The Director, Performance Rehabilitation at Washington Spirit will lead the team’s rehabilitation and return-to-play strategies, ensuring that players receive world-class support across injury recovery, performance monitoring, and physical development. This role bridges the gap between medical care and peak athletic performance, working collaboratively with medical, performance, and coaching staff to promote athlete readiness, robustness, reduce injury risk, and maximize player potential throughout the season.

The Director, Performance Rehabilitation will:

• Design and oversee individualized rehabilitation and return-toplay plans based on clinical evaluation, training periodization, performance metrics, and sport-specific demands for injured players.
• Ensure players progress safely and effectively through recovery protocols, from acute injury through full training integration.
• Collaborate with team physicians, physical therapists, athletic trainers, and coaches to optimize recovery timelines and longterm outcomes by administering and implementing appropriate testing, monitoring, loading and screening of players.
• Conduct movement screenings and injury risk assessments to develop prehab and individualized prevention programs.
• Deliver high quality treatment and therapeutic exercises to players.
• Work with performance staff to ensure biomechanical efficiency along with functional and sports specific progression in loading patterns during recovery.
• Collaborate with the performance team on the re-integration of players into team’s Strength and Conditioning program.
• Lead education sessions for players and staff on movement health, soft-tissue maintenance, and preventative strategies.
• Implement a data-driven framework to track and review rehab outcomes and player health trends.
• Regularly audit programs for effectiveness and make evidencebased improvements.
• Keep accurate, up-to-date medical and performance records in line with league and team standards.
• Serve as a key liaison between the medical, strength and conditioning, analytics, and the coaching team regarding player updates and progressions.
• Prepare and communicate to performance planning meetings to ensure rehab and recovery goals are aligned with team schedules and return to play objectives.
• Support the development of return-to-play protocols that seamlessly integrate with performance periodization and competitive demands.
• Effectively manage all those within the return-to-play decision making process.
• Provide mentorship to junior staff in both medicine, performance domains.
• Lead and support the integration of new technologies, methodologies, and innovations in rehabilitation and performance tracking.
• Encourage a collaborative and progressive team culture cantered on athlete welfare, learning, and excellence.
• Coordinate player reintegration into training based on readiness metrics and competition schedules.
• Guide the application of acute-to-chronic workload principles to manage player load during return phases.
• Collaborate with performance staff to align rehab progressions with team periodization and conditioning benchmarks.
• Foster a collaborative, cross-functional relationship within the organization, ensuring knowledge transfer and collaboration between departments such as medical, analytics, and coaching teams.
• Act as an ambassador for Washington Spirit both internally and externally, contributing to thought leadership within the NWSL and advocating for the club in performance-related matters.

The ideal candidate has:

• Degree in Physical Therapy (DPT), Athletic Training, Exercise Science, or a related field.
• Licensure or certification as a Physical Therapist, Athletic Trainer, Ex. Scientist or Strength & Conditioning Coach as required.
• Preferred certifications: CSCS, NASM-PES, EXOS Performance Specialist, or equivalent.
• Minimum of 8-10 years of experience in elite-level sports rehabilitation, physical therapy or performance support, preferably in professional team environments.
• Proven ability to manage return-to-play processes using both clinical expertise and performance metrics.
• In-depth knowledge of musculoskeletal rehab, return-to-play progression, and performance therapy principles.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to communicate complex information across departments.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple cases and timelines effectively.
• Ability to travel with the team to away games, training camps, and events when required.
• Availability to work flexible hours, including evenings, weekends, and holidays, as required by the team schedule.
• A passion for player welfare and the Washington Spirit’s commitment to excellence both on and off the field.

ABOUT THE WASHINGTON SPIRIT

The Washington Spirit is a founding club in its 11th season of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) proudly representing the Washington, DC metropolitan area. It is the first franchise to have a minority woman hold a majority stake. A visionary entrepreneur, Michele Kang, is leading a new era for women’s sports with a vision to:

1.  Become the most preeminent sports organization in the world;
2. Build a high-performance culture of winning on and off the pitch;
3. Train women as women; and
4. Motivate and inspire the next generation of girls and women.

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.