Product Manager - Research and Development

Pirates Careers • Pittsburgh, PA

5d

About The Position

The Pittsburgh Pirates are seeking a Product Manager to join Baseball Research and Development (R&D) and help teams identify and solve important problems for baseball decision-makers. The role works cross-functionally with engineers, data scientists, analysts, biomechanists, baseball experts, and users. Products may combine statistical or machine-learning models, software, and workflows to improve decisions in areas such as player development, coaching, and Major League strategy. The Product Manager has broad ownership and autonomy to understand users, shape priorities, challenge assumptions, and help the team discover effective solutions.

The role creates clarity on desired outcomes and priorities, develops a deep understanding of users and their workflows, and partners with the team to explore ideas, test assumptions, and reduce uncertainty. Solutions may involve software, analytical models, new data, workflow changes, or a combination. The Product Manager helps maintain focus on high-leverage problems, works with Domain Leads to make tradeoffs and sequence work, measures product impact, and uses evidence to guide future priorities. They also collaborate with other R&D product managers to align on product-management processes and practices.

Requirements

• Authorized to work lawfully in the United States.
• Experience owning meaningful product problems end to end, from understanding user needs through discovery, prioritization, launch, and iteration.
• Experience making difficult prioritization decisions when valuable opportunities compete for limited time or resources.
• Experience using discovery and evidence—such as user research, experiments, or usage data—to change direction rather than simply executing an initial plan.
• Experience working closely with engineers, data scientists, or other technical experts on products where data, analytics, or models are meaningful parts of the solution.
• Comfort understanding the capabilities and limitations of models and helping turn them into useful products; building models is not required.
• High agency and a hands-on approach to identifying important problems, reducing uncertainty, and moving work forward.
• Genuine interest in baseball and ability to learn complex domains deeply; previous professional baseball experience is not required.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building data, analytics, AI/ML, or decision-support products.
• Experience working with expert users or in technically complex domains.
• Experience working on a startup or small product team with broad ownership.
• Demonstrated passion for sports technology and/or sports analytics.
• Experience with rapid prototyping, software development, SQL, and/or cloud technologies.
• Experience working in agile development environments.

Responsibilities

• Work with R&D leadership and the team to define meaningful outcomes, set priorities, and clarify what the team should focus on and why.
• Develop a deep understanding of users, baseball decision-making, relevant workflows, and constraints; work with stakeholders to identify root problems.
• Partner with engineers, data scientists, analysts, baseball experts, and users to explore potential solutions, test assumptions, reduce uncertainty, and adapt based on learning.
• Protect the team’s focus on high-leverage problems and work with Domain Leads to make tradeoffs explicit, sequence work realistically, and address stalled work or unclear ownership.
• Use qualitative and quantitative evidence to assess whether products improve decisions and workflows, and apply findings to future priorities and direction.
• Collaborate with other R&D product managers to align on effective product-management processes and practices.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed