Job Details
Description
Lead Data Scientist, Business Strategy & Analytics
About Us
The Colorado Rockies Baseball Club is embracing the climb, committed to building a championship-caliber organization on the field, in the clubhouse, and throughout our business operations. Playing at altitude presents unique competitive challenges and opportunities, and we embrace innovation, collaboration, and evidence-based practices to support elite performance. Rooted in the traditions of America’s pastime, we operate with integrity, service, quality, and trust while striving to create an exceptional experience for our players, staff, and fans.
The Strategy & Business Analytics team partners closely with leadership and functional departments to translate data into insight, insight into decisions, and decisions into measurable impact.
Position Summary
The Lead Data Scientist will play a foundational role in shaping and executing the Colorado Rockies’ business-focused advanced analytics and data science capability. This individual will be responsible for contributing to the organization’s data strategy, identifying and prioritizing high-impact data science opportunities, and independently executing advanced analytical work—including predictive, prescriptive, and machine learning models.
Reporting to the Chief Revenue & Strategy Officer, the Lead Data Scientist will serve as a thought partner to leaders across the business, helping tackle complex challenges where traditional reporting is insufficient. While this role will initially have no direct reports, it is expected to play a critical role in shaping the organization’s analytics capabilities. As the analytics needs of the business evolve, opportunities for increased scope and responsibility may emerge based on organizational needs and individual performance
This role is best suited for a senior individual contributor who thrives on building robust, production-ready models that drive measurable business impact rather than purely exploratory analysis. It requires a combination of deep technical expertise, strong business acumen, and clear communication skills. The Lead Data Scientist must be comfortable working hands-on across the full analytics spectrum—from advanced modeling and experimentation to select foundational analysis where needed to accelerate capability development. Their input will help define the long-term vision, structure, and standards for business analytics at the Rockies.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Advanced Analytics Execution
- Design, develop, and deploy advanced analytical solutions — including predictive and prescriptive models — to address high-priority business questions across ticketing, marketing, pricing, fan engagement, partnerships, and operations.
- Apply statistical modeling, machine learning, optimization, experimentation, and forecasting techniques to improve decision quality and quantify risk, uncertainty, and upside.
- Translate complex analytical outputs into decision-ready insights and clear recommendations for senior leadership and non-technical stakeholders; document model assumptions and limitations to ensure appropriate application
- Own projects end-to-end, from problem framing and data exploration through modeling, validation, and deployment of tools & insights into the business
- Establish monitoring metrics and standards to ensure models remain relevant as data and conditions evolve.
Operationalization & Model Deployment
- Develop production-ready data science solutions, including APIs, scoring pipelines, and system integrations, to embed predictive and prescriptive models directly into business workflows.
- Partner with IT, 601Analytics, and application owners to integrate models into CRM, pricing systems, marketing platforms, and other operational tools.
- Establish version control, testing, validation, and monitoring frameworks to ensure models perform reliably in production environments.
Business Partnership & Project Prioritization
- Partner with the Chief Revenue & Strategy Officer and functional leaders to identify, scope, and prioritize data science initiatives aligned with organizational strategic priorities.
- Build credibility and trust with stakeholders by balancing analytical rigor with pragmatic business judgment.
- Work closely with Strategy and functional teammates to design and analyze experiments, test hypotheses, evaluate solution tradeoffs, and inform high-impact decisions.
- Collaborate with reporting and analytics partners across the organization to ensure alignment between advanced models, core metrics, dashboards, and decision
Foundational Analytics & Capability Building (Initial Phase)
- Maintain primary focus on advanced modeling, experimentation, and high-impact decision support while contributing selectively to foundational analysis during early capability development.
- Help establish best practices for documentation, reproducibility, data quality, and analytical rigor across projects.
- Partner to coach and develop analytics capabilities of existing teammates and to build functional leaders’ comfort leveraging data and analytics to lead their teams.
Data Strategy & Analytics Vision
- Contribute to the development of a long-term vision for business analytics at the Rockies, spanning advanced data science and scalable reporting and insight delivery capabilities.
- Partner closely with 601Analytics and internal data engineering resources to leverage a modern, scalable data warehouse environment, ensuring advanced models are built on reliable, well-governed data assets.
- Partner with IT and data engineering/architecture teams to ensure data science solutions are scalable, sustainable, and aligned with enterprise data strategy.
- Establish and adhere to documentation and file management standards to ensure tools and analyses can be efficiently maintained and evolved over time.
- Stay current with emerging techniques and data sources in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, identifying opportunities to apply these tools aggressively yet responsibly—with appropriate governance, transparency, and risk management—to drive meaningful business impact.
Communication & Leadership
- Clearly communicate analytical findings through written, visual, and verbal formats tailored to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Exceptional problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to connect analytical work to real business outcomes.
- Strong business acumen and curiosity about how organizations operate, generate revenue, and serve customers.
- Excellent communication skills, including the ability to explain complex concepts clearly and concisely to non-technical audiences.
- Proven ability to collaborate cross-functionally, manage competing priorities, and operate effectively in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
- Comfort working in ambiguity and helping design processes, standards, and structures where none previously existed.
Job Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, Economics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Business Analytics, or a related quantitative field required.
- Master’s degree or PhD preferred.
- 7+ years of progressive experience in data science, advanced analytics, or a related analytical role within a business, sports, media, or consumer-facing environment.
- Demonstrated experience independently leading complex, ambiguous analytical projects from concept through impact.
- Demonstrated experience influencing leaders through data-driven insights.
- Formal people management experience is not required, but experience coaching / developing the analytics skills of others is highly valued.
Technical Skills
- Strong proficiency in Python and/or R for data analysis, modeling, and automation.
- Deep understanding of statistical methods, machine learning algorithms, forecasting, experimentation, and optimization techniques.
- Experience working with SQL and Snowflake / Databricks (or similar tools) to operate in cloud-based data science environments like MS Azure; comfort manipulating large, complex datasets.
- Experience building and deploying machine learning models into production environments (e.g., REST APIs, batch scoring systems, containerized services, or similar deployment patterns).
- Familiarity with data visualization and BI tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI) and an understanding of how advanced models integrate into dashboards and decision workflows.
- Experience applying generative AI, LLMs, or agent-based systems to automate analysis, enhance insight generation, or augment business workflows in a responsible and production-ready manner.
WORKING CONDITIONS / WORK SCHEDULE
- Work Environment: Full-time in office role.
- Work Hours: Full-time hours (typically Monday-Friday 8-5) with occasional extended hours during peak business periods or critical project milestones.
- Travel: Minimal, though occasional travel related to league meetings, vendors, or organizational events may be required.
Physical Job Requirements
- This role operates in a professional office and stadium environment. Occasional exposure to crowd noise, outdoor weather conditions, and extended hours during homestands, promotional events, or special functions may be required.
- Must be able to remain in a stationary position for extended periods (e.g., sitting at a desk, attending meetings).
- Occasionally moves about the office, stadium, and event spaces to access equipment, vendors, and staff.
- Frequently communicates via phone, video conference, and in person; must be able to exchange accurate information.
- Ability to lift up to 15 pounds occasionally (e.g., promotional materials, laptop bag).
Compensation & Benefits
- Annual Salary Range: $125,000 - $145,000. This is a regular-status, full-time, Non-Exempt position.
- As a candidate for this position, your salary and related elements of compensation will be contingent upon your work experience, education, job-related skills, and any other factors the Colorado Rockies consider relevant to the hiring decision for this position.
- In addition to the base salary, the Club believes in providing a very competitive and generous compensation and benefits package for its employees. Benefits include but are not limited to Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k) with employer match, generous vacation and holiday program, employee parking, employer-provided game tickets to home games, onsite fitness classes and experiences, employee discounts on merchandise, and so much more! All benefits are subject to eligibility requirements and the terms of official plan documents, which may be modified or amended at any given time.
Application Process
- Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis but must be received by March 25th.
- The estimated time to complete the recruitment process will be by May 22nd.
- Please note this is just an estimate, and the recruiting process may be extended to removed at any time.
- For current Colorado Rockies employees:
- Apply via the internal job board in UKG by following these prompts: MENU > MYSELF > VIEW OPPORTUNITIES > select the position > CONSENT > APPLY NOW.
- If you are unable to access UKG, please list your most recent Manager as an Employee Reference on your application.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Rockies baseball is for everyone! We pride ourselves on hiring, developing, and promoting talent as an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants and employees will receive consideration for employment or promotion without regard to race (including, but not limited to, traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and length and/or protective hairstyles), color, national origin, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, familial status, marital status, ancestry age (40+), creed, religion, disability, veteran status, pregnancy/childbirth and related conditions, or any other category or activity protected by law. In addition, we will endeavor to provide reasonable accommodation to otherwise qualified job applicants and employees with known physical or mental disabilities in compliance with the ADA. All employment and promotion decisions will be decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business needs.
