Data Science PhD Internship – 2026

Job Description

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About the Job: Data Science PhD Internship – 2026

This is a full-time paid internship program designed for aspiring Data Scientists at Capital One. You will join a high-performing team leveraging the latest computing technologies to empower individuals to improve their financial lives. This internship offers a unique opportunity to make valuable contributions from day one, continuously learn, and build close relationships across the company.

Key Role Details:

• Program Duration: Ten weeks, from June through August 2026.
• Location Requirement: Participants must be located in the continental United States and attend in-person at their 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 position with their team upon completion of the program and will work with their manager to identify a start date upon graduation.
• Sponsorship: This is a limited-time internship position, and Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this specific internship position. 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.

Basic Qualifications:

• 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 (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.

Role and Team Focus Areas:

As a Data Scientist at Capital One, you’ll help customers solve financial services challenges using groundbreaking techniques. Your role and team focus areas could include supporting machine learning, deep learning, or quantitative initiatives across the enterprise.

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 to customers and company leadership.

Who We’d Love to Find (Key Attributes):

• Intellectually curious: You ask why, explore, 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 products to our customers and have a deep sense of ownership for your craft.
• An experimental scientist: You love putting on your lab coat and trying new things, new combinations of tools, techniques, and feature engineering approaches, even if you sometimes fail.
• A Communicator: You seek to connect with teammates and business partners to share technical ideas that resonate with audience needs across verbal and written channels.

Are you ready to join a community of talented individuals who embrace customer problems and use their passion and capabilities to make a difference every single day? If you’re interested in a long-term career at Capital One, the Data Science internship could be a great way to begin your career journey!

Salary Information (Annualized for the 10-week internship):

The minimum and maximum full-time annualized salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary 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. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.

• Cambridge, MA: $174,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• Chicago, IL: $158,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• McLean, VA: $174,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• New York, NY: $190,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• Plano, TX: $158,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• Richmond, VA: $158,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• San Francisco, CA: $190,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• San Jose, CA: $190,000 for Data Science PhD Intern

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. Eligibility varies based on full or part-time status, exempt or non-exempt status, and management level. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website.

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

Equal Opportunity Employer & Accommodations:

• 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, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City’s Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries.
• 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 you provide will be kept confidential and used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.
• 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).