Major League Soccer’s Strategy and Business Intelligence group is tasked with supporting strategic decision making and resource allocation across the League – with a focus on driving fan growth, revenue capture, and operating efficiencies – by providing impactful data driven insights, analysis, and recommendations.  The group is seeking a new Director to oversee the development of a Data Science vertical.  This position will utilize financial, event, and tracking data to analyze, model, and drive strategic recommendations that support the on-field product, player development, and optimize transfer activity. This hire is highly curious and analytical, able to distill clarity from complexity, and has an entrepreneurial desire to innovate.

Primary Responsibilities

• Develop a vision and roadmap for the Data Science vertical that helps shape future strategic decision making with business intelligence and data science solutions.
• Utilize deep knowledge of modern statistical and machine learning techniques to answer complex business questions that support key business decisions.
• Leverage financial, event, and tracking data to help Player and Competition business units enhance the on-field product, player development, and transfer activity.
• Leverage commercial data (TV, Ticketing, Consumer Products, etc.) and fan data (First Party, Syndicated, Manufactured, etc.) to help grow fan base, deepen engagement, and maximize revenue.
• Develop machine learning models that support strategic initiatives including fan segmentation, lifetime value models, quality of play, youth player development, rule changes, etc.
• Effectively use data visualizations to socialize key findings clearly and intuitively throughout the organization.
• Partner with technology team and data vendors to continually integrate the tools, methods, and processes supporting data collection and analysis.

Additional Responsibilities

• Support broader League objectives with additional ad-hoc organizational analytics projects.
• Additional responsibilities as assigned.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field including Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Sports Analytics, or similar domain.
• 8+ years of experience in a quantitative heavy analytics role (data science, analytics, research, performance, etc.) 
• Applied professional experience conducting advanced analytics utilizing soccer data (events, tracking, GPS, etc.) and working with data vendors (Opta, Ortec, Second Spectrum, etc.)

Required Skills

• Robust advanced analytical and machine learning skills (g., regression, cluster analysis, time series, etc.)
• Mastery of a programming language (e.g., Python, R, etc.), SQL, and a visualization tool (Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, etc.).
• Deep knowledge of the sport of soccer and understanding of event and tracking data.
• Ability to translate business challenges into quantitative problems and clearly communicate findings and solutions.
• Strong project management, leadership, and mentoring skills.
• Self-starter and entrepreneurial mindset.
• High-level of commitment to a quality work product and organizational ethics, integrity and compliance.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast paced, team environment.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively communicate, both verbally and in writing.
• Demonstrated decision making and problem-solving skills.
• Detail-oriented with the ability to multi-task and meet deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Proficiency in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.