Technical Lead Manager

WORK OPTION: New York, NY office preferred

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball.  Built around five professional sports leagues:  the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 214 countries and territories in 60 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents.  NBA rosters at the start of the 2023-24 season featured a record 125 international players from 40 countries and territories.  NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass.  The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with more than 2.3 billion likes and followers globally across all leagues, team and player platforms.  NBA Cares, the NBA’s global social responsibility platform, partners with renowned community-based organizations around the world to address important social issues in the areas of education, inclusion, youth and family development, and health and wellness. 
 

Group Summary:
The Basketball Strategy & Analytics department is responsible for data collection, analysis and technology pertaining to all on-court activities. The group, in partnership with Referee Operations, oversees the Game Review Program to help drive improvements in referee performance and rules clarification initiatives. Basketball Strategy & Analytics also leads pivotal initiatives focused on innovating and improving the NBA game, such as rules changes, improvements to the competition format and implementation of technologies to improve player health, game integrity and fan engagement. 

The Basketball R&D team is a new function within the Basketball Strategy & Analytics department. This team is focused on innovating the on-court product through internally developed and deployed technologies. They spearhead key officiating technology initiatives from concept to launch, leveraging their cross-discipline expertise in real-time perception and sensing, computer vision, machine learning, and data analytics. The primary near-term focus of this team is deploying a system that can automatically detect and determine objective calls (e.g., out-of-bounds) in real-time during live NBA games.

Position Summary:

The NBA is seeking a technical leader to spearhead the creation of the Basketball R&D team. The Technical Lead Manager will report to the Basketball Technology and Innovation Lead, and will be the architect of the new team, building it from the ground up to develop and deploy automated officiating capabilities to impact every game of the NBA season. This is a pioneering position in sports technology, harnessing the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance call accuracy, improve game flow, and create more transparency for officiating in the NBA.

Major Responsibilities:

• Assemble and lead a high-performing, multi-functional team of machine learning engineers, data scientists, data engineers, etc., fostering a collaborative and innovative environment designed to build and sustain automated officiating capabilities that operate during live NBA games.
• Lead the creation of a comprehensive product vision and roadmap for automated officiating, prioritizing features based on impact on officiating accuracy, technical feasibility, data availability, and ensuring scalability to support all games.
• Provide technical leadership in guiding the development and implementation of machine learning models for automated call detection (focusing on out-of-bounds calls initially), focusing on achieving low latency for real-time decision support for referees.
• Establish best practices and scalable workflows designed to handle the demanding nature of processing and analyzing complex data from a high volume of games.
• Partner with external computer vision and sensor companies to ensure the smooth integration of their data outputs into the automated officiating process.
• Oversee the design and development of an API that integrates seamlessly with existing officiating workflows (e.g., Replay Center) and operates with minimal lag during games.
• Proven ability to collaborate with other technical stakeholders at the league to achieve officiating and other organizational goals.
• Collaborate with product operations and data analysts to define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the system's effectiveness and track progress toward established goals.
• Help manage the team's budget and resources effectively, ensuring efficient project execution while adhering to strict scalability requirements.
• Be the primary point of contact for technology partners in the officiating tech stack.

Required Education/Professional Experience:

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• Minimum of 8 years of experience building and leading Perception teams that leverage computer vision and machine learning for real-time applications
• Minimum of 3 years of experience leading and managing engineering teams, ideally in a fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrated experience in large-scale multi-modal ML deployments, with a strong understanding of model development, training, and evaluation, with a focus on achieving low latency.
• Experience building and deploying machine learning systems into production at scale.

Required Skills/Knowledge Attributes:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to lead and motivate a diverse team from the ground up!
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Passion for basketball and a deep understanding of officiating (a plus)!

Salary Range: $325,000 - $375,000 

Job Posting Title: ​​​​​​​Associate Vice President 

The NBA does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms or any other third parties. Any unsolicited resume sent to the NBA will be considered NBA property, and the NBA will not pay a fee should it hire the subject of any unsolicited resume. 

The NBA considers applicants for all positions on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs, and without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, alienage or citizenship status, ancestry, marital status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, veteran status, familial status, status as a victim of domestic violence, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

About the NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball.  Built around five professional sports leagues:  the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 215 countries and territories in more than 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents.  NBA rosters at the start of the 2021-22 season featured a record 121 international players from 40 countries.  NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass.  The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 2.1 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms.  Through NBA Cares, the league addresses important social issues by working with internationally recognized youth-serving organizations that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes.