Data Science PhD Intern – 2026

Job Description

Here is a detailed and enriched job description for the Capital One Data Science Internship – 2026:

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Capital One Data Science PhD Internship – 2026

About the Internship Program

This is a full-time, paid internship program designed for PhD candidates, spanning ten weeks from June through August 2026.

• Location Requirement: Participation requires you to be located in the continental United States. You must provide in-person attendance at your assigned location, in accordance with Capital One’s hybrid working model, for the entire duration of the program.
• Full-Time Opportunity: Interns will be evaluated for a full-time Data Science position with their team upon completion of the program. You will work with your manager to identify a start date upon your graduation.
• Immigration Sponsorship: This is a limited-time internship position, and Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this specific internship. However, a full-time Data Science role, for which you may be considered upon completion of the internship (subject to business need, market conditions, and other factors), is eligible for employer immigration sponsorship.

Role Overview

As a Data Scientist at Capital One, you will join a high-performing team dedicated to leveraging the latest computing technologies to create opportunities that help individuals manage their finances and improve their financial lives. You will contribute to solving customer financial services challenges using groundbreaking techniques. You’re expected to make valuable contributions from day one through continuous learning, engaging in diverse experiences, and building strong relationships across the company. Role and team focus areas may include supporting machine learning, deep learning, or quantitative (quant) initiatives across the enterprise.

Key Responsibilities (On any given day, you might):

• Evaluate open-source and internally-developed modeling and analytics tools using real business data.
• Integrate internal data with external data sources and APIs to discover and implement actionable insights.
• Design and craft data science models to communicate solutions effectively to customers and company leadership.

Basic Qualifications

Candidates must meet the following criteria:
• Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining a PhD in one of the following areas with an expectation that the required degree will be obtained by August 2028 or earlier:
• A PhD in a quantitative field (e.g., Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field).
• Must be continuing in the same course of study of your PhD degree following completion of the internship.
• At least 6 months experience (or academic work) using open source programming languages for data analysis.
• At least 6 months of experience (or academic work) using machine learning techniques.
• At least 6 months of experience with either Python, R, or SQL.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience or academic work in inferential statistics.
• Experience or academic work with relational databases.
• Experience or academic work with large scale data analysis.

Desired Candidate Profile (We’d love to find someone who is…):

• Intellectually Curious: You ask “why,” explore deeply, and are excited to imagine and create new ideas by inventing self-adaptive models or by tapping into unstructured data sources. You love mining data for insights into behaviors, intent, and sentiment.
• A Builder: You are passionate about delivering better experiences and better products to our customers and possess a deep sense of ownership for your craft.
• An Experimental Scientist: You enjoy experimenting, trying new things, new combinations of tools, techniques, and feature engineering approaches, even if it sometimes leads to failure.
• A Communicator: You actively seek to connect with teammates and business partners, sharing technical ideas that resonate with audience needs across both verbal and written channels.

Compensation

The following reflects the annualized salary range for a full-time Data Science PhD Intern in the listed locations. Please note that actual internship pay will be prorated for the 10-week program duration based on these rates. This information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting.

• Cambridge, MA: $174,000 (annualized)
• McLean, VA: $174,000 (annualized)
• New York, NY: $190,000 (annualized)
• San Francisco, CA: $190,000 (annualized)
• San Jose, CA: $190,000 (annualized)
• Chicago, IL: $158,000 (annualized)
• Plano, TX: $158,000 (annualized)
• Richmond, VA: $158,000 (annualized)

Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate’s offer letter.

Benefits

Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial, and other benefits that support your total well-being. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website. Eligibility varies based on full or part-time status, exempt or non-exempt status, and management level.

Application Details

This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.

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Important Legal and Contact Information:

• No agencies, please.
• Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non-discrimination in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.
• Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace.
• Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries.
• Accommodation Request: If you require an accommodation to apply, please contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@capitalone.com. All information provided will be kept confidential and used only to the extent required for reasonable accommodations.
• Technical Support/Questions: For technical support or questions about Capital One’s recruiting process, please send an email to Careers@capitalone.com.
• Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee and is not liable for third-party products, services, educational tools or other information available through this site.
• Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).