Become a Junior Sports Data Scientist · AthlyticZ

Career Programs

Become a Junior Sports Data Scientist

People starting out, or coming from another field, who want the foundations in both working languages before choosing a specialism.

Opens later12 weeks · Python foundations to R foundations to First build and Film Room
The game plan

12 weeks, week by week.

Not a reading list. Each phase carries the skills you work on, what exists at the end of it, and what you can do by then.

Languages and tools across the program
PythonR
Weeks 1 to 4

Python foundations

Start where most job postings start, on data you actually care about.

In these weeks
  • Python and pandas from the beginning
  • Reading, cleaning, and joining real sports data
  • Charts that answer a question rather than decorate one
  • End-to-end git workflow: branches, review, and QA gates before anything lands
  • Mentor one-to-one every second week, on your own work
What exists at the end
A first notebookA cleaned dataset
By now you can

Load a season of data, clean it, and answer a question about it that nobody handed you the answer to.

Weeks 5 to 8

R foundations

The second language, because sports analytics runs on both and picking a side this early is a mistake.

In these weeks
  • R and the tidyverse alongside what you already know
  • Publication-quality charts
  • Reproducible reports someone else can rerun
  • Your first end-to-end small project
  • Mentor one-to-one every second week, on your own work
What exists at the end
A reproducible reportA finished small project
By now you can

Work in whichever of the two languages the task actually suits, and say why you chose it.

Weeks 9 to 12

First build and Film Room

Turning coursework into the one thing a reader will actually open.

In these weeks
  • A portfolio project carried end to end
  • A writeup someone outside the work can follow
  • A first Film Room portfolio teardown
  • Simulated technical interviews, recorded and reviewed
  • Mentor one-to-one every week through the capstone
What exists at the end
A shareable portfolio pageA defended project
By now you can

Show someone your work and explain what you would do differently if you started it again.

The Coaching Room

Practice with somebody on the other side of the table.

AI coaching is built into the practice sessions. The coach takes the stakeholder's part, and you work the problem in whatever medium the question actually calls for.

What that means literally: AI coaching built into practice sessions, stakeholder simulation where you present to a general manager and defend a decision to a director, and no-code visual builds alongside code builds, because plenty of the work is a sketch or a plan rather than a script.

AI as copilot, not autopilot. We teach you to direct the machine and defend the output. The part that is scarce is not producing an answer; it is knowing whether the answer is right and being able to say why in a room that will push back.

Where it points

The roles this work is hired for.

Named because they are the roles the skills above are used in, not because we are promising you one of them.

Roles this stack is hired for
Junior Data AnalystAnalytics AssociateData Science InternReporting Analyst

These are the roles the work in this program is used in. We describe what you build and what you can do with it, and we do not promise a job, a placement, or an interview.

Simulated practice

A clock, a real task, and a room that pushes back.

The part most programs describe and never show. Here is how it actually runs, and the kind of question it runs on.

Practice runs in a timed provisioned environment, the same one the sessions run in. You get a real task and a clock, not a quiz. The session is recorded, and the review afterwards is about the reasoning you showed rather than whether you reached the expected answer.

Scenarios are written the way the question actually arrives
  • Someone hands you a spreadsheet and asks whether the team is actually getting better. What do you check first?
  • Explain your chart to someone who has never seen this data before, in under a minute.
  • You found something surprising. How do you check it is real before you tell anyone?
Not into sports?

Then take the method and leave the sport.

Sports is the hook, and the on-ramp to all of it. Cleaning real data, answering a question honestly, and explaining it to someone who does not code is the foundation every one of the paths below is built on.

  • Every sector The first data job in any industry starts with these habits
  • Public sector Reporting and analysis on data nobody prepared for you
  • Non-profit Small teams where one person is the whole analytics function
  • Any specialism The route into modeling, engineering, LLM, or production work
Running alongside

The spine that does not change by phase.

One-to-one mentor sessions on your own work, fortnightly through the taught weeks and weekly through the capstone. Simulated technical interviews, recorded and reviewed. Front-office presentation practice, where a recommendation meets a room that pushes back. The Film Room once a month, alternating portfolio teardowns and interview preparation from the hiring side. See The Film Room

Modeling and App Development is the live track running alongside the program, so the weekly sessions and the game plan are pulling in the same direction rather than competing for your evenings.

This program is a defined credential pathway culminating in a verifiable digital badge issued through Credly, a Pearson company. We provide completion records. We are not a degree-granting or accrediting institution. If a formal credential is a requirement for you, this complements an accredited pathway rather than replacing it.

Next step

Join the waitlist.

This program is not open yet. The waitlist is the only place we announce dates, and it is one message when they land.

Join the waitlist

We will write once, when this program opens, with the dates and the application. No other list, no other mail.

Form not loading? Email [email protected] with the program name in the subject and we will add you by hand.

Every live room, the recordings, the code, and the environment, behind one door.

Join the Masterclass

See how it is taught first.

Sit in on a live session. It is the fastest way to judge any of this.