Data Scientist Senior - Data, Modeling & Analytics

Data Scientist Senior

At PNC, our people are our greatest differentiator and competitive advantage in the markets we serve. We are all united in delivering the best experience for our customers. We work together each day to foster an inclusive workplace culture where all of our employees feel respected, valued and have an opportunity to contribute to the company's success. As a Data Scientist Senior within PNC's Data, Model & Analytics organization, you will be based in Pittsburgh, PA, Tysons Corner, VA or Washington, DC.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Master's degree in data science, computer science, engineering, applied mathematics or related field. A PhD degree is preferred but not required.
• At least 5 years of experience with direct data science or machine learning projects in industry, with 2+ years, specifically in NLP.
• Strong background in Mathematics and Statistics. Demonstrable mathematical inventiveness for novel problem solving (via probability, optimization, information theory, linear algebra)
• Very strong expertise in data collection, cleaning, preprocessing, and transforming data.
• Expert programming skills in Python, PyTorch, Spark, and SQL. Solid software practices (testing, packaging, CI). MLOps familiarity.
• Experience with big data platforms. Experience with cloud-native model development and deployment preferred.
• Research mindset reads/reproduces papers; designs baselines/ablations; evaluates for robustness, drift, and fairness. Meticulous about data quality, reproducibility, and experiment tracking.
• Experience in transfer learning and in fine tuning open-source transformer models. Creative and pragmatic: chooses the simplest high impact approach (prompting, adapters, retrieval, distillation) before heavy training.
• Practical NLP/LLM experience and awareness of evaluation pitfalls (hallucinations, prompt sensitivity, grounding).
• Strong collaborator within and between cross-functional teams; excellent verbal and written communication skills; adapts communication to audience: effectively communicate technical concepts and results to both technical and business audiences
• Curious, hardworking, detail-oriented, and action-oriented; motivated by complex analytical problems; investigates failure modes; documents learnings clearly.
• Prioritizes pace over perfection and is comfortable in the face of changing circumstances and business priorities
• Excited by the prospect of delivering value through the application of emerging technologies and techniques.
• Previous experience in financial services industry is not required but is considered a plus.
• Customer focused and risk aware; comfortable aligning work with governance expectations.

PNC is an in-office company that fosters a supportive culture where employees can thrive and achieve balance. We encourage candidates to connect with their recruiter and hiring manager to understand workplace expectations and ensure the role aligns with their goals.

PNC will not provide sponsorship for employment visas or participate in STEM OPT for this position.