Mid Exploitation Specialist / Data Scientist at B&A
Springfield, VA
—
Jul 16, 2026
Springfield, VA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role supports geospatial and intelligence data operations for a federal government client, building Python-based automation and data-integration pipelines that collect, transform, and disseminate data across multiple databases and enterprise systems. The work also involves identifying workflow inefficiencies, automating repetitive analytic tasks, and producing metrics and visualizations. It suits an experienced data scientist or automation engineer comfortable operating with minimal supervision and holding an active Top Secret clearance.
Senior level · 9+ years · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · Bachelor's required · Top Secret clearance · Contract
Advertised as Mid, but the requirements read as Senior.
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
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $135,107 (middle half $108,024–$176,763).
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 (10)
The posting is titled 'Mid Exploitation Specialist / Data Scientist' and explicitly labels this a 'Mid-level (Level 3)' position, but the 9-year experience requirement and the expectation of leading smaller teams and mentoring junior staff align more closely with a Senior-level role on a standard career ladder.
The role sits on a federal contract (GEO-SPI B labor framework) supporting NGA in Springfield, VA; the 'Mid' designation is a contract labor-category label, not a market seniority band.
The SOC classification is a genuine judgment call: the role is titled Data Scientist and requires the Python data-science ecosystem, but the primary day-to-day work described (automation scripts, database integration, workflow optimization) also has a strong software/data-engineering character — 15-1252 Software Developers is noted as a close runner-up.
An active Top Secret clearance is a hard gate; the posting does not specify TS/SCI or a polygraph, so it is classified as TopSecret rather than TopSecretSci.
The Desired Skills section lists data visualization/dashboards, data management, enterprise system integration, technical documentation, and QA/process automation — these are marked preferred as they appear under a secondary 'Desired Skills' heading.
The 'database integration' skill is listed as required because the JD explicitly gates on 'demonstrated experience connecting multiple databases and enterprise systems'; no specific database product (e.g., PostgreSQL, Oracle) is named.
No compensation figures are provided in the posting.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): dashboard development, data management.
Requires a Top Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Posting is for a contract engagement — the market benchmarks below price full-time roles, so read the comp comparison with that in mind.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.