Name: Amanda Winkelmayer
Job title:Data Engineer
Education: Bachelor's of Mechanical Engineering, University of Delaware
Years of hockey experience (Include on- and off-ice hockey-related experience):Working: 1 year; Playing/Coaching: 11 years
Describe your job in 2-3 sentences
Leveraging data to analyze teams' and players' performances to help management make decisions and provide coaches with a quantitative view of the game to aid in building game strategies. Contributing to creating and maintaining our data pipeline, creating applications, and providing analysis and visualizations.
What motivates you to keep pushing and be successful?
I've loved both the sport of hockey and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) for most of my life, so getting to combine the two and live this dream is an incredible motivator. I began playing hockey at 13 and have played boys' and girls' high school hockey, women's hockey, and college hockey. Throughout my journey I have found that both hockey and STEM aren't always places that are accepting of women, so I keep pushing to be successful for the girls behind me in the hopes that their path into hockey or STEM is even a fraction easier. This is a dream that I would have never even imagined as a kid, so I hope that my representation allows girls to dream and work to be in a position like mine or beyond some day.
Describe a moment where you proudly thought to yourself, "I can't believe this is my job!"
I'm grateful that my job on the data/analytics team is part of hockey operations in the Panther's organization and I am still in awe that this is my job every day. But we all know that playoff hockey is just different. Getting to be in the stadium and to watch our team vie for the Stanley Cup was incredible. I enjoyed preparing for playoffs by scouting our opponents for each series and arming the coaches with as much information as possible that could aid our run. Though I was nervous during most of the games, and the way that we like to comeback from behind didn't help, walking into the stadium for every playoff game and hearing the crowd's excitement will be memories that I will never forget.
Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert, and how does it impact your work?
I'm an introvert. At times, I can be the typical computer nerd, but especially in a job like hockey operations, it's important to have different personalities, life experiences, and perspectives. There is value to be added from spending time looking at the data and there is value to be added from talking to the coaches or management who have great ideas about information that we can provide them. It's always good to push beyond your comfort zone because that's usually where growth happens.
Are you a morning person or night owl?
Morning
What's your favorite book?
"Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration" by Amy Wallace and Edwin Catmull
What's your favorite movie or TV show?
"Numb3rs"
What is your most-used emoji?
"thumb's up"
