Job Description

The Pirates Why

The Pittsburgh Pirates are a storied franchise in Major League Baseball who are reinventing themselves on every level. Boldly and relentlessly pursuing excellence by:

• purposefully developing a player and people-centered culture;
• deeply connecting with our fans, partners, and colleagues;
• passionately creating lifetime memories for generations of families and friends; and
• meaningfully impacting our communities and the game of baseball.

At the Pirates, we believe in the power of a diverse workforce and strive to create an inclusive culture centered in Passion, Innovation, Respect, Accountability, Teamwork, Empathy, and Service.

We are seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented Biomechanist to join our Research and Development team. We are not looking for someone to run a lab or process kinematic data, rather someone to innovate and drive the future of biomechanics in sports. In this role, you will use motion capture data to build scalable tools and resources that the team can use to drive player performance and development. This position emphasizes transforming biomechanics research into robust, efficient software systems that operate at production scale. This role offers a unique opportunity to work with cutting edge technology and contribute to the advancement of biomechanics in baseball. The ideal candidate will possess experience working with biomechanics data, a strong foundation in engineering, physics, and/or data science, and the ability to write high-quality, maintainable code. Strong applicants will demonstrate curiosity, creativity, and a drive to learn new concepts in a fast-paced environment. While we ideally are looking for someone to be local in Pittsburgh, we are open to remote candidates for the right fit.

Responsibilities:

1. Research, build, validate, and deploy predictive and causal models using baseball biomechanics data, owning tools throughout their full lifecycle.
2. Design, build, and maintain end-to-end biomechanics data pipelines and downstream tools for analysts, coaches, and decision-makers.
3. Educate colleagues about baseball biomechanics concepts, modelling approaches, and data processing techniques.
4. Collaborate with experts in data science, platform engineering, and player analysis to iteratively improve biomechanics tools.

Qualifications:

Required:

1. Authorized to work lawfully in the United States.
2. A PhD or equivalent experience in a field such as biomedical/biomechanical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, robotics, mathematics, statistics, computer science, or data science.
3. Demonstrated experience working with biomechanics data in baseball, sports, or another applied domain.
4. Proficiency in at least one programming language (e.g. R, Python).
5. Proficiency in biomechanics data processing software such as Visual3D, Qualisys, OpenSim, MuJoCo.
6. Demonstrated experience with statistical analysis and data visualization for sports science applications.
7. Ability to write well-structured, documented, and testable code for data analysis and modeling.
8. Strong communication and collaboration skills to work effectively with a multidisciplinary team.
9. A passion for learning and growing within the field of baseball.

Desired:

1. Experience developing production-ready, scalable biomechanics software with an emphasis on code quality, efficiency, and maintainability.
2. Experience building or working with computer vision models
3. Experience working with database languages (e.g. SQL) and tools for large-scale data processing (e.g. Spark)

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Pittsburgh Pirates are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.