NGB Executive Lead

Organisation: Sport and Recreation Alliance
Salary: £62,118 to £88,000.50 + holidays and benefits
Location: London
Contract type: Permanent (Full time)
Closing date: 19 January 2026
Job Description: About the Sport and Recreation Alliance:

The Sport and Recreation Alliance is the voice of the grassroots sport and recreation sector. Since 1935, the Alliance (formerly known as the Central Council of Physical Recreation) has protected and promoted the interests of our vital sector and membership to government, policy makers and the media. We strongly believe in the transformational power of sport and recreation to positively shape lives and help drive societal and economic growth.

Throughout our new strategy cycle, our unwavering focus will be to deliver with and for our members, particularly our National Governing Body members, who play a foundational role in engaging and keeping people in sport and recreation. As a result of our membership review, we have made several changes to the way in which we are structured and how we operate.

We have evolved our membership structures and services to better support our members and strengthen our role as the independent voice for sport and recreation, bringing together sport and National Governing Bodies to reflect and elevate their systemic role in delivering sport.

We are being smarter in the way we work together with our members, collaborating more effectively to identify key priorities and focusing our resources on delivering against these. We are enhancing our communications and engagement with members to increase awareness of and support for the work we and our members are doing. Using our independent voice, we will protect members’ interests with key decision makers and be bold and ambitious in promoting the benefits of sport and recreation and the impact our members have.

We are seeking an NGB Executive Lead to help shape and drive our new strategy, in relation to NGBs. This is a new opportunity that has been driven by the recent development of our 2025-30 strategy, A United Voice for Sport and Recreation, and implementation of revised membership structures to provide greater focus towards supporting NGBs.

Our Vision, Purpose and Mission:

Vision
A vibrant, safe and sustainable sport and recreation eco-system which enables everyone to participate when, where and how they choose.

Purpose
We believe the power of sport and recreation should be recognised from the highest levels of Government to the grassroots.

Mission
We unable sport and recreation bodies to do more than they can alone through the power of our collective advocacy and the strength of our services.

Our Values:

Performance
We set high standards and hold ourselves to account for achieving them.

Teamwork
We’re at our best when we’re working as a team, collaborating to drive improvement.

Integrity
We recognise the important of acting with professionalism and ensuring that what we do is consistent with what we say.

Our strategic objectives:

1. Protect sport and recreation with key decision makers.

2. Provide services, solutions and connectivity to make our members’ lives easier and allow them to focus on what they do best.

3. Promote the positive power of sport and recreation to create the conditions for success.

The Role:

Position: NGB Executive Lead
Salary Scale: £62,118 to £88,000.50 + holidays and benefits
Reports to: Chief Executive
Location: Holborn, London with flexible/hybrid working
Hours: Full-time

The NGB Executive Lead will play a crucial role in driving forwards the work of the Sport and Recreation Alliance (Alliance) Strategy. As a member of the Alliance’s Senior Management Team, reporting to the Chief Executive, the NGB Executive Lead is responsible for the strategic leadership, development, management and delivery of the work of the National Governing Body (NGB) Coalition which is a Division of the Alliance.

They will provide a vision and strategic oversight of the delivery of services to the NGB Coalition ensuring insight from NGB members and stakeholders informs the approach to member services and engagement. Working closely with the NGB Coalition Management Group and key stakeholders, they will lead the development and implementation of the key deliverables for the NGB Coalition as part of the Alliance’s Implementation Plan, aligned to the Alliance Strategy.

About You:

We want to ensure the person we recruit reflects a broad range of skills, backgrounds and lived experiences to help us make better informed decisions and remain accountable to the members we service.

Knowledge, experience and skills that we are looking for include:

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in sport and ideally in an NGB.
• Experience as a CEO or senior executive within a sports organisation.
• In-depth knowledge of the work of NGBs and how NGBs operate, other sporting organisations and key stakeholders.
• Deep understanding of the sport landscape and the work of national agencies.
• Strategic and visionary leadership.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to manage diverse and highly complex stakeholders and foster collaboration.

The full job description is available here:

https://sportandrecreation.org.uk/files/job-description---ngb-executive-lead-december-2025-161225103856.pdf
How to apply: For the team employed at the Alliance, it is more than just a job. The team all want to make a difference. The Alliance may be small, but the work and the impact is far-reaching. Whilst we are focused on meeting targets and delivering outcomes, we know that it is important that people maintain a healthy life-work balance and feel they are looked after. If you want to know more before applying, then reach out for a confidential chat by emailing recruitment@sportandrecreation.org.uk. If you are ready to apply now, please send a CV with a covering letter outlining why you want the role and how you meet the role specification. Your covering letter should be 2 sides of A4 maximum. Please send your CV and covering letter to recruitment@sportandrecreation.org.uk. Closing date: 5pm on Monday 19th January 2026 Interview dates: To be arranged Diversity is valued within our team. More than just encouraging your application, we're committed to conscious inclusion that (we hope) cultivates an ethos of belonging, connection and shared purpose. Our recruitment process anonymises your application at shortlisting stage. It would really help us if you were able to complete our equality and diversity monitoring survey here. This is anonymous and does not form part of the recruitment process. Our privacy policy and privacy notice for job applicants can be found on our website here. Sport and Recreation Alliance Holborn Tower 137-144 High Holborn London WC1V 6PL For more information, please visit our website: https://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/ Or email us: info@sportandrecreation.org.uk