Biomechanist

Job Purpose: The Chicago White Sox are seeking an Applied Biomechanist to join our Sports Performance and Applied Sports Science team. We are looking for someone who is driven to generate actionable biomechanics insights across all Sports Performance disciplines and coaching staff. The person fulfilling this role is expected to exercise domain expertise, critical reasoning, and innovative thinking as part of an integrated team to maximize the impact of biomechanics and Applied Sport Science on performance, player development, and health and well-being. 

Location: Glendale, AZ

 

·         Deliver biomechanical assessments, including setup, breakdown, and maintenance of biomechanics technology, and comprehensive analysis for performance and injury risk assessment, athlete monitoring, technique profiling and analysis effectively and efficiently

·         Collaborate with IT/Systems and Analytics, vendors, and contractors to ensure functionality of biomechanics technology to maintain data integrity, data pipelines, and analysis 

·         Work closely with Director of Applied Sports Science, Senior Biomechanist, Analytics, ML and PD staff to identify relationships and contributions of biomechanics to baseball performance

·         Effectively generate, deliver, and communicate key findings and reports from biomechanical assessments to front office, Sports Performance, PD, and ML coaching staff

·         Effectively work with our field staff on movement mechanics as it pertains to baseball skill acquisition i.e. the correlation between assessing and teaching human body movement for hitting and pitching mechanics

·         Maintain up-to-date knowledge of relevant scientific literature, internal R&D and analytics, and athlete testing and monitoring data to inform applied sport science tactics that players, field staff, or health and performance staff to easily integrate into their daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal programs

·         Utilization, including beta testing and evaluation of the value and accuracy of the most current and reliable scientific equipment available in sport to optimize players in game performance or health outcomes. 

·         Critical decision-making ability, pay close attention to detail, have strong presentation skills, and outstanding interpersonal skills. 

·         Contribute to continued education opportunities, including presenting at, for both inter and intradepartmental summits

·         Be prepared to assist the scouting department in performance assessments and injury risk profiles of amateur players.

·         Support research projects and other Applied Sports Science initiatives as needed

·         Assist Director of Applied Sports Science to maintain budgets and contracts with external partners for Biomechanics initiatives

·         Identify and onboard solutions that enhance Applied Sports Science and Biomechanics initiatives

 

Experience, Education and Licensure: 

·         Graduate degree in biomechanics (PhD preferred); additional coursework physiology, motor control, advanced statistics a plus.

·         Demonstrated experience conducting biomechanical assessments using motion capture, force plates, and EMG; research and/or applied experience within sport preferred.

·         Proficient knowledge of baseball operations and movement skills.

·         Proficient in coding and database software (Matlab, Python, R, SQL) as well as biomechanical modeling software (Visual 3D, OpenSim).

·         Experience working as part of a High Performance team within sport to integrate biomechanical insights into all aspects of athletic development (strength and conditioning, medical, coaching, etc.) preferred. 

·         Previous experience working with large databases of optical motion capture data (MAC/Optitrak/Vicon/HawkEye/KinaTrax/Bertec/AMTI).

·         Excellent track record of visualizing biomechanics datasets in novel ways.

·         Ability to complete large scale research projects with emphasis on translation into practice.

·         Independent judgment and ability to multitask is required to plan, prioritize, and organize diversified workload.

·         Strong work ethic and willingness to work long, flexible hours including weekends and holidays.

·         High level of interpersonal skills and ability to be able to effectively communicate complex, technical information in a variety of formats with a wide range of departments, seniority levels and personalities