Head of Women's Sport Science - Mat Cover

Full time Medical Sports Science

Job Description

Founded in 1882, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is an English Premier League Club, based in North London.

Led by the late great Bill Nicholson, the Club became the first in England to win the League and FA Cup Double in 1961, and the first in the UK to win a European Trophy two years later. Spurs has since been home to some of the game’s great entertainers, including Jimmy Greaves, Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne, David Ginola, Gareth Bale, Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane.

In April 2019, the Club opened an iconic new stadium that sits at the heart of a £1billion sport-led regeneration of North Tottenham. The stadium is the largest football club stadium in London and is a multi-use venue with the ability to host a variety of events 365 days a year, including NFL, boxing, rugby, concerts, and other major events, plus visitor attractions including Stadium Tours and the Dare Skywalk.

The stadium development scheme has to date created more than 4,000 new jobs for local people, with circa £300m pumped into the local economy each year.

Tottenham Hotspur has:

  • A clear strategy to develop talent from within its Academy, showcased by a strong track record of Academy players graduating to the first-team squad.
  • A £100m state-of-the-art Training Centre that supports the Club’s ambition to attract, develop and retain the best talent.
  • Commercial partnerships with globally recognised brands including AIA Group Limited (AIA), one of the world’s leading providers of life insurance services, and Nike, the world’s leading sports footwear and apparel company.
  • A commitment to minimizing its environmental impact across Club operations, being named as the greenest in the Premier League for the past three years. Tottenham Hotspur is a signatory of the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, committing to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and become net zero carbon by 2040.
  • An award-winning Foundation that is renowned for creating opportunities to help enhance the lives of people in its local community through education, employment, health, and social inclusion programmes.

JOB PURPOSE

  • To lead and manage the Women’s 1st Team Sport Science (SS) support delivery; inclusive of performing applied practitioner duties.
  • Design, develop and implement a world-leading female athlete health strategy which optimises the health and performance of players.
  • Align the Women’s 1st Team nutrition, physical development and sport psychology programme to the football performance strategy of the club and 1st team coach.
  • Provide line management of the Women’s 1st team physical performance, sport psychology and nutrition staff; including the maintenance of individual reviews and appraisal.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

  • To develop and maintain effective assessment and evaluation techniques to monitor the progression of the Women’s 1st Team performance objectives.
  • To ensure the practical implementation of best SS practice for Women’s 1st Team players.
  • To ensure the ongoing development of best practice within all areas of Women’s 1st Team sport science
  • To align the Academy sport science delivery, ensuring players are physically prepared to progress into the Women’s 1st
  • Oversee the development and delivery of female athlete health strategy in collaboration with the wider MDT, to educate both staff and players.
  • Maintain and continually develop academic, clinical and applied networks to enhance the departments knowledge and support of female athlete health.
  • Lead an integrated nutrition service within the Women’s team.
  • Provide leadership in the continued development of the Women’s 1st Team sport science staff.
  • Create an environment that encourages creative solutions and innovation amongst the department.
  • Encourage an interdisciplinary approach of working within the Women’s 1st team that includes close liaison with colleagues within the Academy.
  • To maintain all legal and professional qualifications in relation to own profession and the equivalent standards for all SS staff within the department.
  • To ensure close liaison and excellent lines of communication between the SS department, the coaching staff, and the wider MSS team.
  • To maintain detailed records for the department of all SS actions in accordance with relevant legislation, policies, and procedures and to aid in the creation of regular reports to key stakeholders.
  • In conjunction with the Director of Performance Services, facilitate SS research projects within the Women’s 1st Team to underpin practice.
  • Liaise with the Director of Performance services and the training ground operations staff to continually develop and manage SS facilities and equipment.
  • To review budgetary needs for the SS department in coordination with the Director of Performance Services.
  • Liaise with all relevant departments within the football club and the THFC Board of Directors
  • Direct the latest research findings into clear and practical recommendations across the club

MAIN JOB REQUIREMENTS & JOB SPECIFICATION

Specific Experience

  • A post graduate qualification within the disciplines of Sport Science (e.g. physiology, biomechanics, psychology, strength and conditioning, nutrition).
  • Discipline specific professional accreditation e.g. UKSCA accreditation as a strength and conditioning coach, BASES accredited sport scientist, Practitioner registrant on the Sport and Exercise Nutrition register (SENr), HCPC registered sport and exercise psychologist.
  • A thorough understanding of the various sports science disciplines and their impact on the training and performance of elite athletes.
  • An excellent understanding of scientific methods of trialling and validating assessment, monitoring and evaluation equipment and protocols.
  • Significant experience in the management of sport science support within high performance sport. This should include experience of working within 1st team professional football.
  • Extensive experience working as a practitioner within multi-discipline medical and sport science teams.
  • Significant experience liaising with football players and coaches to deliver successful sport science related programmes.
  • Experience in developing and implementing a continued professional development plan for sport science staff within a high-performance sport department.
  • Experience in coach and athlete education in high performance sport.
  • Significant experience in conducting scientifically underpinned assessment, monitoring, and evaluation procedures.
  • Experience of developing and sourcing world class sport science equipment.
  • Experience of using data management systems to ensure the secure and efficient storage of monitoring and evaluation data.
  • Experience of managing sport science budgets. 

Desirable

  • Experience of having worked within other professional sports.
  • Experience of working within teams qualified for the Champions League and Europa league.

Abilities/Skills/Knowledge

  • An excellent understanding of the various aspects of sport science that relate to the care and development of elite football players. 
  • A very good understanding of scientific methods of researching and developing assessment, monitoring, and evaluation protocols within an elite sport environment.
  • An understanding of the skills required across the clinical and practical aspects of sport science disciplines.
  • Ability to conduct and evaluate scientifically underpinned assessment and monitoring procedures with teams or individuals.
  • Excellent presentation and communication skills that can motivate behavioural change to have a positive impact on performance.
  • Ability to develop productive relationships with other staff members, football players and their representatives.
  • Ability to manage high personal workloads and the high workloads of colleagues.
  • Excellent problem solving and decision-making skills.

Personal Attributes

  • Highly motivated with the ability to motivate others.
  • Enthusiasm and willingness to be flexible in approach to achieve desired outcomes.
  • Pro-active and engaging style.
  • Personal commitment to continuous personal professional development.
  • Highest standards of professional and personal conduct, especially confidentiality.
  • Ability to invoke trust and respect from others.

Safeguarding is fundamental to the success in all that we do. Successful candidates are to be reminded they would be subject to various background, DBS, and reference checks for this role.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club welcomes applications from anyone regardless of age, disability, race, or ethnic and national origins, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.