Football Radar have been successfully developing statistical models and analytical frameworks for football for over 10 years. We provide advice to football clubs, and we are also a leading provider of betting advice, where we have helped our clients achieve outstanding returns for over 10 years. We see ourselves as an interesting mix of start-up and established business, with the agility of the former and the security of the latter.
About The Role
Our data scientists work within two separate teams:
A prediction team, focused on the betting and prediction side of our business. This role involves researching ways in which the modelling approaches we use to predict football matches can be improved, and then turning those insights into practical modelling solutions that we can deploy to production
A club consultancy team. This role involves developing models and products to help decision making within football clubs.
There may be some opportunity to rotate between the teams depending on your skillset, but we tend to recruit data scientists to specialise in one of these two areas.
These roles are based at our London office, at 1 Craven Hill, London, W2 3EN. You will have flexibility to work from home one day a week, and we aren't too fussy about the exact hours you work each day. But please note we are not considering remote candidates at the moment.
Requirements
Experience with statistical analysis and predictive modelling, preferably in a sports context - you don’t need to be an expert in any one area, but you need to know what techniques and tools are available, and understand the trade-offs of using different approaches
Strong problem solving skills, with an ability to proactively identify challenges and propose solutions
An ability to make pragmatic and sensible choices about what data analysis and modelling approaches to use – you can judge when it’s right to obsess about the details, and when it’s right to ship an MVP as fast as possible.
A flair for communicating statistical analyses to both technical and non-technical audiences
Experience with SQL and relational databases – you can quickly understand a new dataset, perform exploratory analysis, identify data quality issues, and take pragmatic decisions about how to handle imperfect data
Some programming experience, preferably with Python
For senior candidates
More experienced candidates will have the opportunity to take on more responsibility, leading projects and helping set the direction of our research. We are looking for candidates who can think strategically and make pragmatic decisions about where we should focus our efforts, and what technical approaches we should use to get our modelling ideas onto production. In addition to the requirements above, this means you also have:
3+ years of practical data science experience
Project management skills, including an ability to make sensible value judgements about where the team should spend time
An extensive knowledge of statistical methods and machine learning techniques
Strong programming skills, ideally with Python
Experience working with other data scientists on a collaborative codebase
Experience of deploying models to production, ideally in AWS or another cloud environment
What we offer
Half yearly bonus opportunities
33 days holiday (Including bank holidays)
Competitive contribution matched pensions
Subsidised private medical care and on site health checks and vaccinations
Subsidised office meals
Opportunities for learning and development budgets to invest in your personal growth
Company and team led engagement activities throughout the year
Subsidised gym membership
