Director, Research and Innovation

The National Football League (NFL) is seeking an innovative, self-driven, technology-focused Director to join the Player Health & Safety department. The Director will be responsible for driving strategies to decrease player injuries and enhance the safety of the game and closely collaborating with the NFL Data & Analytics team on technology initiatives. A key responsibility will be overseeing the Digital Athlete program, an AI-backed platform that was created through a partnership between NFL and AWS to aggregate data from various sources to create a comprehensive, 360-degree view of the player’s on-field experience. Additionally, the Director will play a key role in defining future strategic roadmaps for leveraging the wealth of information about sports injuries that is uniquely available in the NFL setting to improve health within and beyond the NFL. The ideal candidate will be a strategic thinker, able to both oversee day-to-day execution of scientific research and product innovations, as well as synthesize progress and results to make actionable recommendations for senior leadership.

The Player Health & Safety team collaborates closely with other departments across the League to execute outstanding gameday medical operations and develop and implement research and innovation strategies to reduce injuries and keep players healthy. The Director is joining the NFL at a critically important time when the organization has made unprecedented investments into medical research, biomechanical engineering, epidemiology, and data analytics, all designed to accelerate science and identify new technologies and means of preventing and treating injuries.

Responsibilities:

• Oversee the Digital Athlete program, participating in the development of methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria.
• Contribute to programmatic strategic planning and budgeting for research-focused scientific and technological roadmaps.
• Collaborate with internal NFL cross-functional team (particularly Data & Analytics), engineering and epidemiology consulting teams, and AWS team leads to ensure alignment on strategy, integration, and delivery of tasks and milestones.
• Collaborate with vendors and external sources for software, equipment, and analytics research that are involved in injury reduction.
• Manage budget and resource allocation.
• Create and conduct presentations of overall program progress, metrics, and contingency plans via status reports and management communication.
• Lead various innovation initiatives to develop new technologies and approaches to player training.
• Synthesize research results and data to make recommendations for actionable insights or future innovations to senior leadership.
• Liaise between the NFL League Office and NFL Clubs’ medical, training and sports science personnel.
• Triage feedback from Clubs and vendors; provide vendor and internal support to ensure timely response to critical issues.
• Work collaboratively with company partners in IT, data & analytics, finance, marketing, sponsorship, management council and football operations.
• Maintain a proactive view of the global sports injury reduction research and innovation space.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree strongly preferred
• Minimum 10+ years industry relevant experience
• Strong experience leading projects in matrixed organizations, including managing timelines, budgets, and stakeholder alignment
• Proven people management skills
• Advanced analytical and technological acumen, with experience in data analysis, technical program management, and/or DevOps
• Demonstrated excellence in collaborating with others to achieve desired outcomes  
• Communication skills (written and verbal) which are equally effective with large and small audiences and on a one-to-one level, including executive-level storytelling and strategic briefings
• A style that is open to change and innovation, with an ability to delegate yet control, set high standards and work collaboratively to implement change

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with AWS cloud computing software
• Experience leading technology, innovation, and analytics-based projects in professional or collegiate sports, or sports injury-related fields

Other Key Attributes / Characteristics:

• Lives the mission, vision, culture and values of the NFL
• Unquestionable integrity, with an ability to command respect both within and outside of the organization
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to persuade and negotiate effectively and be politically savvy. Recognized as a great l