Senior Data Scientist
Nelnet · Denver, CO
$63,000–$127,000from the description
Jul 16, 2026
Denver, CO
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual contributor role focused on building, deploying, and maintaining machine learning models — including LLMs and multi-model designs — to address business problems in an education-technology context. Day-to-day work spans data wrangling across SQL, cloud, and SaaS sources, statistical analysis, PowerBI dashboard development, and presenting findings to leadership. The position also carries a mentoring responsibility for junior data scientists. A PhD in a quantitative or programming field is required.
Mid level · 2+ years · Remote · Doctorate required · Full-time
Advertised as Senior, but the requirements read as Mid.
Posted 19 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 8 people in the Lincoln, NE area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (data scientists). range 5–10
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $89,823 (middle half $78,468–$105,132). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (6)
The advertised title is 'Senior Data Scientist', but the hard experience gate is only 2+ years of data analysis and 1+ year of programming — requirements that align with a Mid-level role, not Senior. The PhD requirement partially compensates for the low experience floor but does not change the scope of the role.
A PhD in a quantitative or programming discipline is explicitly required — this is an unusually high formal degree gate for a role with only 2+ years of experience required.
Snowflake, Azure, Salesforce, and Power BI appear in the job responsibilities narrative (describing data sources and tooling used on the job) rather than in a dedicated required-skills or qualifications section, so they are treated as preferred/contextual rather than hard gates.
The posting states this is a hybrid role (3 days in-office per week) for associates living within 30 miles of an office location — it is not fully remote.
Nelnet's headquarters is in Lincoln, NE; no specific office city is named in the posting, so Lincoln, NE is used as the primary location.
The JD mentions 'Experience with training NumPy and Pandas models' — this is an unusual phrasing (NumPy and pandas are data manipulation libraries, not modeling frameworks), but it is listed under the competencies/skills section and is captured as stated.
Read the full posting
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