Position Overview:The Assistant General Manager, Research & Development (AGM, R&D) will serve as a senior leader within Baseball Operations, responsible for the strategic direction, leadership, and integration of all research and data-driven functions within the organization. This position will structure and oversee the club's R&D departments, creating and sustaining advantages in player evaluation, decision support, and performance optimization.
Key Responsibilities Leadership:- Provide strategic and operational leadership for all R&D departments
- Build and maintain a high-performing, interdisciplinary team culture focused on innovation, rigor, and practical impact
- Maximize the leverage of existing and future research by identifying arbitrage opportunities for the club, and subsequently design and execute processes to exploit those edges
- Serve as a primary advisor to senior leadership on research and data strategy
- Set clear goals, priorities, and performance metrics for the R&D vertical, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives
- Establish a structured process for project prioritization, balancing long-term research with short-term operational needs
- Shape and reinforce a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration within R&D and across Baseball Operations
Research & Deliverables:- Oversee the design and implementation of best-in-class predictive modeling and decision-making tools to support player acquisition, strategic deployment, development, and readiness
- Identify, explore, and productionize foundational research avenues for the club using existing, new, or synthesized data sources
- Partner with other leaders and departments to ensure that research outcomes translate directly into competitive advantages on the field
Systems & Technology Integration:- Direct the creation and evolution of internal data infrastructure, applications, and workflows that enable advantage-seeking research and decision-making at scale
- Collaborate with Baseball Systems to ensure clean data pipelines, intuitive user interfaces, and seamless integration across departments
- Design and implement organizational strategies around the use of agentic tools in R&D, simultaneously maximizing system reliability, decision-making accuracy, and security
Cross-Departmental Collaboration:- Partner closely with the Acquisitions groups (Amateur, Pro, International), Player Development, and Baseball Operations to embed R&D outputs in day-to-day decision-making
- Facilitate regular communication and collaboration between R&D and on-field staff, ensuring research insights are practical, timely, and actionable
- Translate technical concepts into clear narratives and presentations for both technical and non-technical audiences
Technical Qualifications:We are seeking candidates with experience in most of the following areas:
- High-stakes decision-making under uncertainty
- Statistical modeling, forecasting, and probabilistic programming
- Machine learning methods and model evaluation
- Best practices in programming and AI agent integration
- Data engineering architecture to support research and rapid decision-making
- Application development, product design, and data storytelling
Leadership Qualifications:- Demonstrated leadership experience managing technical or interdisciplinary teams
- Deep understanding of evaluation, development, and baseball decision-making
- Excellent communication, project/product management, and interpersonal skills
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative, and highly confidential environment
- Deep alignment with and promotion of the organization's values of joy, humility, integrity and competitiveness and vision to create an organization that becomes the envy of sport.
Compensation:The annual salary range for this role is $350,000-$425,000. Actual pay is based on several factors, including but not limited to the applicant's: qualifications, skills, expertise, education/training, certifications, and other organization requirements. Starting salaries for new employees are frequently not at the top of the applicable salary range.
Benefits: The Nationals offer a competitive and comprehensive benefits package that presently includes:
- Medical, dental, vision, life and AD&D insurance
- Short- and long-term disability insurance
- Flexible spending accounts
- 401(k) and pension plan
- Access to complimentary tickets to Nationals home games
- Employee discounts
- Free onsite fitness center
