Director, Hockey Research and Development

Nashville Predators Job Description

Job Title: Director, Hockey Research & Development

Department: Hockey Operations

Job Reports To: Assistant to the General Manager

Status: Exempt

About the Role

The Nashville Predators are seeking a Director of Hockey Research and Development to lead the research agenda behind player and team evaluation and the work of our coaching and scouting staff.

This position will lead the technical direction of the department's work, turn its priorities into a research plan, and stay involved in the modeling. This position will also help shape where the group invests its effort and represent Research and Development to staff across Hockey Operations.

Responsibilities

• Translate departmental priorities into a research plan and manage it against in-season requests.
• Advise on which projects the department takes on.
• Identify new research questions and new ways to utilize existing data.
• Lead the build and validation of player and team evaluation models across the NHL and AHL, along with Junior, College, and European leagues.
• Oversee the path from research into production, including how models are monitored over time.
• Build tools and reporting that support the coaching staff, including pre-scout preparation, in-game and post-game analysis, in-season review, and answers to tactical questions.
• Present findings and recommendations to coaches, scouts, and Hockey Operations leadership.
• Lead and support the data scientists in the group, including code review and project assignment.
• Work closely with data engineering on the pipelines, databases, and tooling the department depends on.

Minimum Requirements

• Minimum of 3-7 years in an applied quantitative role, including experience leading projects or people.
• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• Proficiency in R or Python. Fluency in both preferred.
• Proficiency in SQL and relational databases.
• Experience modeling large event-level or spatiotemporal datasets.
• Experience taking models into production and maintaining them over time.
• Ability to quantify uncertainty and to communicate the limits of a model.
• Creative and critical thinking on problems that require a novel approach.
• Written and verbal communication skills suited to non-technical audiences and senior decision-makers.
• Deep knowledge of hockey analytics research and the methods behind it.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in statistics, mathematics, physics, computer science, operations research, or a related field.
• Experience managing analysts, data scientists, or engineers.
• Experience with cloud computing and data warehousing platforms.
• Breadth of knowledge across statistical and machine learning methods, with the judgment to match a method to the problem.
• Prior work with hockey data, or with event and tracking data in another sport.
• Working knowledge of current research across the wider sports analytics field.

Essential Physical Functions:

• Ability to sit for extended periods of time.
• Ability to stand in an upright position for continuous period of time. 
• Excellent speaking and listening skills, requiring the perception of speech.
• Accessing, typing, and processing records via digital systems.

Note: Nothing in this job description restricts management’s right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments.

Preds Perks: In addition to medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, all full-time employees of the Nashville Predators and entities are eligible for Preds Perks. These currently include the following: Competitive pay, referral bonuses, 401K eligibility, priority access to event presales, tickets to events (when available), Nashville Locker Room (pro shop) discount, premium pay for overnight shifts, 19+ days of paid time off each year, Ford Ice Center programming discount, on demand pay, and bonus potential.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Nashville Predators is an equal opportunity employer. The organization does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, or disability status, genetic information, or any other applicable federal or state protected classification. The organization celebrates diversity and is committed to an inclusive environment for all employees.

In order to ensure reasonable accommodation for individuals protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, applicants that require accommodation in the job application process may contact our Recruitment Team at [email protected] to request an accommodation.