The Director, Analytics & Business Operations will work closely with the World Surf League executive team to drive strategic initiatives, enhance organizational performance, and support data-informed decision-making across the WSL. This role will serve as a key partner to leadership, translating business priorities into actionable strategies and insights that drive growth and success across the organization.
The ideal candidate is a highly autonomous, entrepreneurial, and strategic thinker with exceptional problem- solving, communication, leadership, and organizational skills who thrives in a dynamic environment.
This role will report into the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer and will be based at the WSL Headquarters in Los Angeles, California, in a hybrid working environment with 3 days per week in office (Tuesday - Thursday).
Responsibilities include (but not limited to):
- Partner with the executive team and cross functional leaders to drive strategic priorities, develop long-term plans, and lead key initiatives that enhance organizational performance
- Develop, manage, and continuously improve the company-wide OKR process, ensuring alignment across departments, clear accountability, measurable outcomes, and consistent progress toward organizational priorities
- Lead the WSL analytics function and serve as a strategic insight partner to the organization, translating date and complex business questions into actionable insights that inform decision making across product, marketing, partnerships, social media, content, and other key areas
- Establish and evolve reporting, dashboards, KPIs, and analytical frameworks that provide leadership and cross-functional teams with clear visibility into business performance, audience behavior, operational trends, and opportunities for growth
- Oversee key third party vendors and external partners, ensuring strong relationships, effective performance management, and alignment with WSL’s business objectives and operations needs
- Lead the strategic and operational oversight of WSL’s sports betting and prediction market initiatives, working cross functionally and with external partners to support the development and execution of these programs
- Identify opportunities to improve processes, productivity, and organizational effectiveness while working across teams to connect strategy, operations, and analytics and support informed, high impact decision making
Qualifications & Experience:
- 5-10 years of relevant experience in strategy, business operations, consulting, analytics, corporate development, IB/PE, or related fields
- Expert in Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint or Google Suite
- Demonstrated experience partnering directly with executive leadership
- Experience building, leading, and developing high-performing teams
- Strong analytical capabilities with experience translating complex data into actional business insights and executive-level recommendations
- Experience designing executive dashboards or performance management frameworks
- Experience managing complex, cross-functional strategic initiatives from concept through implementation
- Experience managing external vendors, agencies, or strategic partners
- Exceptional project management and organizational skills, with the ability to prioritize multiple initiatives in a fast-paced environment
- Working knowledge of SQL and modern data ecosystems is preferred
- Bachelor’s degree in business, economics, finance, statistics, data science, or a related field
Personal Attributes:
- Above all, integrity and honesty
- Entrepreneurial; willingness to work independently with the best business practices in mind
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, including the ability to influence senior stakeholders and simplify complex topics
- Incredibly proactive and action-oriented
- Enjoys working in a fast-paced environment and willing to take on a challenge
- A high degree of self-awareness of one’s own personal style, strengths and weaknesses and motivational triggers.
- Intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for learning
- Passion for surfing is a plus
Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: equal opportunity employer M/F/D/V
Base Salary Range: $150,000.00 - $175,000.00 based on relevant experience
Skills Required
- 5-10 years relevant experience in strategy, business operations, consulting, analytics, corporate development, IB/PE, or related fields
- Expert in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Suite
- Demonstrated experience partnering directly with executive leadership
- Experience building, leading, and developing high-performing teams
- Strong analytical capabilities translating complex data into actionable business insights and executive-level recommendations
- Experience designing executive dashboards or performance management frameworks
- Experience managing complex, cross-functional strategic initiatives from concept through implementation
- Experience managing external vendors, agencies, or strategic partners
- Exceptional project management and organizational skills, ability to prioritize multiple initiatives in a fast-paced environment
- Working knowledge of SQL and modern data ecosystems
- Bachelor's degree in business, economics, finance, statistics, data science, or a related field
What We Do
The World Surf League (WSL) is a global sports media & entertainment company and the governing body of and path to professional surfing. The league partners with brands to create and deliver transformational partnerships that deliver next-generation, innovative, purpose-driven engagement platforms that have both regional and global relevance and scale. The league owns and distributes the rights to The Championship Tour, which crowns men’s and women’s elite world champions each year. As a top-tier Olympic qualifier, WSL will send 18 top-ranking men and women to France in 2024, located in Teahupo’o, Tahiti. A division of The WSL, WSL Studios is a full-service original entertainment production engine, committed to delivering a broad range of high-quality lifestyle storylines to the world. Our content is transformative and celebrates surfing, the ocean, and human potential. Our studio is producing documentaries and series for major media companies like HBO, The Walt Disney Company, and Apple TV. Our latest launch is Make or Break season 2, which is a worldwide hit. The WSL is distributed on television in 525M+ homes worldwide. The league has been a leader in live streaming in the sports industry on platforms like Facebook, Youtube, and WSL.com/APP. The league and its athletes have a collective social following of over 100M+ and are reaching new audiences via connected devices and are one of the fastest growing sports on Tik-Tok. Join us! For all inquiries/ opportunities please reach out to [email protected]







