Head of Soccer Analytics & Scouting Strategy

Real Salt Lake; Sandy (UT); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Real Salt Lake seeks a Director of Soccer Analytics to lead analytics for scouting and recruitment across MLS, MLS NEXT Pro, and Academy pathways. You will own data strategy, build player-evaluation models, and deliver decision-support across the organization with Scouts, Coaches, and Sporting Leadership.

The ideal candidate translates complex data into actionable scouting insights, builds scalable tools, and partners closely with sport-staff to drive evidence-based recruitment and performance

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience applying analytics to soccer scouting and recruitment required.
• Minimum of 5 years of applied experience in football analytics, recruitment analysis, or comparable data-driven scouting environments.
• Advanced proficiency in R, Python, SQL, and data visualization platforms (Power BI, Tableau, Looker, or similar).
• Extensive experience with football event and tracking data and scouting platforms (e.g., StatsBomb, Opta, Wyscout, SkillCorner, Second Spectrum).
• Strong football tactical and player-evaluation knowledge, with ability to contextualize data within game model and positional requirements.
• Demonstrated experience partnering with Sporting Directors, scouts, and coaches to support recruitment decisions across multi-team environments.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to present complex information clearly to diverse audiences.
• Proven ability to work independently, managing priorities, timelines, and transfer-window deliverables with accountability.
• Ability to collaborate within complex, multi-team environments while maintaining alignment, trust, and accountability.

Responsibilities

• Lead the club-wide soccer analytics strategy in support of scouting and recruitment across Real Salt Lake, Real Monarchs, and the RSL Academy, ensuring vertical alignment across MLS, MLS NEXT Pro, and Academy pathways.
• Establish standardized methodologies for player identification, evaluation, and comparison, including positional profiles, benchmarking, and similarity modeling.
• Manage recruitment data providers and integrations (e.g., StatsBomb, Wyscout, SkillCorner, etc.), ensuring high-quality event and tracking data and actionable insights.
• Build and maintain player evaluation models supporting performance benchmarking, age-curve and contract-value analysis, and transfer-target shortlisting.
• Design and maintain recruitment dashboards, overseeing data ingestion, cleaning, storage, and integration to ensure data integrity and accessibility.
• Direct scouting analytics and reporting, including dashboard development, player reports, squad-needs analysis, and applied machine learning for talent identification.
• Collaborate closely with the Sporting Director, scouts, and coaches to deliver unified recruitment decision-support informed by data, video, and live exposure.
• Translate complex data and analytical insights into clear, actionable decision support for scouts, sporting leadership, and executives.
• Own the analytics workflow and manage recruitment timelines around transfer windows, setting analytical priorities, and ensuring timely delivery to the scouting department.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging data sources, technologies, and research, driving continuous improvement and innovation across all scouting environments.
• Promote knowledge sharing and best practices across teams, ensuring insights from MLS, MLS NEXT Pro, and Academy environments elevate the entire organization.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Skills

Soccer analytics

Python

R

SQL

Data visualization

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, or related field

Master’s degree or PhD strongly preferred

Tools

StatsBomb

Wyscout

SkillCorner

Second Spectrum

Opta

Job description

Real Salt Lake seeks a Director of Soccer Analytics to lead analytics for scouting and recruitment across MLS, MLS NEXT Pro, and Academy pathways. You will own data strategy, build player-evaluation models, and deliver decision-support across the organization with Scouts, Coaches, and Sporting Leadership.

The ideal candidate translates complex data into actionable scouting insights, builds scalable tools, and partners closely with sport-staff to drive evidence-based recruitment and performance