Director, Strategy and Innovation, Player Health & Safety

Job Description

The National Football League (NFL) is seeking a strategic, analytically driven leader to help shape the future of athlete health, safety, and performance. This is a unique opportunity to apply strategy, technology, data science, and innovation to one of the most complex and visible challenges in sports: reducing injuries and improving player health. The Director will be responsible for driving strategies to decrease player injuries and enhance the safety of the game, closely collaborating with the NFL Data & Analytics team on technology initiatives. This role will operate at the intersection of data analytics, artificial intelligence, healthcare research, technology product development, and executive decision-making.

At the center of this work is the NFL's groundbreaking Digital Athlete initiative, a first-of-its-kind AI-driven platform developed in partnership with AWS that integrates biomechanical, performance, epidemiological, and injury data to create a comprehensive digital representation of the athlete experience. Additionally, the Director will play a key role in defining future strategic roadmaps for leveraging the wealth of information about sports injuries that is uniquely available in the NFL setting to improve health within and beyond the NFL.

The ideal candidate will be a strategic thinker and transformation leader, able to both oversee day-to-day execution of scientific research and product innovations, as well as synthesize progress and results to make actionable recommendations for senior leadership. This role is ideal for a leader who thrives in highly cross-functional environments, enjoys solving complex problems through data and innovation, and is energized by the opportunity to influence strategy at the highest levels of one of the world's most recognized sports organizations.

The Player Health & Safety team collaborates closely with other departments across the League to implement research and innovation strategies to reduce injuries and keep players healthy. The Director is joining the NFL at a critically important time when the organization has made unprecedented investments into medical research, biomechanical engineering, epidemiology, and data analytics, all designed to accelerate science and identify new technologies and means of preventing and treating injuries.

Responsibilities:

• Drive Enterprise Strategy

• Lead the strategic vision, roadmap, and execution of the NFL's Digital Athlete initiative and related innovation programs.
• Identify emerging opportunities where technology, analytics, and scientific research can meaningfully improve player health outcomes.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, vendors, research partnerships, and other opportunities across sports health, AI, healthcare, and performance science.
• Help shape the League's multi-year Player Health & Safety innovation agenda.
• Maintain awareness of global advancements in sports science, healthcare analytics, injury prevention, and applied AI.

• Lead Cross-Functional Transformation

• Serve as a central integrator across NFL departments (particularly Data & Analytics), engineering and epidemiology consulting teams, and AWS team leads to ensure alignment on strategy, integration, and delivery of tasks and milestones.
• Align diverse stakeholder groups around strategic priorities, execution plans, and measurable outcomes.
• Collaborate with vendors and external sources for software, equipment, and analytics research that are involved in injury reduction.
• Oversee budget and resource allocation.

• Executive Communication & Influence

• Translate complex analytics findings, research outcomes, and emerging technologies into practical recommendations and implementation plans.
• Prepare and deliver strategic updates, recommendations, and executive-level presentations to senior NFL leadership.
• Distill highly technical concepts into clear and compelling narratives for diverse stakeholder groups.
• Liaise between the NFL League Office and NFL Clubs' medical, training, and sports science personnel.
• Triage feedback from Clubs and vendors; provide vendor and internal support to ensure timely response to critical issues.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree strongly preferred
• Minimum 10 years industry relevant experience
• Strong experience leading projects in matrixed organizations, including managing timelines, budgets, and stakeholder alignment
• Advanced analytical and technological acumen with an ability to analyze complex, interconnected problems, map feedback loops and interdependencies, and communicate solutions to cross-functional teams
• Demonstrated excellence in collaborating with others to achieve desired outcomes
• Communication skills (written and verbal) which are equally effective with large and small audiences and on a one-to-one level, including executive-level storytelling and strategic briefings
• A style that is open to change and innovation, with an ability to delegate yet control, set high standards and work collaboratively to implement change

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience leading technology, innovation, and analytics-based projects in professional or collegiate sports, or sports injury-related fields
• Experience with AWS cloud computing software
• We are particularly interested in candidates who bring experience from strategy consulting, technology, healthcare, analytics, product innovation, or other highly analytical environments. Candidates may come from leading management consulting firms, major technology organizations, healthcare innovation companies, data-driven businesses, sports organizations, or a combination of these environments.

Other Key Attributes / Characteristics:

• Lives the mission, vision, culture and values of the NFL
• Unquestionable integrity, with an ability to command respect both within and outside of the organization
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to persuade and negotiate effectively and be politically savvy. Recognized as a great listener, learner and strategic contributor.
• Ability to identify innovation opportunities and incorporate them in ongoing work
• Leadership style that builds and maintains a climate of caring, respect and trust and inspires commitment from others to achieve organizational goals
• A strong sense of urgency and a bias for action in making sound decisions based on a combination of analysis, experience, judgment and personal/business maturity

Physical Demands:

• None

Travel:

• 20%

Salary / Pay Range

• This job posting contains a pay range, which represents the range of salaries or hourly rates that the NFL believes, in good faith, at the time of this posting that it might be willing to pay for the posted job in the location(s) specified. The NFL expects to hire for this position near the middle of the range. Only in truly rare and exceptional circumstances, where an external candidate has experience, credentials or expertise that far exceed those required or expected for the position, would the NFL consider paying a salary or rate near the higher end of the range.

Salary

$135,000 - $170,000 USD

Benefits Information
To learn more about our comprehensive benefits offerings, please visit: NFL BENEFITS

At the NFL, in-person work at our offices is a top priority because it allows us to collaborate more effectively, build stronger connections, and maintain the culture that drives our success. This role requires onsite presence at an NFL office or stadium location, and remote and/or hybrid working options are not offered.

NO RELOCATION ASSISTANCE WILL BE PROVIDED.

The NFL is committed to building an inclusive work environment that reflects our incredible fan base. We provide an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all employees and applicants without regard to status as protected by applicable federal, state, and local laws.

WHO WE ARE:

NFL Core Values:

• Respect: Everyone matters. We celebrate diverse opinions, honor hard work, and value every contribution.
• Integrity: We do what's right, even when it's tough. We hold ourselves accountable and always follow through.
• Team Responsibility: We support each other and our communities. No one is bigger than the game, and every action impacts others.
• Resiliency: We set high standards, overcome adversity, and adapt to challenges, always striving for excellence.

NFL Leadership Attributes:

• Build Talent: We develop and nurture potential, empowering individuals to grow and succeed.
• Execute: We take action with precision, delivering results that drive our goals forward.
• Inspire: We motivate others through vision, energy, and a commitment to excellence.
• Live Our Values: We embody our core principles in every decision and action.
• Know the Business: We stay informed, understand our industry, and make decisions that strengthen our position.
• Think Big: We challenge the status quo, envision bold possibilities, and strive for transformative impact

WHO YOU ARE:

Talent Attributes: What we expect for our employees:

• Embody an enthusiastic, proactive can-do attitude
• Embrace grit, free from ego or entitlement
• Excel as a relationship builder, with the ability to influence
• Eager learner, driven by passion rather than just ambition
• Encompasses an incredible work ethic with an agile mindset

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-36xx99-216-73-216-64-42 in your application.