Sr. Data Scientist

Company Overview

Biocore is a team of world class engineers and scientists providing data-driven products, testing, analysis, and consulting services to companies across the globe. An independently operated subsidiary of Infinite Athlete, Biocore leverages its unique expertise and experience, as well as cutting-edge physical and cloud computing technologies, to improve safety and enhance the performance of athletes and organizations in sports and entertainment industries.

Biocore's mission is to provide the highest level of engineering and analytics expertise to clients dedicated to the understanding and reduction of injury, through a multidisciplinary group with backgrounds in engineering, biomechanics, data science, athlete performance, footwear design and construction, synthetic, natural, and hybrid playing surface design and management, and statistical and epidemiological injury tracking.

Biocore works and partners with many of the world's leading sports leagues and organizations. For an example of recent work, visit https://www.playsmartplaysafe.com/focus-on-safety/pillars/protecting-players/

Position Details

Biocore has an immediate opening for a full-time Data Science Lead. The right individual will support the Data Science and Analytics team and the entire Biocore organization on a variety of interesting projects. The position is based at our primary office in Charlottesville, VA.

Employment Type

• Full-time, exempt employee
• In person at offices in Charlottesville, VA
• Willingness to travel up to 20%.
  
  

Position Requirements

• PhD or M.S. in Data Science, Biostatistics, Operations Research, Data Analytics, or Sports Analytics with M.S. degree requiring a minimum of five years of modeling and analytics experience post-degree.
• Three or more years in an analytic leadership position, supervising multiple simultaneous research/modeling/analytic efforts and a minimum of 3-5 more junior analysts.
• Demonstrated record of employing data science, machine learning, and applied statistics to identify meaningful insights for business outcomes leading to significant impact on organizational goals.
• Exceptional proficiency in Python (preferred) and/or R, SQL, and data visualization libraries such as plotly, D3, and others.
• Demonstrated experience developing impactful presentations, papers, and visualizations to communicate data-driven insights to non-technical audiences.
• Of special interest is a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or STEM discipline.
• Excellent performance in Publications, Kaggle competitions, NFL Big Data Bowl, or Sports Analytics competitions desired.
• Experience working with professional sports league or team (NFL, NBA, MLB, Premier League) and collegiate or professional athletic experience desired.
  
  

Compensation

Our job titles may span more than one career level. Actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. Competitive salary with comprehensive benefits package (includes medical, dental, vision, and stipends for health and wellness), opportunity for ownership through stock options, and a performance-based bonus program.

Roles and Responsibilities

Our team fuses data streams from athlete-worn sensors, computer vision output of game and practice video, human-conducted game tagging/rating systems (e.g. PFF.com), and various SQL/NoSQL databases to maintain a comprehensive picture of athlete health, safety, and performance. You will lead a team of data analysts to develop and package insights and research from across the company to be used for presentation to senior executives in supported sports leagues and in work with owners/coaches/executives on key committees (for example the NFL Competition Committee) to implement rule changes, policies, and protocols that improve health and safety outcomes for athletes. Your work will span multiple sports and industries. Example research questions you might address include:

• What rule changes could be made to the NFL punt play to reduce injuries?
• What kind of performance differences can you detect between different playing surfaces (grass vs. turf) using performance tracking data (i.e. Next Gen Stats)?
• How does roster composition affect the injury rate of a sports team?
  
  

Working style/character qualities

• You thrive on mentoring, developing, and leading other analysts while balancing the competing demands of multiple simultaneous research programs
• You are passionate about the idea of using analytics to improve the health and safety of athletes in professional and amateur sports
• You can convert a problem statement into a research question, modeling/analysis methodology, and presentation of data driven insights
• You excel at developing and briefing impactful data visualizations to communicate data-driven insights to non-technical audiences
• You are a great teammate who enjoys working with others to build things together that you could not build alone.
  
  

Biocore LLC is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.