Chicago Fire Football Club is a Major League Soccer team that was founded in 1997. Under new ownership, the Club recently returned to Chicago’s iconic Soldier Field, opened a new 50,000-square foot office in the heart of the city, and will unveil a premium state-of-the-art Performance Center in January 2025. With tremendous growth and expansion, the Club is laying the foundation for an audacious and ambitious vision that will transform the brand and the company in the coming years.

At Chicago Fire Football Club, we’re on a mission to entertain, serve, and unite Chicago by delivering excellence on and off the pitch to ensure a world-class experience. As a club we let our values guide everything we do: we uphold uncompromising integrity, show respect for all at all times, never settle for less, constantly innovate, and hold ourselves relentlessly accountable.

Position Overview:

Chicago Fire FC (Club) is searching for a Data Scientist to join our football analytics department and work closely with our football operations staff. In this role, the Data Scientist will be responsible for using varied datasets from all on-field aspects of the sport to build predictive models, develop data-driven metrics, and deliver analyses and visualizations to support football operations stakeholders. The role will work with colleagues in the analytics department to set data standards and best practices across the Club.

Job Responsibilities

Ideate, develop, and improve machine learning and statistical models used to inform football operations decision-making
Contribute to all stages of model development lifecycle, from prototyping and testing to deploying new models into production to evaluating online performance
Adhere to software engineering best practices and contribute to shared code repositories
Create and deploy statistical metrics to assess on-field performance
Present and communicate models and analyses to appropriate stakeholders
Ensure all data processes are efficient, reliable and in line with club standards and time frames
Develop strong working relationships across the multi-disciplinary team
Take on additional projects and responsibilities as assigned

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Data Science, Statistics, or related field
Minimum of one year experience in data science or equivalent work experience
Demonstrated experience using Python for statistical computing
Experience manipulating and pulling data using SQL and relational databases
Strong experience with machine learning frameworks and libraries, such as scikit-learn, PyTorch, and MLflow, to build predictive models
Strong knowledge of statistical analysis, machine learning and predictive modeling
Demonstrated experience analyzing data to support decision-makers and derive insights
Excellent written and oral communication skills and an ability to collaborate with non-technical audiences
User empathy and a willingness to work directly with football operations personnel
An understanding of football and desire to learn about football analytics
Ability to work non-traditional hours, in non-traditional settings, including all home games (or other work events) that fall on nights, weekends, and/or holidays

Preferred Qualifications

Proven experience analyzing football data
Familiarity with data engineering tools and architectures
An interest in web development and software engineering

Please note:

Chicago Fire FC is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. Our diversity initiatives start with the recruitment and selection process; therefore, we’d like to welcome all diverse candidates to apply to opportunities within our Club.
CFFC is committed to providing equal employment opportunity and maintaining a workplace for employees and applicants for employment that is free from discrimination. The Company does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, citizenship, age, veteran or military status, disability, sexual orientation, sexual orientation or expression, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law. This policy governs all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, compensation, discipline, termination, and access to benefits and training.
If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please contact the People and Culture Department at [email protected] to let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

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