Football Knowledge Engineer

at  Second Spectrum

FOOTBALL KNOWLEDGE ENGINEER

at Second Spectrum
Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
Second Spectrum is a Sports Emmy-winning data & tech company that is building the next way of seeing sports - by capturing and producing the highest quality data and innovative content for many of the world’s largest leagues and media partners, such as the NFL, NBA, English Premier League, ESPN, Amazon, and CBS Sports.
We are pushing the boundaries of deep tech - machine learning, computer vision, big data, augmented and virtual reality. Our passion for cutting-edge design and decades of experience playing college and professional sports is an equal part of the magic that brings unique and innovative products to life. These products have helped Second Spectrum partners to multiple NBA championships, to win matches on football pitches around the world, to entertain and educate millions of fans on TV and digital. In 2021, Second Spectrum was acquired by Genius Sports, bringing together a unique combination of technological, operational and commercial capabilities. We’re just getting started turning our joint vision of transformative sports technologies into reality.
Second Spectrum is the place to be if you’re interested in working on cutting edge technology in sports, alongside incredibly driven and ambitious teammates. Our innovative and dynamic environment emphasizes opportunities for motivated individuals to maximize their growth and impact.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience playing or coaching football at an amateur, competitive, or semi-professional level
• Knowledge of football terms and concepts
• Understanding of the current landscape and recent past of major professional football leagues
• Understanding of data aggregation and manipulation concepts
• Experience and comfort working with one or more data-heavy technical tools, such as advanced spreadsheets, databasing/SQL, or statistical analysis programming languages such as Python or R
• Ability to make time-critical judgment calls regarding data processing, engineering support, and customer satisfaction
• A friendly, professional and helpful attitude for client support
• Fluent in French and English, including football terminology. Additionally, fluency in Spanish or German is a strong advantage
• Flexible schedule to work nights and weekends as needed to support live games on a rotational basis

The Football Knowledge Engineer is responsible, along with the Director of Football Analytics, for development, improvement, oversight and support of existing and new football data products. The role works closely with engineering, product and operations colleagues, to advance product development, oversee data quality, ensure customer satisfaction, generate content for customer use cases, and promote success and growth of Second Spectrum football data products. This position specifically includes technical engagement with and support of French-speaking leagues.

Specifically, you can expect to:

• Have and apply a thorough technical understanding of all of Second Spectrum’s software and data products
• Have and apply a strong understanding of the professional football industry, terminology and governance, as well as the current field of football analytics
• Support technical customer requests and be proactive in triaging, understanding, and solving customer needs
• Help clients navigate, interpret, and find specific data points using Second Spectrum’s offerings
• Travel when needed to meet current and potential clients
• Conceptualize, refine, and implement new data features in our core data products and software
• Generate data-driven content using Second Spectrum’s data and products
• Work with engineering colleagues to plan and implement robust data quality metrics, methodology, and tools
• Coordinate and train operational staff and specialists to execute manual tasks in support of machine learning labeling, live match operational tasks, and evaluation
• Create and maintain internal and external facing documentation