Earlier this week, the 49ers announced the promotion of three members of their staff, according to Jonthan Jones of CBS Sports. In the personnel department, Tariq Ahmad and R.J. Gillen have both been promoted in the shared role of vice president of player personnel, and in analytics, Matt Ploenzke was elevated into the position of vice president of football research and development.
Ahmad joined the team in 2014 as a scouting assistant, after a collegiate career that saw him serve as an offensive graduate assistant coach at his alma mater, Ithaca College, and as director of football recruiting operations at Rutgers, where he earned his master’s degree. A year later, he was promoted to area scout, holding the role for five seasons before earning another promotion to assistant director of college scouting in 2020. Ahmad would only spend a year in that role, as well, before being named director and serving in that role for three years.
Where Ahmad’s experience is solidly in scouting, Gillen has experience in scouting, law, and technology. Following time as a walk-on athlete at LSU, where he was a part of the 2007 BCS National Championship team, Gillen earned his law degree from Marquette; he’s still a member of the bar in Texas and Wisconsin. His uniquely diverse background helps him in regard to personnel evaluation, roster management, and contract negotiation. Gillen even interned at the Shapiro Negotiations Institute where he assisted in consulting and coaching for NBA, NFL, and MLB front offices. He followed that with a front office internship with the San Antonio Spurs before joining the 49ers in 2015.
In San Francisco, Gillen started as a scouting assistant before getting promoted to pro personnel scout. After five years in that role, he was named director of pro personnel, while Ahmad served in the equal role for college scouting. The two shared the title of director of player personnel for a year last season before earning this joint promotion.
Ploenzke holds two bachelor’s degrees in statistics and economics from the University of Minnestoa, Duluth, and a Ph.D. in biostatistics from Harvard. He logged experience working for the Office of Institutional Research at Minnesota, Duluth, and as a head research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before turning to football.
After being a part of the winning team in the NFL’s 2020 Big Data Bowl, per Michael Lopez of the NFL’s data & analytics department, Ploenzke joined the 49ers as a football data scientist. He was elevated to manager of football research and development in 2022 and director in 2023. Like Ahmad and Gillen, he, too, now sports the vice president designation for his department.