Physics Expert

About Hoop Dreams Basketball Hoop Dreams Basketball is a skill development training business founded in 2002, helping boys and girls from elementary school through professional levels improve their game. We run training sessions every day except Friday, all based out of the Portland Athletic Club (5803 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy., Portland, OR 97221). We also support athletes through evaluation, consulting, scouting, and college placement. Learn more at Role Overview Basketball improvement is not only about reps—it is also about understanding how movement and the ball behave under real constraints. Small differences in release timing, joint sequencing, force application, launch angles, spin, and contact quality show up as motion: trajectories, speeds, ranges of motion, and how energy is transferred from the floor through the body to the ball. When those ideas are framed clearly and tied to observable cues, coaches and athletes can prioritize the right mechanical work, reduce injury risk from inefficient loading, and avoid “copying shapes” without understanding what actually drives outcomes. When physics is vague, oversimplified, or used as buzzwords—people train hard without a coherent model of what they are changing. We are hiring a Physics Expert to help Hoop Dreams use rigorous mechanics and physical reasoning as a support system for athlete development. In practice, that means helping us translate training and evaluation into explanations and frameworks that map to the game, audit whether our movement language and drill logic align with how forces and motion actually work, and communicate concepts so players and families can build intuition without drowning in jargon. Examples of the kind of thinking we want include: how to describe shooting and passing mechanics in terms of stable launch conditions and repeatable energy transfer; how to interpret jump height, deceleration, and landing loads in context; how to relate dribble rhythm and change‑of‑direction to momentum and friction in plain terms; and how to design simple sanity checks so coaching cues do not quietly drift into misleading mechanical stories. You will work closely with our CEO and collaborate with whoever owns our video, measurement, and reporting workflows (internal technical staff or tools). The goal is not “physics for physics’ sake,” but clearer feedback loops so basketball players—from youth through advanced levels—can improve faster because the organization explains movement and ball behavior the way a serious program should: transparently, consistently, and grounded in sound reasoning. Location Hybrid / On‑site (Portland, OR) — Portland Athletic Club, 5803 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy., Portland, OR 97221. Remote‑friendly for the right candidate if overlap with Pacific Time meetings is workable. Start Date Target: on or before July12026 (earlier if available). Compensation $70,000 to $90,000 per year for full‑time — based on experience, scope, and fit. Responsibilities (What You’ll Do) Design and document physics‑informed frameworks for skill development and evaluation (e.g. what variables matter for a given action, what is a coaching cue vs. a measurable construct, and where analogies should not be stretched). Review and improve mechanical reasoning used in coaching materials and evaluations: forces, torques, impulse, projectile motion, energy transfer, friction/bounce basics, and simple biomechanical constraints applied pragmatically (not textbook‑only). Partner on video, measurement, and reporting artifacts: define what should be shown, how to read it, and how to avoid misleading claims from partial views, camera angles, or “eyeball” estimates presented as precision. Audit quality issues that affect physical interpretation (inconsistent camera views, ambiguous landmarks, mixed definitions of “release,” timing labels that do not match events) and recommend single sources of truth for terms. Translate analysis into plain‑language summaries for coaches and leadership; optional short training on how to interpret key movement and ball‑flight ideas responsibly. Support STEM readiness relevant to placement and academics for athletes we serve (e.g. physics foundations tied to coursework or placement pathways)—if that is part of your agreed scope. Stay aligned with privacy and ethics around youth data; elevate concerns when analyses could be sensitive, stigmatizing, or misinterpreted. Must‑Have Qualifications Strong background in physics and/or applied mechanics (e.g. M.S. or Ph.D. preferred, or B.S. plus clear applied experience in coaching‑adjacent, engineering, biomechanics, or similar). Demonstrated ability to work with real‑world movement and messy observational data and still produce defensible, coachable conclusions. Solid toolkit: kinematics, dynamics, energy/momentum reasoning, basic torques/levers—applied pragmatically, not theory for theory’s sake. Excellent communication: you can explain what the model implies, what it does not imply, and what decision it supports. High integrity with claims—comfortable saying “we can’t conclude that from this footage/measurement.” Ability to work independently with clear deadlines and async updates. Nice‑to‑Have Qualifications Experience in sports, youth athletics, or education. Familiarity with basketball concepts (even as a learner)—so explanations map to how we actually train. Familiarity with video workflows, spreadsheets, or lightweight quantitative tools (you do not need to be a software engineer, but you should partner well with one). Teaching or tutoring experience (physics/STEM), especially for high school or early college levels. Exposure to experiment design or structured evaluation of training interventions (what changed, what is confounded, what is placebo/consistency). Comfort with basic statistics collaboration (you are not replacing our mathematics work, but you should play well with measurement‑heavy reporting). Tools & Environment (Examples) Exact tools depend on hire and stack, but you should be comfortable with: written documentation (framework notes, glossary of terms), spreadsheets as needed, and video review workflows as we use them. Reporting & Team Reports to: VP of Engineering and CEO. Team: Small organization; you may work alongside operations and technical/data roles as we grow. Work Authorization Must be eligible to work in the United States. #J-18808-Ljbffr