Senior Statistical Analyst
Location: Can be remote - with some presence needed at Thorp Arch, LS23
Reports to: Head Of Football Analytics
Application Deadline: 6th May 2026
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.
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.
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
Requirements
* 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
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.
#J-18808-Ljbffr