Strategic Sports Manager

Strategic Sports Manager

Salary: £41,526-£49,553 per annum, together with USS pension benefits

Hours: 35 per week

Contract: Permanent

Location: Swansea Bay Sports Park (Sketty Lane) and all University sites

The University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity in all of its practices and activities. We aim to establish an inclusive environment and welcome diverse applications from the following protected characteristics: age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion and belief, sex (gender), sexual orientation.

Main Purpose of the Strategic Sports Manager Post

Swansea University is an active University with a passion for sport. We believe that sport and active lifestyles are central to our overall success and helps our students, staff and wider community to thrive and flourish. Our ambition is to deliver sector leading sports experiences which inspire and enrich our Community and contribute to being recognised as the most active and successful sporting university in Wales.

We have recently initiated a new Sport Swansea: Active University strategy, which aims to accelerate our ambitions, promote success and improve our operations over the next three academic periods. Our Strategy is based on four core pillars – Inspire, Aspire, Engage, Enable – which recognises and responds to the need to provide high quality opportunities for participation in physical activity, recreational and performance sport incorporating all levels of experience and ability.

Throughout the strategic period 2020/21-2023/24, we are aiming to significantly increase participation, successes, impact and profile by removing barriers, creating efficiency and delivering inclusive opportunities.  There are a variety of areas that will require critical focus during this period to enable and support success. These include infrastructure, funding, insights and stakeholder engagement, each of which will need consideration and development to match our ambitions.

The University is seeking an experienced, ambitious and visionary leader to help implement the strategy and elevate our sport and activity offerings to new levels.
The post holder will lead on the strategic and operational management of the University’s Student Sport Department (Sport Swansea), both on and off campus, maximising efficiency and ensuring high quality services, whilst supporting the enhancement of the student, staff, community and visitor experience.
The role will be directly responsible for the following departments, services and functions:

1. Student Sport (Recreational) – Management of programmes and services for participatory, recreational and competitive student sport, including all BUCS teams, intra-mural and community/regional sport, working in partnership with the Students’ Union.
2. Student Sport (Performance) – Management and direction of the High Performance programme including strategic partnerships, scholarships, dual career support and student/athlete recruitment.

The post holder will have support the Head of Service in developing and implementing strategies relating to Student Sport and will sit on the University’s Sports Executive.

The post holder will be based within the Estates and Facilities Management Directorate, responsible for a wide range of estate, commercial and support services.

Strategic Sports Manager Person Specification

Essential Criteria

Leadership Values:

• Demonstrable evidence of creating a culture that delivers successful outcomes through people, developing and challenging teams to succeed and take pride in delivering professional services and solutions.
• Ability to enable teams to work together and across functions to deliver successful outcomes that exceed the needs and expectations of customers, and in creating environments that demonstrate equality, foster trust, respect and challenge.
• Demonstrable experience of creating environments that identify, understand and give priority to delivering the needs of the customer, and in motivating and inspiring teams to provide the highest standards of personalised care

Qualification:

• Educated to Degree Level or equivalent experience

Experience:

• Experience of leading, managing and motivating a large and diverse team.
• Experience of managing budgets and financial resources.
• Significant experience of leading and delivering participatory, competitive sports and/or high performance programmes.
• Experience of managing change.
• Experience of influencing others and negotiating with them to achieve an outcome.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Evidence of excellent leadership skills.
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written and to present coherent arguments to achieve the desired outcome.
• Excellent presentation skills to communicate effectively in all situations to varied audiences.
• The ability to work in a target driven environment developing and utilising Management Information

Informal enquiries and further information

Informal enquiries: Ben Lucas, Head of Commercial b.d.lucas@swansea.ac.uk

A satisfactory DBS certificate must be provided before a start date can be confirmed

The University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity in all of its practices and activities. We aim to establish an inclusive environment and welcome diverse applications from the following protected characteristics: age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion and belief, sex (gender), sexual orientation.

Available documents

• Strategic Sport Manager JD – 2020.pdf