Shape the Future of Excellence: Head of Performance Support

Location: National Water Sports Centre, Nottingham (with strategic oversight of Lee Valley, London)
Working Pattern: 37 hours per week, Travel including international travel may be required
Reports to: Performance Director (Flatwater)
Salary: £60,000 – £65,000 per annum

Paddle UK has set ambitious targets for L.A. 2028 and Brisbane 2032. In conjunction with our coaches, paddlers, and support staff, we aim to create the very best environment to deliver performance while taking a person-centred approach to development. We are looking for an exceptional leader to act as a key bridge, ensuring our practitioner workflows and specialist skills are optimally utilised to yield the desired performance impact.

What the Role Involves

As the Head of Performance Support, you will be the strategic driver of our support services, ensuring they are integrated, innovative, and impactful.

Your core responsibilities include:

• Strategic Leadership: Provide direction to the Performance Support Team (PST) across both Flatwater and Slalom programmes to ensure knowledge transfer and delivery of cross-discipline projects.
• Performance Integration: Co-ordinate and challenge the PST to develop support services that positively impact athlete development and Olympic/Paralympic performance.
• Clinical Governance: Lead the health team and drive initiatives that ensure sound clinical governance and effective management of complex clinical presentations.
• System Innovation: Act as the lead contact for wider system expertise, managing relationships with partners like TASS and universities to drive innovation.
• Operational Oversight: Support budgetary decision-making and co-ordinate the delivery of training plans, athlete profiling, and bespoke performance projects.

About You

We are looking for a sharp strategic thinker who is ego-less and thrives on solving complex problems within a high-performance environment. You’ll need:

• Proven Leadership: A minimum of 4 years post-graduate experience in Sport Science, Medicine, or a related field, with a track record of leading interdisciplinary teams.
• Technical Breadth: Strong cross-discipline technical knowledge, including medical understanding and the ability to utilise data insights to inform training interventions.
• Impactful Communication: Skilled in building productive relationships and confident in checking or challenging the actions of others in a non-confrontational manner.
• Accountability: The ability to lead projects and hold cross-functional partners accountable for results while dealing effectively with uncertainty.

Why Join Us?

This is a crucial role in delivering against our medal targets and wider Paddle UK strategy. You will join a team that values:

• Meaningful Change: A culture that encourages curiosity and the challenging of established thinking to achieve world-leading outcomes.
• Collaborative Success: Direct influence over a dedicated team of practitioners and a key role in shaping the performance culture toward 2028 and 2032.
• Strategic Impact: The opportunity to bridge programmes and create a unified approach to performance excellence across the UK.
• Modern Workspace: Access to elite facilities at the National Water Sports Centre with free onsite parking.
• 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays
• Free onsite parking and bike storage
• Company pension scheme
• Employee benefits platform (including Bike to Work, Health and Wellbeing and discounts)

Paddle UK is the governing body for Paddlesports. We have had many advances in our sport and paddling now covers a wide range of interests and passions as a sport and a leisure activity for all. We want to support and provide opportunities for everyone to enjoy and realise their potential within all aspects of paddling regardless of their age, background or ability.

To find out more about Paddle UK, our benefits, culture and recruitment process please visit our Careers Centre.