Cricket Data Product Owner

At Mustard Systems, we leverage statistical modeling to dive into sports events and help us make informed predictions about future outcomes. By utilising our unique datasets, advanced statistical models, and custom-built software, we strive to accurately forecast sports results.

We are seeking a Cricket Data Product Owner to take end-to-end ownership of how structured ball-by-ball cricket data is defined, captured, and validated across our systems. You will own and evolve the tools, workflows, and standards that convert cricket match events into high-quality structured data.

Your responsibilities will include:

Product Ownership

• Define and maintain a clear strategy for cricket data capture across manual and automated systems.
• Make informed trade-offs between accuracy, speed, tooling improvements, and automation.
• Prioritise features, workflow changes, and quality improvements based on impact to modelling and operational efficiency.
• Ensure development effort is focused on the highest-leverage improvements.

Workflow Design

• Design scalable workflows where analysts convert cricket video into consistent, structured event data.
• Define and document clear standards for how cricket events should be recorded.
• Build quality control mechanisms to detect errors, drift, and inconsistencies across both manual and automated data sources.
• Use feedback loops and metrics to continuously improve accuracy and throughput.

Analyst Enablement & Calibration

• Train analysts on data collection tools and standards (including in-person international training).
• Create documentation and training materials that ensure consistent decision-making.
• Provide structured quality feedback and coaching.
• Lead and support the data quality team responsible for manual collection and cleaning.

Automated Data Collection Oversight

• Establish monitoring frameworks to proactively detect data drift, coverage gaps, or integrity issues.
• Define validation rules and reconciliation processes between automated and manual data.
• Identify data gaps, inconsistencies, or schema mismatches and work with engineering teams to resolve them.
• Ensure automated feeds align with internally defined event standards.

What This Role Is Not

• This is not a data engineering or modern data stack role (e.g. Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, ETL pipeline management).
• This is not a BI or dashboard product role.
• This is not focused on downstream analytics or reporting.

Requirements

Must Have

• Strong working knowledge of cricket, with the ability to independently interpret and define how cricket events should be represented in structured data. You should enjoy engaging with cricket at a detailed, ball-by-ball level.
• Demonstrable experience designing and owning structured event data systems.
• Ability to translate ambiguous real-world events into clear, consistent definitions and rules.
• Strong written communication skills, particularly in producing documentation and requirements.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for outcomes.
• Willingness to travel internationally to deliver in-person training.

Desirable

• Experience designing or improving annotation / labelling / tagging workflows.
• Experience collaborating closely with engineering teams as a Product Owner or equivalent.
• Experience leading or coaching operational teams.
• Experience defining validation frameworks or monitoring quality in automated data feeds.

Benefits

Why join Mustard Systems?

• Hybrid working environment. We're in the office every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and work from home every Wednesday and Friday
• Work on cutting-edge systems in a competitive and innovative field.
• Collaborate with a smart, driven team, where your contributions directly impact business performance.
• Opportunity to drive the company’s technical direction and double its revenue in the next three years.

Comprehensive benefits, including:

• Competitive salary and bonus potential

• Enhanced pension match with salary sacrifice option.

• Health insurance and life assurance.

• Sabbatical leave after five years.

• 33 days of annual leave (including bank holidays).