MANCHESTER UNITED are hiring a new data scientist to assist with their recruitment.
The club are seeking a senior football data scientist, a senior football data engineer and a senior software engineer.
The data scientist would be tasked with developing solutions to “solve football-related questions” across United’s men’s, women’s and academy teams”, with the data also applied to recruitment and playing performance.
United’s head of talent, Chelsea Beck-Daniel, said that they are seeking recruits “to help set a new standard in football data… we’re working on it all to drive performance on the pitch and across the whole club.”
All three roles would be based at the club’s Carrington training complex, which has become United’s main workplace since its new £50million hub opened in August.
The new starters would work with United’s director of data, Michael Sansoni, who was previously at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
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Sansoni joined United in April and is expected to have a key role in the club’s process to identify their next permanent head coach.
United are the latest club to heavily invest in data and AI as clubs whittle down or do away with their scouting departments.
The club have empowered director of recruitment, Christopher Vivell, who oversees a small network of around ten full-time scouts.
Last season, United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe complained that the club’s data was stuck in the 20th century.
Ratcliffe said: “We must have the best recruitment in the world. Data analysis comes alongside recruitment.
“It doesn’t really exist here. We’re still in the last century on data analysis here.”
Former United football director John Murtough hired Dominic Jordan as the head of data science in 2022.
Murtough built a bespoke recruitment database called TrackerMan but the duo left in 2024 after Ratcliffe became a minority investor.
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