OPT Principal Scientist Jobs
Principal Scientist roles qualify for F-1 OPT because they require at least a bachelor's degree in a directly related scientific field, meeting STEM OPT extension eligibility in most cases. Many positions in biotech, pharma, and research institutions actively sponsor H-1B visa and other long-term visas after OPT.
Find OPT Principal Scientist JobsOverview
Showing 5 of 303+ Principal Scientist jobs
See all 303+ Principal Scientist Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Principal Scientist roles.
Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
Data is at the center of everything we do. As a startup, we disrupted the credit card industry by individually personalizing every credit card offer using statistical modeling and the relational database, cutting edge technology in 1988! Fast-forward a few years, and this little innovation and our passion for data has skyrocketed us to a Fortune 200 company and a leader in the world of data-driven decision-making.
As a Data Scientist at Capital One, you’ll be part of a team that’s leading the next wave of disruption at a whole new scale, using the latest in computing and machine learning technologies and operating across billions of customer records to unlock the big opportunities that help everyday people save money, time and agony in their financial lives.
Team Description
The AI for Data team builds and ships state of the art machine learning solutions to support data lifecycle within the enterprise. We partner with product, tech and design teams to deliver personalized experiences to our data and platform users to drive productivity and innovation. You will be the driving force to experiment, innovate and create next generation experiences powered by the latest emerging ML technologies.
In this role, you will:
- Partner with a cross-functional team of data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to deliver a product customers love
- Leverage a broad stack of technologies — Python, Conda, AWS, H2O, Spark, and more — to reveal the insights hidden within huge volumes of numeric and textual data
- Build machine learning models through all phases of development, from design through training, evaluation, validation, and implementation
- Flex your interpersonal skills to translate the complexity of your work into tangible business goals
The Ideal Candidate is:
- Innovative. You continually research and evaluate emerging technologies. You stay current on published state-of-the-art methods, technologies, and applications and seek out opportunities to apply them.
- Creative. You thrive on bringing definition to big, undefined problems. You love asking questions and pushing hard to find answers. You’re not afraid to share a new idea.
- Technical. You’re comfortable with open-source languages and are passionate about developing further. You have hands-on experience developing data science solutions using open-source tools and cloud computing platforms.
- Statistically-minded. You’ve built models, validated them, and back tested them. You know how to interpret a confusion matrix or a ROC curve. You have experience with clustering, classification, sentiment analysis, time series, and deep learning.
- A data guru. "Big data" doesn't faze you. You have the skills to retrieve, combine, and analyze data from a variety of sources and structures. You know understanding the data is often the key to great data science.
Basic Qualifications:
- Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining one of the following with an expectation that the required degree will be obtained on or before the scheduled start date:
+ A Bachelor's Degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field) plus 5 years of experience performing data analytics
+ A Master's Degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field) or an MBA with a quantitative concentration plus 3 years of experience performing data analytics
+ A PhD in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field)
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s Degree in “STEM” field (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics), or PhD in “STEM” field (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics)
- Experience working with AWS
- At least 3 years’ experience in Python, Scala, or R
- At least 3 years’ experience with machine learning
- At least 3 years’ experience with SQL
Capital One will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this 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.
McLean, VA: $161,800 - $184,600 for Princ Associate, Data Science
New York, NY: $176,500 - $201,400 for Princ Associate, Data Science
San Jose, CA: $176,500 - $201,400 for Princ Associate, Data Science
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.
This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan.
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.
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).
INTRODUCTION
Data is at the center of everything we do. As a startup, we disrupted the credit card industry by individually personalizing every credit card offer using statistical modeling and the relational database, cutting edge technology in 1988! Fast-forward a few years, and this little innovation and our passion for data has skyrocketed us to a Fortune 200 company and a leader in the world of data-driven decision-making.
As a Data Scientist at Capital One, you’ll be part of a team that’s leading the next wave of disruption at a whole new scale, using the latest in computing and machine learning technologies and operating across billions of customer records to unlock the big opportunities that help everyday people save money, time and agony in their financial lives.
Team Description
The AI for Data team builds and ships state of the art machine learning solutions to support data lifecycle within the enterprise. We partner with product, tech and design teams to deliver personalized experiences to our data and platform users to drive productivity and innovation. You will be the driving force to experiment, innovate and create next generation experiences powered by the latest emerging ML technologies.
In this role, you will:
- Partner with a cross-functional team of data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to deliver a product customers love
- Leverage a broad stack of technologies — Python, Conda, AWS, H2O, Spark, and more — to reveal the insights hidden within huge volumes of numeric and textual data
- Build machine learning models through all phases of development, from design through training, evaluation, validation, and implementation
- Flex your interpersonal skills to translate the complexity of your work into tangible business goals
The Ideal Candidate is:
- Innovative. You continually research and evaluate emerging technologies. You stay current on published state-of-the-art methods, technologies, and applications and seek out opportunities to apply them.
- Creative. You thrive on bringing definition to big, undefined problems. You love asking questions and pushing hard to find answers. You’re not afraid to share a new idea.
- Technical. You’re comfortable with open-source languages and are passionate about developing further. You have hands-on experience developing data science solutions using open-source tools and cloud computing platforms.
- Statistically-minded. You’ve built models, validated them, and back tested them. You know how to interpret a confusion matrix or a ROC curve. You have experience with clustering, classification, sentiment analysis, time series, and deep learning.
- A data guru. "Big data" doesn't faze you. You have the skills to retrieve, combine, and analyze data from a variety of sources and structures. You know understanding the data is often the key to great data science.
Basic Qualifications:
- Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining one of the following with an expectation that the required degree will be obtained on or before the scheduled start date:
+ A Bachelor's Degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field) plus 5 years of experience performing data analytics
+ A Master's Degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field) or an MBA with a quantitative concentration plus 3 years of experience performing data analytics
+ A PhD in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Operations Research, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field)
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s Degree in “STEM” field (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics), or PhD in “STEM” field (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics)
- Experience working with AWS
- At least 3 years’ experience in Python, Scala, or R
- At least 3 years’ experience with machine learning
- At least 3 years’ experience with SQL
Capital One will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this 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.
McLean, VA: $161,800 - $184,600 for Princ Associate, Data Science
New York, NY: $176,500 - $201,400 for Princ Associate, Data Science
San Jose, CA: $176,500 - $201,400 for Princ Associate, Data Science
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.
This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan.
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.
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).
See all 303+ OPT Principal Scientist Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new OPT Principal Scientist Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding OPT Sponsorship as a Principal Scientist
Target STEM-designated employers first
Principal Scientist roles at biotech and pharmaceutical companies almost always fall under STEM OPT, giving you 36 months of work authorization. Prioritize employers who have filed H-1B visa petitions before, which signals established sponsorship infrastructure.
Align your degree field to the job description
USCIS requires your degree field to directly relate to your Principal Scientist role. A PhD in biochemistry supporting a drug discovery position is straightforward. Misalignment between degree and role is one of the most common OPT authorization challenges.
Raise sponsorship before the offer stage
Ask about long-term visa support during the second or third interview round, not at offer. Framing it as planning ahead rather than a demand signals professionalism and gives HR time to confirm their sponsorship policy without pressure.
Document your STEM OPT training plan thoroughly
The Form I-983 training plan for STEM OPT must describe how your Principal Scientist work directly applies your degree. Be specific about research methods, technical skills, and learning goals. Vague plans increase the risk of employer non-compliance issues.
Use your publication record as leverage
Published research strengthens both your job applications and future O-1 visa or EB-1A petitions. Highlight first-author papers, citations, and patents in your application materials. Strong research credentials make sponsorship an easier conversation for employers.
Understand your OPT end date before you start interviewing
Principal Scientist hiring timelines often run three to five months. If your OPT expires in under six months, communicate that timeline early. Some employers will accelerate offers or explore cap-exempt H-1B filing through research institutions.
Principal Scientist OPT: Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Principal Scientist role qualify for STEM OPT extension?
Yes, in most cases. Principal Scientist positions in biology, chemistry, engineering, computer science, and related fields typically qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension, giving you 36 months total. Your degree must be on the STEM Designated Degree Program List and must directly relate to your specific role and responsibilities.
How do I find Principal Scientist jobs where employers are open to OPT sponsorship?
Migrate Mate filters Principal Scientist roles by OPT and visa sponsorship status, so you're not wasting time applying to employers who won't support your work authorization. Biotech, pharmaceutical, and government research employers are among the most active sponsors. Searching by sector helps you focus on organizations with established immigration infrastructure.
Can I work as a Principal Scientist at a university or national lab on OPT?
Yes. Universities and national laboratories are among the most OPT-friendly employers for research scientists. They frequently qualify as cap-exempt H-1B employers, which means they can file H-1B petitions at any time of year without waiting for the annual lottery. This is a significant advantage if your OPT is running short.
What happens if my OPT expires before my employer files an H-1B petition?
If your STEM OPT is still active when your employer submits an H-1B petition before April 1, you're covered by the cap-gap rule, which automatically extends your OPT authorization through September 30. If your OPT expires before that window, you'll need to stop working until the H-1B takes effect or explore alternative visa categories like O-1.
Is the Principal Scientist title specific enough for OPT authorization, or do I need a different job title?
The job title itself doesn't determine OPT eligibility. What matters is that your actual duties require and directly apply your specific degree field. A Principal Scientist role involving computational drug discovery supports a bioinformatics or chemistry degree. Your employer should document the connection clearly in any OPT or STEM OPT paperwork to avoid authorization questions.