AWFC Academy Performance Lead in London

We're looking for an experienced Academy Performance Lead to guide and coordinate all aspects of the Medical and Sports Science provision across our Women's Academy. Reporting to the Women's Academy Manager, you'll play a vital role in creating an environment that offers guidance, support and inspiration for our young players.

You'll lead a multidisciplinary team across Medical, Physiotherapy, Sports Science, Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition and Education, with the ultimate aim of maximising sporting performance and mitigating injury risk. Working closely with colleagues across our Academy and Women's First Team, you'll help shape the development of future first team players and ensure our performance provision remains at the highest standard.

Your day-to-day:

• Lead our Academy performance services - you will oversee all aspects of medical and sports science needs across the Academy, supporting player welfare, health and performance.
• Manage a multidisciplinary team - you'll lead, support and develop colleagues across Physiotherapy, Medical, Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition and Education to deliver outstanding services.
• Champion injury prevention and player availability - you will drive best practice across screening, rehabilitation, recovery and performance monitoring to help maximise player availability.
• Maintain exceptional standards - you'll monitor the quality of all medical and performance-related provisions, ensuring the highest professional and ethical standards are upheld.
• Develop performance frameworks - you will create and implement systems, methodologies and physical development models that support the Academy vision and long-term player development.
• Create individual player plans - you'll develop bespoke physical development programmes for high-potential players to support their progression through the pathway.
• Drive continuous improvement - you will build a culture of high performance across the department and oversee learning and development opportunities for staff.
• Collaborate across our club - you'll work closely with Women's First Team and research and development focused colleagues to ensure continuity and innovation across performance services.

What we are looking for:

• Transferable experience within elite sport - you hold a proven track record of delivering physiotherapy, sports science or strength and conditioning services in high-performance environments.
• Exemplary leadership experience - you're confident leading multidisciplinary teams and creating a culture of accountability, collaboration and elite performance.
• Credible expertise - you hold a BSc in Sports Science and you are a registered Physiotherapist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), with postgraduate qualifications highly desirable.
• Expert knowledge of sports science and medicine - you possess a thorough understanding of performance, recovery, injury prevention and athlete development.
• Experience within football environments - you're well versed in working within elite football or major sporting organisations, with experience in Women's football desirable.
• Understanding of player development pathways - you have an understanding of the FA Girls' Talent Pathway and WSL Academy structure and the role performance services play in long-term athlete development.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills - you thrive when working collaboratively with colleagues across multidisciplinary teams and wider stakeholders.
• A proactive and high-performance mindset - you are passionate about continuous improvement, act as a positive role model and are committed to helping players and colleagues reach their potential.

Position of Trust: As someone in a position of trust role involving regular, direct contact with children and young adults you will be expected to uphold high standards of conduct to prevent abuse, including sexual, physical, or emotional harm. This role requires you to keep updated with both Club and FA Safeguarding training and education.

Why choose us: At Arsenal, we want everyone to feel a sense of trust and belonging, so we are proud of both our club values and also what we offer to our employees. As one of our Gunners, you will receive:

• An exciting reward and recognition scheme.
• Generous holiday allowance which increases with your length of service.
• Great internal learning and development programmes.
• A flexible hybrid working model.
• Priority access to apply for match tickets.
• A competitive health and wellbeing benefits package.
• A leading Employee Assistance Programme.
• Great discounts with some of our Partners.
• An opportunity to play a vital role in delivering our ED&I strategy by joining one of our Employee Networks.

Arsenal for Everyone is our commitment to promoting and embracing equality, diversity and inclusion, so that everyone connected to the club feels like they belong to the same Arsenal family. We believe that diversity of background, skills and experience drives our success on and off the pitch.

We are a Disability Confident Leader. We actively welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. If you need disability-related adjustments to the recruitment process, please indicate this in your application.

Application Closing Date - Monday 13th July 2026. Please note: we reserve the right to close the position early if application volumes are particularly high. We encourage you to get your application in sooner rather than later.