Animo Group

Roles we hire

Head of Data & Analytics Recruitment for Sport.

Specialist executive hiring for the people who own the data and analytics function - strategy, capability, delivery and the relationships that make all three work.

The role

The Seat That Decides Whether Data Wins or Sits on a Shelf.

Head of Data & Analytics is the senior leader who owns the function: data engineering, analytics, performance science integration, and increasingly machine learning and AI. The remit ranges from football operations data, to commercial and fan data, to enterprise data infrastructure.

The hardest part of the job is rarely technical. It's stakeholder leadership: getting performance, recruitment, commercial and exec teams aligned on what to measure, what to invest in, and what to ignore.

Strong candidates have hired and led teams of 8-30 people, owned multi-million budgets and shipped production work - not just authored strategy decks.

What we look for

Strategist, Team-Builder, Deliverer.

Three pillars we assess for at this level.

Strategic & technical breadth
  • Owned a data + analytics function end-to-end before
  • Strong opinions on stack, vendor relationships, build-vs-buy
  • Genuine technical credibility with the engineers reporting in
Team build & leadership
  • Hired a team of senior data, analytics and engineering specialists
  • Performance culture: feedback, retention, capability development
  • Operating-rhythm discipline - quarterly planning, prioritisation, delivery
Sport organisation context
  • Comfort navigating the political reality of clubs / governing bodies / SportsTech vendors
  • Cross-functional credibility with performance, recruitment, commercial and exec
The market

Senior Seats Are Tight. And Quiet.

At this level, very few people are on an active job market - the strongest are in seat and being courted by competitors who already know them.

We've spent years building those relationships. That's the only way these searches close cleanly.

Next step

Hiring a Head of Data & Analytics?

For hiring teams

You're building the function.

Tell us about the seat, the scope, the strategic context. We'll come back with a discreet read on the candidate market.

For candidates

You lead a data & analytics function.

If you currently lead - or are ready to lead - a data and analytics function in sport, get in touch. Conversations are confidential.

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