Data Scientist

Who we are:

Raft (https://TeamRaft.com) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional small business with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development, with headquarters in McLean, VA. Our range of clients includes innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting-edge tech stack, and cloud-native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

About the role:

As a Data Scientist, you will work in cross-functional teams with data at all stages of the analysis lifecycle to derive actionable insight. You will analyze available data sets and translate mission needs into an end-to-end analytical approach to achieve results and perform the pre-analytics areas of data collection and understanding, data cleansing and integration, and data storage and retrieval. You will also support the development, learning and fielding of learned models and similar artificial intelligence techniques enabling the effective data to information to knowledge pipelines of applicable data sets.

What you will do:

• Determine the appropriate analytics based on the data and the desired outcomes, using techniques including feature detection, statistics, data mining, predictive modeling, machine learning, natural language processing, and business intelligence.
• Analyze and map potential data sets to mission value as applied to specific customer needs and outcomes.
• Interpret the validity of results and communicates the meaning of those results.

What we are looking for:

• Bachelor’s degree with 18+ years of related experience, or Master’s degree with 16+ years, or PhD with 15+ years.
• Has familiarity with data wrangling, analytics, and visualization software and programming languages, including analytics methods for big data.
• Follows a scientific approach to generate value from data, verifying results at each step.

Highly preferred:

• Experience supporting DoD, federal, or classified software programs.
• Advanced degrees in data science, statistics, or related fields. Experience with big data platforms and tools.
• Knowledge of scientific research methodologies and result validation techniques
• Familiarity with systems engineering processes and documentation.
• Exposure to DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines, or modern software delivery practices.
• Familiarity with DoD cloud deployment environments and tooling (i.e. AWS, Azure).
• Mentorship of junior engineers or informal technical leadership experience.

Clearance Requirements:

• Active Top Secret with SCI

Work Type:

• Onsite in Colorado Springs, CO or Arlington, VA
• May require up to 15% travel

Salary Range:

• $160,000 - $220,000
• The determination of compensation is predicated upon a candidate's comprehensive experience, demonstrated skill, and proven abilities

What we will offer you:

• Highly competitive salary
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) and company match
• Take as you need PTO + 11 paid holidays
• Education & training benefits
• Generous Referral Bonuses
• And More!

Our Vision Statement:

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission.

Our Customer Obsession:

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there?

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm.

Raft’s core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are. We support our “nadi” by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration.