Assistant General Manager, R&D

Washington Nationals•Washington, DC

About The Position

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.

Requirements

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
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.

Responsibilities

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
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
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
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