Data Scientist Senior

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. Be part of what truly makes us special and impactful.

The Opportunity

As a dedicated Data Scientist Senior, you will join USAA's Insurance Data Science team using strategic insights, AI, and automation to empower our Life Company partners in protecting and serving our members. We are seeking a highly collaborative and adaptable technical leader who will innovate solutions and re-engineer processes to fuel aggressive business growth. This critical role offers the opportunity to employ data for strategic insight, solve complex challenges, and deliver game-changing value. If you are passionate about using data to make a real-world difference and help our members build a legacy, we want to hear from you.

Senior Data Scientists translates business problems into applied statistical, machine learning, simulation, and optimization solutions to inform 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, expanding 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.

We offer a flexible work environment that requires an individual to be in the office 4 days per week. This position can be based in one of the following locations: San Antonio, TX, Plano, TX, or Phoenix, AZ. Relocation assistance is not available for this position.

What you'll do:

• 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. Works with business and analytics leaders to prioritize analytics and modeling problems/research efforts.

• Builds and maintains a robust library of reusable, production-quality algorithms and supporting code, to ensure model development and research efforts are visible and based on the highest quality data.

• Translates complex business request(s) into specific analytical questions, completes the analysis and/or modeling, and then communicates outcomes to non-technical business colleagues with focus on business action and recommendations.

• Handles project landmarks, risks, and impediments. Calls out potential issues that could limit project success or implementation.

• Develops standard methodologies for engaging with Data Engineering and IT to deploy production-ready analytical assets consistent with modeling procedures and model risk management standards.

• Maintains expertise and awareness of pioneering 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.

What you have:

• Bachelor's degree in mathematics, computer science, statistics, economics, finance, actuarial sciences, science and engineering, or other similar quantitative field; OR 4 years of experience in statistics, mathematics, quantitative analytics, or related experience (in addition to the minimum years of experience required) may be substituted in lieu of degree.

• 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 field 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.

• Validated experience writing code that is easy to follow, well documented, and commented where necessary to explain logic (high code visibility).

• 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.

• Demonstrated skill in performing ad-hoc analytics using descriptive, diagnostic, and inferential statistics.

• 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.

• Advanced experience with the concepts and technologies associated with unsupervised modeling such as k-means clustering, hierarchical/agglomerative clustering, neighbors' algorithms, DBSCAN, 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.

What sets you apart:

• Strong history of collaborating with other data scientists, data engineers, and IT on delivering AI/ML solutions to business partners in highly regulated environments, with a foundational understanding of Model Risk Management (MRM) and governance principles.

• Proficiency in software engineering standard methodologies for data science, including robust coding standards, version control, and collaboration with engineering teams for model deployment and productionization.

• Demonstrated history of partnering with business subject matter authorities to translate complex business problems into advanced analytical solutions, critically evaluating approaches, and translating technical findings into clear, business-oriented recommendations and driving adoption of data-driven strategies.

• Experience in the Life Insurance, Health Insurance, and/or Annuities business both digitally and in support of call center operations.

• Validated expertise in using analytics and modeling to drive marketing engagement and optimization, designing customer journeys, persona and segmentation, positioning and messaging optimization, using data to support go-to-market strategies, etc.

• Experience in user acceptance testing, pilot testing, experimentation, and/or A-B Testing to evaluate the value delivery of model solutions.

Compensation range: The salary range for this position is: $143,320.00 - $273,930.00 .

USAA does not provide visa sponsorship for this role. Please do not apply for this role if at any time (now or in the future) you will need immigration support (i.e., H-1B, TN, STEM OPT Training Plans, etc.).

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. The actual salary for this role may vary by location.

Employees may be eligible for pay incentives based on overall corporate and individual performance and at the discretion of the USAA Board of Directors.

The above description reflects the details considered necessary to describe the principal functions of the job and should not be construed as a detailed description of all the work requirements that may be performed in the job.

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. Additionally, our career path planning and continuing education assists employees with their professional goals.

For more details on our outstanding benefits, visit our benefits page on .

Applications for this position are accepted on an ongoing basis, this posting will remain open until the position is filled. Thus, interested candidates are encouraged to apply the same day they view this posting.

USAA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 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.

If you are an existing USAA employee, please use the internal career site in OneSource to apply.

Please do not type your first and last name in all caps.

Find your purpose. Join our mission.

USAA is unlike any other financial services organization. The mission of the association is to facilitate the financial security of its members, associates and their families through provision of a full range of highly competitive financial products and services; in so doing, USAA seeks to be the provider of choice for the military community. We do this by upholding the highest standards and ensuring that our corporate business activities and individual employee conduct reflect good judgment and common sense, and are consistent with our core values of service, loyalty, honesty and integrity.

USAA attributes its long-standing success to its most valuable resource: our 35,000 employees. They are the heart and soul of our member-service culture. When you join us, you'll become part of a thriving community committed to going above for those who have gone beyond: the men and women of the U.S. military, their associates and their families. In order to play a role on our team, you don't have to be connected to the military yourself - you just need to share our passion for serving our more than 13 million members.

USAA is an EEO/AA Employer - applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, protected veteran status or other status protected by law.

California applicants, please review our HR CCPA - Notice at Collection (.pdf) here.

USAA is an EEO/AA Employer - applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, protected veteran status or other status protected by law.