Job Description

Data Science PhD Internship – 2026

This is a comprehensive overview of the Data Science PhD Internship opportunity at Capital One for the 2026 program.

Program Overview

This is a full-time paid internship program designed to offer a challenging and rewarding experience within Capital One’s dynamic environment.

• Duration: The program spans ten weeks, specifically from June through August 2026.
• Location: Participation requires that you are physically located in the continental United States with in-person attendance at your assigned location. This aligns with Capital One’s hybrid working model for the duration of the program.
• Full-Time Conversion Opportunity: Interns will be evaluated for a full-time Data Science position with their team upon successful completion of the internship. Managers will work with interns to identify a start date upon their graduation.
• Paid Internship: This is a paid internship position.

Compensation

The minimum and maximum full-time annual 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 – $174,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• Chicago, IL: $158,000 – $158,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• McLean, VA: $174,000 – $174,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• New York, NY: $190,000 – $190,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• Plano, TX: $158,000 – $158,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• Richmond, VA: $158,000 – $158,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• San Francisco, CA: $190,000 – $190,000 for Data Science PhD Intern
• San Jose, CA: $190,000 – $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.

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.

Immigration Sponsorship Information

This is a limited-time internship position, and Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this 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.

Role Overview: Data Scientist at Capital One

As a Data Scientist at Capital One, you’ll be an integral part of a high-performing team that leverages the latest computing technologies to identify opportunities that help individuals save money and enhance their financial lives. You will contribute to solving our customers’ financial services challenges by applying groundbreaking data science techniques.

You’ll make valuable contributions from day one by continuously learning, engaging in diverse experiences, and building strong relationships across the company. Role and team focus areas could include supporting machine learning, deep learning, or quantitative (quant) 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 effectively to customers and company leadership.

Who We’d Love to Find

We are looking for someone who is:

• Intellectually Curious: You consistently ask “why,” explore new concepts, and are excited to imagine and create new ideas by inventing self-adaptive models or by tapping into unstructured data sources. You have a passion for 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 trying new things, new combinations of tools, techniques, and feature engineering approaches, even if some experiments don’t immediately succeed.
• A Communicator: You actively seek to connect with teammates and business partners to share technical ideas that resonate with audience needs across both 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!

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

• Education: 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).
• Academic Continuity: Must be continuing in the same course of study of your PhD degree following completion of the internship.
• Experience (Minimum 6 months in each):
• 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:

• Inferential Statistics: Experience or academic work in inferential statistics.
• Relational Databases: Experience or academic work with relational databases.
• Large Scale Data Analysis: Experience or academic work with large scale data analysis.

Application Information

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

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 have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, 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 will be 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).