Senior Statistical Analyst

Location: Thorp Arch Training Ground, LS23

Reports to: Head Of Football Analytics

Join the Team Behind the Team

At Leeds United, we know that success on the pitch starts with strength behind the scenes.

The Senior Statistical Analyst is responsible for developing statistical models working closely with our Principal Data Scientist and Head of Football Analytics to support decision-making across football operations, including player recruitment and team performance.

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What You’ll Be Doing

This is a high-impact role at the intersection of football and data science, contributing directly to how the club identifies talent, evaluates performance, and gains competitive advantage. The successful candidate will help translate complex datasets into clear, actionable insights that support strategic and operational decisions across the football department.

Key Responsibilities:

Build statistical models. You will take models from research through to deployment.

Leverage our (tracking) enhanced events dataset to build player and team rating models to quantify both capability and performance of skills within each game phase.

Perform statistical analysis of datasets, testing well-defined hypotheses and effectively communicating results to various stakeholders.

Contribute to the evaluation and improvement of existing player and team ratings models and identification of new research areas and approaches.

Develop, validate, monitor and deploy models at scale, owning the process end to end using tools such as MLFlow and Prefect.

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What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for someone proactive, personable, and who thrives in a busy environment. You’ll be a key point of contact, so building trust, staying organised, and maintaining confidentiality are all essential.

Qualifications & Training

PhD in a quantitative area of study and demonstrated passion for working in sports modelling

or

3+ years’ professional experience in sports modelling as a statistical analyst with sports data

You’ll have:

• Strong programming skills in Python

• Applied statistics knowledge with a solid understanding of Bayesian analysis, GAMs, GLMs and state-space models.

   

• Ability to evaluate new and existing predictive model performance using appropriate metrics, quantify and communicate predictive uncertainty

• Ability to deploy models at scale using cloud-based infrastructure

• Is open minded, innovative and willing to explore new ideas

• Enjoys facing challenges and have the resilience and resourcefulness to see complex tasks through

• Willing to share their knowledge experience as part of a community of practice

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Why Should You Join Leeds United?

Whether you are on the pitch or behind the scenes here, we’re united by passion, pride, and a drive to always improve. You’ll be joining a supportive people team where your voice is valued and your development matters.

In return for your dedication, you’ll receive a competitive salary package and pension scheme, along with a range of exciting perks, including but not limited to:

Free on-site gym access

Free parking

A variety of healthy food options on-site

Training and Education support

Enhanced family-friendly policies and support

Access to staff football tickets

Exclusive discounts at our club shop

Special offers and enhanced discounts through our key sponsors and partners

Plus, many more unique benefits that come with being part of our club community