Senior Director, R&D & Baseball Operations

Washington Nationals; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 350,000 - 425,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

Life and AD&D insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) and pension

Free Nationals tickets

Employee discounts

Onsite fitness center

Job summary

Washington Nationals is seeking a senior leader for Research & Development to guide data-driven decision making across Baseball Operations. You will oversee R&D strategy, build interdisciplinary teams, and translate complex research into practical on‑field advantages.

The role emphasizes strategic leadership, collaboration with acquisitions and player development, and the delivery of robust data infrastructure and tools to support player evaluation and decision making.

Qualifications

• High-stakes decision-making under uncertainty.
• Statistical modeling, forecasting, and probabilistic programming.
• Machine learning methods and model evaluation.
• Best practices in programming and AI agent integration.
• Data engineering architecture to support research and rapid decision‑making.
• Application development, product design, and data storytelling.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for all R&D departments.
• Build and maintain a high-performing, interdisciplinary team culture focused on innovation, rigor, and practical impact.
• Maximize leverage of research by identifying arbitrage opportunities and designing processes to exploit edges.
• Serve as primary advisor to senior leadership on research and data strategy.
• Set goals, priorities, and metrics for the R&D vertical aligned with objectives.
• Oversee design and implementation of predictive modeling and decision tools for player evaluation and readiness.
• Direct the creation and evolution of internal data infrastructure and workflows for R&D at scale.
• Collaborate with Baseball Systems to ensure clean data pipelines and intuitive interfaces.
• Partner with Acquisitions, Player Development, and Baseball Operations to embed R&D outputs in decision‑making.
• Translate technical concepts for both technical and non‑technical audiences.

Skills

Decision-making under uncertainty

Statistical modeling

Forecasting

Machine learning

AI integration

Data engineering

App development

Data storytelling

Programming best practices

Job description

Washington Nationals is seeking a senior leader for Research & Development to guide data-driven decision making across Baseball Operations. You will oversee R&D strategy, build interdisciplinary teams, and translate complex research into practical on‑field advantages.

The role emphasizes strategic leadership, collaboration with acquisitions and player development, and the delivery of robust data infrastructure and tools to support player evaluation and decision making.