Technical Analytics Manager / Lead Data Scientist (Fraud Analytics & Investigative Support)

Praescient Analytics; Fairfax (VA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive healthcare

401(k) with company match

Tuition reimbursement program

Annual training allowance

Paid time off

Job summary

Praescient Analytics is seeking a Technical Analytics Manager / Lead Data Scientist to provide technical leadership for fraud analytics and investigative support programs. You will lead multidisciplinary teams in developing advanced fraud detection models, ensuring robust analytics solutions.

The ideal candidate is a technical expert combining data science knowledge with leadership skills, ready to tackle complex challenges while mentoring junior team members. Expected to work remotely with occasional travel, you’ll contribute to essential government oversight efforts.

Qualifications

• Five or more years of hands‑on experience developing analytic rules and models for fraud detection.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, and technical communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical teams while remaining engaged in analytics development.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of fraud detection solutions.
• Develop innovative analytic approaches for federal benefit programs.
• Ensuring delivery of high‑quality analytic products.

Skills

Fraud Analysis

Analytic Model Development

Machine Learning

Data Science Tools

Technical Leadership

Tools

Python

SQL

TensorFlow

Azure Databricks

Job description

Location: Remote (Occasional Travel May Be Required)

Clearance: Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust

Position Overview

Praescient Analytics is seeking a highly skilled Technical Analytics Manager / Lead Data Scientist to provide technical leadership for a federal fraud analytics and investigative support program. This individual will serve as the technical authority responsible for designing innovative analytic approaches, developing advanced fraud detection models, leading model validation and quality assurance activities, and ensuring the successful delivery of reliable, defensible, and repeatable analytic solutions supporting federal oversight organizations.

The ideal candidate is a hands‑on technical leader who combines deep data science expertise with strong leadership skills. They will guide multidisciplinary technical teams through the full analytics lifecycle, from ideation and data exploration to model development, testing, deployment, and continuous improvement, while mentoring technical staff and collaborating closely with Government stakeholders, investigators, and program leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, testing, validation, deployment, and continuous improvement of advanced fraud detection and investigative analytics solutions.
• Develop innovative analytic approaches to identify fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement across large-scale federal benefit programs.
• Design and implement analytic rules, machine learning models, artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, natural language processing (NLP), anomaly detection, entity resolution, graph analytics, link analysis, risk scoring, and other advanced analytic capabilities.
• Lead technical teams responsible for model development, experimentation, quality assurance, documentation, and production deployment.
• Perform hands‑on development of analytic models using open‑source programming languages, frameworks, and data science tools.
• Conduct exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, data profiling, model evaluation, and performance optimization across complex datasets.
• Establish and oversee rigorous quality control processes to ensure analytic outputs are accurate, reliable, repeatable, and fully documented prior to Government delivery.
• Review technical work products, source code, analytic methodologies, and model outputs produced by contractor support teams.
• Identify technical risks, recommend mitigation strategies, and ensure timely delivery of high‑quality analytic products.
• Collaborate with Project Managers, Data Engineers, Graph Data Scientists, Investigative Analysts, Forensic Accountants, and Government stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.
• Present analytic methodologies, technical findings, model performance, and recommendations to Government leadership, investigators, and oversight organizations.
• Support Agile delivery through sprint planning, backlog refinement, technical demonstrations, and iterative model development.

Required Qualifications

• Must have experience with Fraud Analysis
• Five (5) or more years of hands‑on experience developing analytic rules and models for fraud detection use cases using leading‑edge analytic tools and best practices.
• Five (5) or more years of experience designing analytic approaches, managing model development and testing efforts, and conducting thorough quality control.
• Demonstrated experience ideating innovative analytic use cases to detect and prevent fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.
• Five (5) or more years of experience tracking project progress, identifying technical risks, and delivering high‑quality analytic solutions on schedule.
• Five (5) or more years of experience reviewing contractor‑developed analytic models, code, methodologies, and work products prior to final delivery.
• Five (5) or more years of hands‑on experience developing analytic rules and models using open‑source programming languages and frameworks.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, and technical communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical teams while remaining actively engaged in hands‑on analytics development.

Preferred Qualifications

Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated experience in one or more of the following areas:

• Developing fraud detection, fraud prevention, and program integrity analytics supporting pandemic relief, emergency assistance, grants, loans, healthcare, unemployment insurance, disaster relief, financial assistance, or other high‑volume federal benefit programs.
• Designing, developing, validating, deploying, and maintaining advanced analytic models utilizing machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), anomaly detection, entity resolution, graph analytics, link analysis, knowledge graphs, risk scoring, or robotic process automation (RPA).
• Applying open‑source programming languages and frameworks such as Python, SQL, Spark, Pandas, Scikit‑learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or comparable data science technologies.
• Developing analytics within cloud‑native environments utilizing Azure Databricks, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Data Lake, Power BI, Neo4j, Git repositories, Lakehouse architectures, or enterprise data catalogs.
• Working with large‑scale public, non‑public, commercial, financial, and law enforcement datasets to identify organized fraud rings, synthetic identities, duplicate entities, eligibility issues, and emerging fraud schemes.
• Conducting exploratory data analysis, data profiling, feature engineering, model validation, performance testing, and quality assurance throughout the analytics lifecycle.
• Supporting Offices of Inspector General (OIGs), law enforcement organizations, oversight agencies, or program integrity initiatives through advanced analytic solutions.
• Developing reproducible analytic workflows that emphasize governance, documentation, transparency, explainability, and enterprise data management best practices.
• Leading technical reviews, mentoring data scientists, and establishing quality standards for analytic products delivered to Government customers.

What We're Looking For

We're looking for a technical leader who enjoys solving complex fraud detection challenges while remaining actively involved in hands‑on analytics development. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable writing code, designing machine learning models, reviewing technical work products, mentoring fellow data scientists, and briefing analytic findings to senior Government stakeholders. They combine innovative thinking with disciplined engineering practices to ensure every analytic solution is technically sound, operationally effective, and capable of supporting real‑world investigative and oversight missions.

What you can expect from us:

• Real opportunity for career growth in an environment where your achievements will be celebrated
• Constant collaboration with numerous teams to ensure client success
• A team that respects and embraces your ideas and expertise
• Coworkers that are motivated by pursuing excellence, rather than the prospect of personal gain
• A workplace dedicated to supporting and bettering public safety and government agencies

Benefits:

• Competitive salary based on qualifications and experience
• Comprehensive, Company paid healthcare for you (We pay your premiums and deductibles)
• 401(k) with company match
• Travel & performance incentives
• 3 weeks paid time off (plus Federal Holidays)
• $5K annual training allowance
• $500 book allowance
• Tuition reimbursement program

Praescient Analytics is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, experience, performance, business needs, and applicable contract requirements. Praescient does not unlawfully discriminate or provide disparate treatment based on race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable law.
Praescient Analytics acknowledges the applicable clause and provision updates implementing Executive Order 14398, Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors, and the related FAR/RFO updates, including FAR 52.222-90 where applicable. Praescient does not engage in racially discriminatory DEI activities, including disparate treatment based on race or ethnicity in recruitment, hiring, promotion, contracting, program participation, training, mentoring, leadership development, or allocation of company resources. Praescient’s employment and contracting decisions are made based on merit, qualifications, experience, performance, business needs, and applicable contract requirements.

Applicants selected will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information. US Citizenship Required Interested Candidates: Please forward your resume to [e-mail] and please visit our website to apply online at www.praescientanalytics.applicantstack.com/x/openings.