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Position Summary:

Basketball Data Scientist & Scheduling Analyst role in supporting the Business Strategy and Analytics team.

Major Responsibility:

• Perform rigorous statistical analysis and visualizations that relate to league structure, rule changes, game play, improvements to the competition format, and implementation of technologies to improve player health, game integrity, and fan engagement across the NBA and affiliate leagues
• Support creation of NBA game schedule, including year-round execution, team engagement, and use of new best-in-class analytical approaches to optimization
• Support long-term planning and partnerships for NBA scheduling software ecosystem
• Generate ideas and innovate within and around the game of basketball to grow fan interest in the game and the NBA
• Generate insights and prepare reports for senior leadership in League Operations and undertake follow-up analysis as directed
• Respond to internal data requests to support operations in related NBA League Office departments
• Identify patterns and trends to assess data quality and applicability in League Operations decision making

Required Skills/Knowledge:

• 2-5 years of experience in strategy, project management, and/or data analytics, ideally related to the sports industry
• Self-starter with exceptional problem-solving skills and ability to communicate with a non-technical audience and deal effectively with senior management
• A passion for sports and a strong interest in the NBA, its teams and affiliated leagues
• Applied knowledge of statistical regression methods
• Supervised and unsupervised learning techniques in machine learning (e.g. dimensionality reduction and clustering)
• Experience with modeling (e.g., Excel), scripting languages (e.g. R or Python) and data visualization tools (e.g. Shiny or Tableau)
• Confident individual, able to work in a fast-paced environment and manage short term deliverables along with long-term projects
• Proven self-management, problem identification and solution capabilities
• Must exercise good judgement and be able to maintain confidentiality with sensitive projects
• Ability to work well in a team environment and independently
• Strong communication skills (verbal & written)

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree in Math, Computer Science, Statistics, Engineering, or related discipline; Master's degree preferred

Salary Range:

• $90,000-110,000 per year

The NBA does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms or any other third parties. Any unsolicited resume sent to the NBA will be considered NBA property, and the NBA will not pay a fee should it hire the subject of any unsolicited resume.

The NBA considers applicants for all positions on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs, and without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, alienage or citizenship status, ancestry, marital status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, veteran status, familial status, status as a victim of domestic violence, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

About the NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. Built around five professional sports leagues: the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 215 countries and territories in more than 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2021-22 season featured a record 121 international players from 40 countries. NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass. The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 2.1 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms. Through NBA Cares, the league addresses important social issues by working with internationally recognized youth-serving organizations that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes.