Data Developer Job at Sports Reference

Posted: October 5, 2020

LOCATION: Philadelphia/Interwebz

REPORTS TO: Sean Forman, SR President

JOB SUMMARY

Sports Reference LLC is searching for a data developer to join our current group of eleven employees for work on our group of sites: Baseball-Reference.com, Basketball-Reference.com, Pro-Football-Reference.com, Hockey-Reference.com, and Sports-Reference College Football, College Basketball, and FBref.com.

This is a position designed to support the five full-time software developers currently on staff. PLEASE NOTE: this is not a data science position. This position will not include the creation of visualizations and is not expected to include analysis of data or creation of new metrics.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS (In rough order of importance)

• Maintain, update, and correct datasets for Sports Reference's existing websites. This might include.
• Entry of league transactions, player contract details.
• Writing tests that confirm the integrity of our data.
• Researching original sources to verify data is correct.
• Mainintaing datasets ranging from player name pronunciations and nicknames to 1959 college basketball stats.
• Develop new datasets as needed for the sports we cover. (Much of this work will be in European Football.)
• Maintain relevant content and data as season calendar progresses, from preparing for the upcoming season to wrapping up postseason awards.
• Normalize and verify data for entry into databases.
• Contribute to company discussions relating to new ideas, features or problems to be solved.
• Complete special projects related to company objectives as time and skills allow.

QUALIFICATIONS and SKILLS

A qualified candidate will satisfy the following:

• have a tremendous attention to detail and desire to find correct answers even when difficult to do so,
• experience with data entry and data munging,
• have a history of getting things done (and done well), and
• love sports.
• No degree is required, though we would likely view a Bachelor’s degree as some evidence of the ability to get things done.

A highly qualified candidate will be able to contribute with one or more of the following:

• knowledge of a scripting language such as perl or python,
• fluency in a foreign language,
• knowledge of sql,
• knowledge of sabermetrics, apbrmetrics, puckmetrics, soccermetrics or pframetrics.

OTHER INFORMATION

• Sports Reference is located in Philadelphia and non-Philadelphia candidates will be considered on an equal footing to those who are local. Presently, all SR employees are working remotely, and we have no current plans to re-open our offices.
• This is a full-time position.
• Applicant is preferred to have a legal right to work in the United States. Please let us know in your application if you do not have the right to work in the United States. We'd have to look carefully at those cases as we have never had the opportunity to hire a non US-based employee.

Sports Reference is a growing company with 11 (soon 12) employees (you would be #13), so your work will be highly visible and have a definite and immediate impact (Read about us in the New York Times and The Athletic ($)). We reach over fifteen million users each month and served over 1.2 billion pages in 2019.

Benefits

Even though we are a small company, Sports Reference has a generous benefits package.

• We cover full health and dental insurance costs for full-time employees and their dependent children. Spouses may enroll at employee expense.
• We have a Simple IRA retirement plan with Edward Jones and match up to 3% of your annual salary.
• We pay all premiums for life and long-term disability insurance for all employees.
• We provide up to $7,000/year in continuing education benefits.
• In normal times, even if you live in or near Philly, you have the option to work remotely multiple days a week, and your work hours are generally yours to determine. For now, all work is remote.
• Any parent welcoming a new child to their family is entitled to 13 weeks of fully paid leave, and up to an additional 26 weeks at half-time.
• Employees begin with 18 days vacation per year (and earn up to 30) and an additional 7 paid company holidays.
• Annual bonuses tied to a percentage of the company's end of year profits.
• Salaries commensurate with your ability level and experience.
• We will generally buy you whatever equipment will make you the most productive.
• We typically pay for moving-related expenses.

Sports Reference LLC does not discriminate in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, military service eligibility, veteran status, marital status, disability, membership in any other protected classes, or on the basis of sports franchise preferences.