Head of Performance Sport

Are you looking for an opportunity to lead an exciting organisation within a high-performance sport setting?  This is an exceptional opportunity for someone to advance their career by fulfilling a fixed term role for our industry-leading performance sport programme.

You’ll be joining an experienced team that knows how to deliver exceptional results and support athletes to perform at their best. Over the past decade the programme has consistently grown and improved and now is one of the best in the U.K.

• The Essex Rebels women’s and men’s professional-level basketball and volleyball teams have enjoyed success at the top of their sports and developed a large fanbase.
• We offer a comprehensive sports scholarship package to students from the U.K. and around the world in our focus sports of basketball, volleyball, football and tennis, and to athletes in individual sports.
• In recent seasons our basketball and volleyball teams have won British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) national titles, and teams from all four focus sports compete in the Premier Division.
• In the 2024 season we are the highest placed mid-sized University in England in the BUCS overall league table with students from an educational background representative of the broader population.
• Our first of its kind in the U.K. ‘fan engagement project’ which places student sport at the heart of student life on campus, won a national award for ‘innovation in student experience.’
• We have recently launched an innovative collaboration with Essex County Cricket to manage the science and medicine for a top tier women’s professional cricket team starting in 2025, and to take a cross-sport approach to promoting women’s professional sport.
• We are leading on developing women’s football as the F.A. Women’s High Performance Football Centre for the region.
• We are a Sport England Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) Delivery Site and dual-career accredited centre.

The successful person will have a comprehensive understanding of the high performance environment, including coaching, sports science & medicine, talent development; and high level organisational and planning skills, including the ability to produce strategies and business plans.

At Essex, we are committed to attracting and supporting student athletes who have the potential and dedication to benefit from, and contribute to, our relentless pursuit of athlete-centered sporting excellence. Our staff have the spirit to be active partners in our students’ learning and university experience; and our students are encouraged to be brave enough to have ideas and generous enough to share them.  

Our Head of Performance Sport will be play a critical role in fulfilling our objective of firmly establishing University of Essex as the leading sporting institution in the region. If you share our excitement for the growth, challenges, and opportunities that this important work will bring then please do get in touch.

For an informal discussion about this role please contact Director of Sport, Dave Parry. dapcoach@essex.ac.uk 

This post is fixed term until 31 October 2025 to cover a period of maternity leave for a permanent member of staff. 

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