AWFC Academy Performance Lead

The Role

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.

Who we are

We are one of the most famous clubs in world football, with a rich heritage and history of success – read more about our history, here .

Beyond that, we are passionate about our local community and, behind the scenes, we have a wide variety of opportunities and career paths for all. We have a very defined purpose: to act for a winning team, culture and community. We achieve this by ensuring we are courageous in the pursuit of progress, we champion our community and each other, and that we do the right thing (even when no one is looking).

Our Commitment to Safeguarding

We are committed to ensuring that our environments for children, young people and adults at risk remain safe and inclusive. We therefore require successful candidates to complete a DBS check and other essential background checks prior to starting their employment. Depending on the responsibilities of the role, a DBS will be either a basic, standard, or enhanced check.

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 understandinf 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

Discover why ‘Our Gunners’ are proud to be part of our team - view their stories here.

Arsenal for Everyone

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. 

Disability Confident Leader

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.

If you are likely to meet the definition of being a ‘disabled person’ according to the Equality Act 2010 , you may be eligible to apply for an interview via the Disability Confident Scheme - please indicate this in your application form below. The information you share with us about your health or disability will not be used in recruitment decisions.

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.

Updates on the status of your application will be sent via email, please routinely check your spam and junk folders, as occasionally emails sent via the Teamtailor platform will find themselves there.

Good luck!