Data Scientist
Location: Washington, DC
Work Arrangement: 100% Onsite – 5 Days per Week
Clearance: Active Top Secret with SCI Eligibility
Citizenship: U.S. Citizenship Required; No Dual Citizenship
Position Overview
Our client is seeking an experienced Data Scientist to support a U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) program in Washington, DC. This position will apply advanced data science, statistical modeling, and machine learning techniques to large-scale financial datasets in support of financial crime detection and analysis.
The ideal candidate will have strong hands-on experience with Python, R, machine learning, AWS cloud-native technologies, and large-scale data analysis. Experience working with Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), or related financial crime data is highly preferred.
Key Responsibilities
• Design, develop, validate, and deploy machine learning models and statistical algorithms to identify financial crime patterns using BSA/AML transaction data.
• Develop analytical approaches for detecting activities such as structuring, layering, smurfing, and other potentially suspicious financial behavior.
• Perform exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, statistical analysis, and model validation.
• Develop data science solutions using Python, Jupyter Notebook, PySpark, Pandas, R, and related technologies.
• Use SQL to perform complex queries and analyze large-scale structured and unstructured datasets.
• Work with data stored and processed through AWS services, including S3, PostgreSQL RDS, OpenSearch, Lambda, and related cloud-native technologies.
• Collaborate with compliance analysts, investigators, and technical stakeholders to translate regulatory and investigative requirements into data analyses and analytical models.
• Develop visualizations and communicate analytical findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Document data pipelines, analytical methodologies, model logic, assumptions, and findings in accordance with agency and organizational standards.
• Participate in peer code reviews and contribute to best practices for reproducible, maintainable data science workflows.
• Support continuous improvement of analytical models and methodologies used to identify financial crime risks and patterns.
Required Qualifications
• 8+ years of overall professional experience.
• 4–5+ years of professional experience working as a Data Scientist.
• Strong experience with statistical modeling and machine learning.
• Hands-on programming experience with Python and R.
• Experience with Python data science tools and frameworks, including Jupyter Notebook, PySpark, and Pandas.
• Strong SQL skills with experience performing complex queries against large datasets.
• Hands-on experience with AWS cloud-native services such as S3, RDS, OpenSearch, and Lambda.
• Experience analyzing large-scale structured and unstructured datasets.
• Working knowledge of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) data.
• Ability to translate business, regulatory, and investigative requirements into analytical approaches and models.
• Experience producing technical documentation and communicating analytical findings to diverse audiences.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.
Preferred Experience
• Experience supporting FinCEN, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, or another Federal financial/regulatory organization.
• Experience working with BSA/AML datasets.
• Understanding of financial crime and Anti-Money Laundering methodologies.
• Experience developing models designed to identify structuring, layering, smurfing, or other suspicious transaction patterns.
• Experience collaborating directly with financial crime investigators, compliance analysts, or regulatory personnel.
• Experience developing data science solutions within secure Federal environments.
Clearance & Citizenship Requirements
• Must possess an active Top Secret clearance with eligibility for access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI).
• Interim clearances of any type will not be accepted.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Dual citizenship is not permitted for this position.
Work Location
This position is located in Washington, DC and requires onsite work five days per week . There is no telework or remote option.