Phillies List Job Openings in Analytics Department
By John Town
Think you have the know-how to be a part of a major-league analytics team? The Phillies are hiring two new staff members to the department.
In their 2015 Great Analytics Rankings, ESPN ranked the Phillies dead last out of all 122 major sports franchises in the United States. Former general manager Ruben Amaro famously said the team is “not a statistics-driven organization by any means” and would never have an “in-house stats guy”.
It’s clear the club needed to change their viewpoint on analytics. New team president Andy MacPhail and GM Matt Klentak both stressed the need for analytics in the front office when they took the helm. Team owner John Middleton reaffirmed that in a recent interview, saying the team will have “a minimum of six full-time people, a number of interns, and a budget measured in the millions” in 2017.
The team has listed two openings in their analytics department for a Senior Quantitative Analyst and Senior Software Engineer. Interested candidates have through the end of October to submit applications for the positions.
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The listing says the Senior Quantitative Analyst will help “shape the Phillies Baseball Operations strategies by processing, analyzing, and interpreting large and complex data.” Some of the responsibilities include conducting statistical research projects, mentoring “a team of Baseball R&D QAs”, and working with external consultants hired by the team.
If you want this job, you better have some degrees hanging on your wall. The team prefers if you have a MS or PhD in Statistics or a similar field. In addition, they would like to see four-plus years of work experience.
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Meanwhile, if you have an intrinsic knowledge of computer science, becoming the team’s Senior Software Engineer may be right up your alley. The listing says candidates should have a strong knowledge of one or more “general purpose programming languages”, like Java, Python, or C++. The position will require a BS in Computer Science as well as recommending a Master’s or PhD degree.
Even though candidates need to be well-versed with computers, they also need to be able to lead the team around them. The listing says the Senior Software Engineer needs to “provide leadership in architecting and implementing technical infrastructure for Baseball Operations.” Like the Senior QA, the Senior SWE also needs to mentor his subsidiary R&D SWEs.
While the position of Senior SWE seems one-dimensional, the team insists it as actually multi-faceted. The listing says “SWEs work across all of Baseball Operations, including the draft, free-agency, player valuation, player development, in-game strategy, and injury prevention.” The Senior SWE is in charge of building “new applications from the ground up to be used directly by the GM and executive staff.”
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So far, owner John Middleton has made good on his promise to expand the analytics department. If the lofty requirements show anything, it’s that the Phillies want only the best in their front office to help build their analytics department.