Job Posting: Cubs Director of Research & Development
Director of Research & Development – Baseball Operations
Location: Chicago, IL
Description: This role will be responsible for developing and overseeing the research and analytics function within Baseball Operations, reporting to the Assistant GM.
Responsibilities
- Perform advanced statistical analysis on large volumes of baseball-related data and implement predictive models to aid in decision-making.
- Develop and manage a talented staff (developers, analysts, and consultants) by identifying strong candidates, prioritizing work flows, supervising projects and providing productive feedback.
- Present high-level analysis in an effective and articulate manner through the use of written reports, charts, tables, graphics, and other tools that enhance the Department’s decision-making process.
- Develop and maintain proprietary projections model for future performance.
- Monitor, identify and recommend new or emerging techniques, technologies, models and algorithms applicable to internal processes.
- Analyze internal baseball processes in order to develop functional requirements (specifications) for outside vendors and application developers, including requirements, system impact, data flow diagrams, special considerations, etc.
- Identify technologies that offer potential value to the organization through meetings with vendors and providers.
- Oversee the departmental budget associated with R&D spending.
- Contribute to baseball decisions and proactively generate ideas for player acquisition and player usage.
- Other projects as directed the Baseball Operations leadership team.
Required Qualifications
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- Advanced degree or equivalent experience in statistics, mathematics, computer science, or a related quantitative field.
- Demonstrated project management, problem-solving, and teaching abilities.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate difficult and complex concepts at an appropriate level to colleagues possessing a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives.
- Demonstrated expert-level knowledge (of at least 5 years) with baseball-specific data, modern statistical techniques, and sabermetric analysis.
- Demonstrated expertise with R, STATA, SPSS, SAS, or similar software.
- Demonstrated expertise with SQL Server, Microsoft Access, My SQL, Oracle, database administration/structuring, data warehousing and data modeling.
- Knowledge and demonstrated ability in the areas of programming, software-coding, ETL, and/or machine learning techniques.
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Extra bonus: be Tom Tango’s boss!
Terrifying.