Principal Operations Research Scientist - 90028548 - Washington
AmtrakAbout the role
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As we move America’s workforce toward the future, Amtrak connects businesses and communities across the country. We employ more than 20,000 diverse, energetic professionals in a variety of career fields throughout the United States. The safety of our passengers, our employees, the public and our operating environment is our priority, and the success of our railroad is due to our employees.
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Our values of ‘Do the Right Thing, Excel Together and Put Customers First’ are at the heart of what matters most to us, and our Core Capabilities, ‘Building Trust, Accountability, Effective Communication, Customer Focus, and Proactive Safety & Security’ are what every employee needs to know and do to be most impactful at Amtrak. By living the Amtrak values, focusing on our capabilities, and actively embracing and fostering diverse ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives, together we will honor our past and make Amtrak a company of the future.
Job Summary
The Principal Operations Research Scientist – Revenue Management Systems (RMS) is a senior individual contributor role reporting to the Director, Revenue Products and Business Planning within the Pricing, Revenue Management, Sales and Distribution (PRMSD) organization at Amtrak.
This role combines advanced analytical reasoning, operations research expertise, and system-level thinking to ensure the effectiveness and continuous improvement of Amtrak’s Revenue Management System (RMS).
The Principal OR Scientist will serve as the analytical owner of RMS decision quality, responsible for:
- Defining and prototyping analytical approaches for forecasting, pricing, and optimization
- Rigorously evaluating system performance and outputs
- Translating business requirements into analytical frameworks and vendor deliverables
- Partnering closely with Revenue Management users, Digital Technology teams, and external RMS vendors
While model implementation is primarily performed by vendor systems, this role requires deep expertise to guide, validate, and challenge model development, ensuring alignment with business objectives and measurable revenue impact.
An ideal candidate is technically strong, intellectually curious, and comfortable operating at the intersection of analytics, systems, and product strategy.
Essential Functions
RMS Steady State Operations:
- Collaborate with Digital Technology and vendor support teams to ensure system reliability, data integrity, and quality across integrations between RMS and commercial systems, including the Reservation System
- Oversee batch processing, error resolution, and recurring RMS operational health checks
- Conduct troubleshooting and root-cause analysis of system and data issues, partnering with vendor and internal teams
- Test, validate, and document vendor product updates, version upgrades, and enhancements
- Communicate system changes, risks, and operational impacts to business users
- Perform regression testing as prescribed by Enterprise Release Management
Product Vision, Analytics & Technical Innovation
- Design and prototype analytical approaches to improve forecasting, pricing, and inventory optimization within RMS
- Translate business problems into structured analytical frameworks and solution concepts
- Partner with vendor teams to translate validated analytical approaches into production-ready models
- Evaluate new ideas using data, develop prototypes/POCs, and generate insights to inform system enhancements
- Collaborate with Business Planning to align RMS evolution with long-term strategic opportunities
- Contribute to defining next-generation capabilities leveraging AI/ML and advanced analytics
Performance Measurement & Governance
- Define and track key performance metrics for RMS models and decision making, including Forecast accuracy, Revenue performance, Load factor and demand realization, System utilization vs manual overrides
- Develop frameworks to diagnose model performance issues, identify bias, drift, and inefficiencies in system outputs
- Conduct post-implementation analysis of model changes and enhancements
- Establish feedback loops between business users, system outputs, and vendor teams
- Partner with vendors to validate and challenge model performance and assumptions, ensuring measurable improvements
RMS Roadmap, User Engagement & Change Management
- Co-own the RMS roadmap an
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