Data Scientist / Machine Learning Scientist

Company: USAA
Location: Phoenix
Posted on: April 19, 2025

Job Description:

Why USAA? At USAA, our mission is to empower our members to achieve financial security through highly competitive products, exceptional service and trusted advice. We seek to be the #1 choice for the military community and their families.

Embrace a fulfilling career at USAA, where our core values - honesty, integrity, loyalty and service - define how we treat each other and our members. The Bank AI/ML team is looking to fill several Senior Data Science positions. Candidates with backgrounds in model development for credit risk, marketing, or everyday banking are preferred.

As a dedicated Data Scientist Senior you will translate business problems into applied statistical, machine learning, simulation, and optimization solutions to advise actionable business insights and drive business value through automation, revenue generation, and expense and risk reduction. In collaboration with engineering partners, delivers solutions at scale, and enables customer-facing applications. Leverages database, cloud, and programming knowledge to build analytical modeling solutions using statistical and machine learning techniques. Collaborates with other data scientists to improve USAA's tooling, growing the company's library of internal packages and applications. Works with model risk management to validate the results and stability of models before being pushed to production at scale.

This position can work remotely in the continental U.S. with occasional business travel.

Gathers, interprets, and manipulates structured and unstructured data to enable advanced analytical solutions for the business.
Develops scalable, automated solutions using machine learning, simulation, and optimization to deliver business insights and business value.
Selects the appropriate modeling technique and/or technology with consideration to data limitations, application, and business needs.
Develops and deploys models within the Model Development Control (MDC) and Model Risk Management (MRM) framework.
Composes, and assists peers with composing, technical documents for knowledge persistence, risk management, and technical review audiences.
Assesses business needs to propose/recommend analytical and modeling projects to add business value. Builds and maintains a robust library of reusable, production-quality algorithms and supporting code, to ensure model development and research efforts are transparent and based on the highest quality data.
Translates complex business request(s) into specific analytical questions, executes on the analysis and/or modeling, and then communicates outcomes to non-technical business colleagues with focus on business action and recommendations.
Manages project milestones, risks, and impediments. Escalates potential issues that could limit project success or implementation.
Develops best practices for engaging with Data Engineering and IT to deploy production-ready analytical assets consistent with modeling best practices and model risk management standards.
Maintains expertise and awareness of cutting-edge techniques. Actively seeks opportunities and materials to learn new techniques, technologies, and methodologies.
Serves as a mentor to junior data scientists in modeling, analytics, and computer science tasks.
Participates in internal communities that drive the maintenance and transformation of data science technologies and culture.
Ensures risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures.

Bachelor's degree in mathematics, computer science, statistics, economics, finance, actuarial sciences, science and engineering, or other similar quantitative discipline; 6 years of experience in a predictive analytics or data analysis OR Advanced Degree (e.g., Master's, PhD) in mathematics, computer science, statistics, economics, finance, actuarial sciences, science and engineering, or other similar quantitative discipline and 4 years of experience in predictive analytics or data analysis.
-4 years of experience in training and validating statistical, physical, machine learning, and other advanced analytics models.
-4 years of experience in one or more dynamic scripted language (such as Python, R, etc.) for performing statistical analyses and/or building and scoring AI/ML models.
- Proven experience writing code that is easy to follow, well documented, and commented where necessary to explain logic (high code transparency).
- Strong experience in querying and preprocessing data from structured and/or unstructured databases using query languages such as SQL, HQL, NoSQL, etc.
- Strong experience in working with structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data files such as delimited numeric data files, JSON/XML files, and/or text documents, images, etc.
- Ability to assess and articulate regulatory implications and expectations of distinct modeling efforts.
- Advanced experience with the concepts and technologies associated with classical supervised modeling for prediction such as linear/logistic regression, discriminant analysis, support vector machines, decision trees, forest models, etc.
- Experience guiding and mentoring junior technical staff in business interactions and model building.
- Experience communicating analytical and modeling results to non-technical business partners with emphasis on business recommendations and actionable applications of results.


Medium or large bank experience.
Strong knowledge of Python and/or SAS.
Knowledge of Model Risk Management, Model Governance, and Regulatory requirements.

Compensation: USAA has an effective process for assessing market data and establishing ranges to ensure we remain competitive. You are paid within the salary range based on your experience and market data of the position. Employees may be eligible for pay incentives based on overall corporate and individual performance and at the discretion of the USAA Board of Directors.

Benefits: At USAA our employees enjoy best-in-class benefits to support their physical, financial, and emotional wellness. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans, 401(k), pension, life insurance, parental benefits, adoption assistance, paid time off program with paid holidays plus 16 paid volunteer hours, and various wellness programs. Applications for this position are accepted on an ongoing basis, this posting will remain open until the position is filled. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Keywords: USAA, Peoria , Data Scientist / Machine Learning Scientist, Other , Phoenix, Arizona