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Powered by one of the largest global newsrooms in sports media, The Athletic brings sports fans the most comprehensive stories about the teams, sports and athletes they love. The Athletic’s newsroom of 500+ full-time staff delivers in-depth coverage of hundreds of professional and college teams across more than 47 North American markets and all 20 football clubs in the English Premier League, as well as many Championship clubs.
About the Role
Join the data leadership team at The Athletic, the premier sports media division of The New York Times, and take ownership of our entire analytics function. This is a critical leadership role that sits at the intersection of sports, digital subscriptions, and cutting-edge data strategy. Having recently completed a major migration to a modern data warehouse, the new Director will inherit a clean slate and the mandate to design and implement a best-in-class analytics practice.
Responsibilities
- Own the Data Strategy: Serve as the strategic architect for The Athletic's data future, directly partnering with executive leaders to align the data roadmap with the company's highest-priority growth objectives.
- Be the Data Authority: Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Executive teams to identify data needs and deliver robust data solutions. Deliver actionable insights and metrics that inform subscription product development, strategic content decisions, and the overall growth strategy.
- Build Trust in Data: Own the strategy for data governance, quality, and definition across the organization, ensuring key metrics are consistent and trusted by all teams, and acting as the final escalation point for data definition disputes.
- Scale Talent and Culture: Direct and grow a diverse team of data professionals across multiple functions, acting as a dedicated mentor and champion for data literacy and a culture of continuous learning.
Requirements
- A minimum of 8 years of progressive experience in data-related roles (e.g., Data Engineering, Data Science, Analytics), with at least 2 years in a senior leadership or management capacity overseeing multiple data functions.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts and data insights into strategic recommendations for executive leadership and non-technical teams.
- Demonstrated success in defining and executing a comprehensive data strategy and roadmap for a high-growth or complex organization.
- Proven ability to leverage and lead across the entire analytical stack, with a primary focus on driving business value. Experience with data engineering concepts, including modern data warehousing (Snowflake/BigQuery) and ETL/ELT practices, is highly valued and strongly preferred.
- Proven ability to build, mentor, and scale high-performing, cross-functional data teams.
- Experience working with high-volume, real-time event data, ideally in a subscription or digital media environment, is a plus.
The annual base salary range for this role is $190,000 - $210,000 USD. The total compensation offered for this position may vary based on factors such as education, experience, skills, and location.
For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.
For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.
The Athletic Media Company is an equal opportunity employer and enthusiastically encourages people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply. The Athletic will consider all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.
Click here to review our Applicant Privacy Notice, which describes how and when The Athletic Media Company collects, uses, and shares certain personal information of job applicants and prospective employees.
Beware of fraudulent job recruiting schemes! Our recruiters use careers@theathletic.com exclusively, and our team members will use an email address with @theathletic.com domain. We do not conduct interviews via text or instant message and we do not ask candidates to download software, to purchase equipment through us, or to provide sensitive personally identifiable information, such as bank accounts or social security numbers. If you have been contacted by someone claiming to be a member of the recruiting/HR team at The Athletic but operating from a different email address about a job offer, please report it as potential job fraud to the law enforcement and to people@theathletic.com.
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