detection, forecasting, classification, clustering, or predictive modeling.
• Experience defining or supporting metrics, KPIs, dashboards, reports, or decision‑support products.
• Ability to assess data quality, completeness, consistency, and analytical usefulness.
• Ability to translate ambiguous operational and stakeholder questions into structured analyses and measurable outputs.
• US Citizenship and the ability to obtain an FAA Public Trust clearance.

Responsibilities

• Analyze workstream, requirements, IMS, schedule, risk, operational, and program data to identify trends, dependencies, gaps, anomalies, and decision‑relevant insights.
• Define operational metrics, KPIs, analytical logic, thresholds, and decision‑support views for Digital Command Center dashboards and advanced analytics products.
• Assess the quality, completeness, consistency, and usability of data made available through enterprise data repositories.
• Partner with data architects and data engineers to identify data gaps, transformation needs, metadata requirements, and analytics‑readiness issues.
• Support AI‑enabled analytics workflows by helping define trusted data inputs, context, validation criteria, and human‑in‑the‑loop review considerations.
• Develop notebooks, scripts, SQL queries, statistical analyses, models, and reusable analytical artifacts to support data exploration and decision‑making.
• Translate ambiguous operational questions into structured analysis, measurable metrics, and clear recommendations.
• Communicate assumptions, limitations, findings, and implications to technical teams, program leadership, and mission stakeholders.

Skills

Python

R

SQL

Data analysis

Dashboard design

Education

BS/BA +8 years

MS/MA +6 years

PhD +3 years

Tools

Tableau

Power BI

AWS/Redshift/Databricks

Job description

Senior Data Scientist - Operational Analytics

Job Locations

US-VA-Herndon | US-MD-Bowie | US-MD-Annapolis Junction

Responsibilities

Peraton Labs is seeking a Data Scientist to support the BNATCS CTO Advanced Analytics and Digital Command Center teams by transforming complex workstream, program, schedule, requirements, and operational data into trusted metrics, analytical insights, and decision-support products.

This role will support the analytics foundation behind the Digital Command Center (DCC) by helping interpret, model, visualize, and operationalize complex workstream data. You will work closely with CTO leadership and mission stakeholders to transform raw and evolving program data into actionable insights, dashboards, metrics, and analytics products that support FAA modernization objectives.

The ideal candidate for this role brings strong analytical judgment, cognitive flexibility, hands‑on comfort with data, and the ability to understand both the technical structure of data and the operational meaning behind it. Candidates for this role should be able to analyze, reason, and communicate well enough to contribute to analytics workflows, dashboard logic, data validation, and integration activities supporting the consolidated data environment that feeds the program's agentic AI engine.

Experience with FAA, NAS, Aviation, air traffic operations, transportation, safety‑critical systems, or large‑scale modernization data is highly relevant to this position.

Key responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:

• Analyze workstream, requirements, IMS, schedule, risk, operational, and program data to identify trends, dependencies, gaps, anomalies, and decision‑relevant insights
• Define operational metrics, KPIs, analytical logic, thresholds, and decision‑support views for Digital Command Center dashboards and advanced analytics products
• Assess the quality, completeness, consistency, and usability of data made available through enterprise data repositories
• Partner with data architects and data engineers to identify data gaps, transformation needs, metadata requirements, and analytics‑readiness issues
• Support ai‑enabled analytics workflows by helping define trusted data inputs, context, validation criteria, and human‑in‑the‑loop review considerations
• Develop notebooks, scripts, SQL queries, statistical analyses, models, and reusable analytical artifacts to support data exploration and decision‑making
• Translate ambiguous operational questions into structured analysis, measurable metrics, and clear recommendations
• Communicate assumptions, limitations, findings, and implications to technical teams, program leadership, and mission stakeholders

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience with a BS/BA, 6+ years with a MS/MA, or 3+ with a PhD in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, Operations Research, Information Systems, Analytics, or a related technical discipline
• Experience analyzing complex structured, semi‑structured, operational, program, or business datasets to support decision‑making
• Proficiency with Python, R, SQL, or similar analytical tools, with the ability to develop notebooks, scripts, queries, and reusable analysis artifacts
• Experience with exploratory data analysis, data cleaning, statistical analysis, trend analysis, anomaly detection, forecasting, classification, clustering, or predictive modeling
• Experience defining or supporting metrics, KPIs, dashboards, reports, or decision‑support products
• Ability to assess data quality, completeness, consistency, and analytical usefulness
• Ability to translate ambiguous operational and stakeholder questions into structured analyses and measurable outputs
• US Citizenship and the ability to obtain an FAA Public Trust clearance

Desired Additional Qualifications

• Experience supporting FAA, aviation, NAS, air traffic management, transportation, defense, logistics, infrastructure, command center, risk, or other complex operational environments
• Experience with cloud‑based data environments, especially AWS, Glue, Athena, Redshift, SageMaker, Databricks, Snowflake, or similar
• Experience working with data lakes, data warehouses, lakehouse environments, or multi‑source data integration environments
• Experience with dashboarding or visualization tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Grafana, Plotly, Dash, Streamlit, Superset, Qlik, or similar platforms
• Familiarity with LLMs, agentic AI systems, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), prompt/context engineering, AI‑enabled workflows, or model/output evaluation
• Experience supporting human‑in‑the‑loop analytics, AI output validation, data quality frameworks, or decision‑support governance
• Experience working with requirements data, schedule data, risk data, dependency data, operational performance data, or program execution data
• Familiarity with APIs, JSON, Parquet, data pipelines, ETL/ELT concepts, metadata, lineage, or data governance concepts
• Experience contributing lightweight code to dashboards, data workflows, APIs, or analytics applications

Peraton Overview

Peraton is a next‑generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world's leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can't be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we're keeping people around the world safe and secure.

Target Salary Range

$104,000 - $166,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual's experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.

EEO

EEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.