Coaching & Leadership Development Manager

At Sport England we want everyone to be able to benefit from the transformative impact of sport and physical activity.

The inequalities of opportunity and access are as pronounced, if not more so, in the talent system as they are anywhere else. Ultimately that manifests itself on the field of play and the podium when our national teams represent us on the global stage. This represents a missed opportunity to harness all our sporting potential.

Our central belief is that athletes and teams representing England (or the UK) should be both world-leading and genuinely representative of the nation, in all its diversity.

What is the England Talent Pathway?

England Talent Pathways are the sporting pathways and programmes designed specifically to identify and develop promising young athletes in various sports.

These pathways provide a structured system of support, including coaching, training, and competition opportunities, to help athletes progress and reach their full potential.

Our desire, through 2025 – 29 Talent funding is to work in partnership to ensure athletic development pathways in England are, by design – more accessible, inclusive and better connected to the school, club, community, sport development and sport for development programmes that precede and surround them as well as the High-Performance Programmes that lie beyond.

Those who facilitate those experiences and pathways are critical to realising this ambition and this role seeks to optimally support and develop them.

Our team works alongside National Governing Bodies of sport and other partners, particularly: UK Sport, Sports Aid and the other Home Country Sports Councils, to support the cultural architects and programme leads that play a critical role in the development and realisation of sporting potential – they are the ones who help make ‘talent’ and ‘performance’ happen whilst providing formative, life enhancing experiences which transcend the field of play.

You can help us do this.

The role

We are seeking a Coaching and Leadership Development Manager for the England Talent Pathway who can help us create and develop partnerships and programmes that focus on the people that consistently create positive and formative athlete development experiences. Your work will be highly collaborative, driving a learning culture through our partnerships and programmes, developing and sharing best practice and insight.

Working as part of our Talent & Performance team you will have a broad range of responsibilities and relationships with a primary focus on supporting the development of coaches and leaders within athlete development and performance pathways in England. You will be able to bring your understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by coaches, practitioners and the leaders of talent/performance pathways, to help us achieve our ambitions.

You will champion game-changing ideas and support the design, development and delivery of inspiring and impactful workforce development experiences and opportunities to meet the challenges faced by those facilitating performance pathways.

You will work very closely with colleagues at UK Sport, who part-fund this role, and lead our relationship with UK Coaching to develop and deliver interventions in England aligned with the system’s 2032 Coaching Strategy which seeks to make Coaching the UK’s competitive advantage.

This role does not require degree-level education or any specific qualifications or training. We are looking for collaboration, innovation, creativity and curiosity, someone who is credible and capable of leading this work and whose ambitions and values align with Sport England’s.

Sport England recognises the positive value of diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.