Manager, Data Analytics

Fanatics Betting & Gaming•Denver, CO

About The Position

Fanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform. We ignite the passions of global sports fans and maximize the presence and reach for our hundreds of sports partners globally by offering products and services across Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, and Fanatics Betting & Gaming, allowing sports fans to Buy, Collect, and Bet. Through the Fanatics platform, sports fans can buy licensed fan gear, jerseys, lifestyle and streetwear products, headwear, and hardgoods; collect physical and digital trading cards, sports memorabilia, and other digital assets; and bet as the company builds its Sportsbook and iGaming platform. Fanatics has an established database of over 100 million global sports fans; a global partner network with approximately 900 sports properties, including major national and international professional sports leagues, players associations, teams, colleges, college conferences and retail partners, 2,500 athletes and celebrities, and 200 exclusive athletes; and over 2,000 retail locations, including its Lids retail stores. Our more than 22,000 employees are committed to relentlessly enhancing the fan experience and delighting sports fans globally. Overview You lead the team that owns the analytical backbone of how the Operations Department understands its own performance. Sitting within the Strategic Operations & Analytics team, you manage a small team of analysts whose work is used every day by leaders across CX, Fraud, Payments, WFM, and VIP. You also remain directly involved in the work. This is a hands-on manager role, roughly an even split between leading the team and doing the work. You will write and optimize SQL, review your team's models and analyses, and own complex cross-functional initiatives end-to-end. You will set the bar for that work, develop the people doing it, and be accountable for what the team ships. You’ll work closely with the Sr. Manager of Strategic Operations, who provides strategic direction, executive alignment, and support navigating priorities and cross-functional dependencies. We are actively building toward an AI-first way of operating, and this team is central to it. The right person is technically sharp, relentlessly detail-oriented, and genuinely curious about both what the data is saying and how AI changes the way we find and act on answers. You move fast, own ambiguous problems, and hold yourself and your team to a high bar.

Requirements

6+ years in analytics, business intelligence, data analytics, or strategic operations.
2+ years directly managing analysts as direct reports , including performance management, hiring, and career development. This is not a first-time manager role.
Advanced, hands-on SQL. You write, QA, and optimize complex queries yourself today, and you review others' work at that level. This role includes a live, on-screen technical exercise.
Working fluency in dbt: You can build and review models, make sound design decisions, and identify issues in your team’s work.
Demonstrated experience owning complex, cross-functional projects end-to-end, from ambiguous ask to stakeholder-ready recommendation.
Experience building and maintaining dashboards in Sigma, Tableau, or a comparable tool.
Strong stakeholder management: you communicate complex problems clearly to senior leaders and propose alternative approaches when the data warrants it.
High attention to detail - you and your team catch data quality issues before they surface in leadership reporting.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting AI/ML workflows, agent builds, or automation initiatives.
Python or a similar scripting language for data manipulation and automation.
Familiarity with operational KPIs across customer support, fraud, payments, or workforce management.
Experience in gaming, fintech, or sports.
Bachelor's degree in Analytics, Computer Science, Statistics, Economics, or a related field.

Responsibilities

Manage, coach, and develop a team of 2–3 analysts, including goal setting, regular feedback, performance management, and career development.
Set and hold the technical and analytical bar for the team's output, through direct review of SQL, dbt models, dashboards, and analyses.
Manage day-to-day prioritization across the team’s queue of Ops stakeholder requests, escalating broader tradeoffs and resourcing decisions to the Sr. Manager when needed.
Personally lead complex, cross-functional analytical initiatives end-to-end from an ambiguous business problem through scoping, analysis, and a decision-ready recommendation.
Diagnose root causes in the data rather than symptoms, and translate the diagnosis into a concrete recommendation.
Lead scenario analysis and impact sizing for product initiatives, operational changes, and staffing decisions - shaping how the question itself gets framed.
Set standards and guide the team’s approach to Ops dashboards and reporting, ensuring leaders have clear visibility into performance through well-defined KPIs and documented assumptions.
Present findings to operational stakeholders and senior leadership, and defend your methodology under scrutiny.
Own the quality and reliability of the dbt models and analytical datasets maintained by the Ops Analytics team.
Partner with central data teams as needed on upstream pipelines, data-platform needs, etc., representing Ops requirements and escalating reliability issues when needed.
Help the team replace recurring manual data pulls with maintainable reporting, automation, and alerting.
Partner with the Sr. Manager and Strategic Operations leaders on the Ops analytics AI roadmap, bringing an analytics perspective to use-case prioritization, data readiness, and validation.
Ensure the team provides the trusted data, metrics, and evaluation frameworks needed to support agent development.
Track and report on the performance of deployed agents against agreed-upon Ops goals.
Help establish where AI can be trusted in analytical workflows and where human review and judgment should remain in the loop.