Homepage

We use cookies to track and analyse visitors to our website

These cookies help make the website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation. They are necessary for our website to function and cannot be switched off.
These cookies gather information to understand how visitors interact with the website, such as how many people are using our website of which pages are popular to help us improve user experience. Switching off these cookies will mean that we cannot gather information to improve the user experience.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by a third party provider whose services we have added to our website. Switching off these cookies mean that areas of our website cannot work properly.

Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient.

The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site.

For all other types of cookies we need your permission.

This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent from the Cookie Declaration on our website.

Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy.

Skip navigation
  • About us
    • Our Directors team
    • Our Board and panels
    • Strategic plan 2021-31
    • Annual reports
    • Our funders
    • Who we work with
    • Tenders
    • Contact us
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Learning and development
    • Protecting and Transforming Olympic and Paralympic sport
    • Leadership and governance
    • Coaching
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Aquatics
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Baseball
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Climbing
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Para performance strategic framework
    • Board minutes
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • Transparency and open data
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports and research
    • The Whyte Review
  • Jobs in sport
    • Working at UK Sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Find jobs in sport
    • Advertise sport jobs
  • About us
    • Our Directors team
    • Our Board and panels
    • Strategic plan 2021-31
    • Annual reports
    • Our funders
    • Who we work with
    • Tenders
    • Contact us
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Learning and development
    • Protecting and Transforming Olympic and Paralympic sport
    • Leadership and governance
    • Coaching
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Aquatics
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Baseball
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Climbing
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Para performance strategic framework
    • Board minutes
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • Transparency and open data
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports and research
    • The Whyte Review
  • Jobs in sport
    • Working at UK Sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Find jobs in sport
    • Advertise sport jobs
Popular content on our site
Prepare to “Find Your Greatness” as search for UK's future athletes gets underway The National Lottery operator Allwyn launches ChangeMakers fund for athletes as they make a difference back home Breadth of success targeted as British Olympic and Paralympic performance aspirations confirmed for Paris Investing in sport Strategic plan 2021-31
Explore career pathways

Want to become a Performance Director?

Established sport leader who’s ready to take on a new challenge? Or aspiring Performance Director looking for guidance on the next step?

About the Performance Director Role

Performance Directors (PDs) are the ultimate lead of a sport’s high performance or World Class Programme. They are often described as the architects and orchestrators of performance. Throughout each four-year cycle PDs work closely with their team of technical leads (Heads of Coaching, Performance Support, Technology & Innovation, Pathways, and Operations); setting out, developing and driving through the vision and strategy for how the sport intends to achieve success at World and Olympic/Paralympic level over the next 4-8 years.

The scope and scale of the PD role varies according to the size of the sport, the maturity of the performance system in place and the number of medal opportunities available. Despite these variations, all PDs head up the performance ‘department’ of their NGB and have two main responsibilities — strategic leadership of the performance programme and strategic leadership of the performance team.

On a day-to-day basis PDs work through their specialist leads, aligning the team’s work behind programme priorities and putting plans into action. They closely monitor core aspects of the programme such as training and competition activity, delivery of athlete support, and development of team culture and the daily training environment, ensuring that key objectives are being met and having the desired impact. From this unique position of oversight, PDs use their in-depth understanding of ‘what good looks like’ along with their knowledge of how best to combine the different elements of performance to achieve results, refining plans to create the best conditions for success and spotting any new opportunities for performance gain.

As well as directing programme activity, PDs know they are only as good as the team around them and invest heavily in supporting effective team working and staff development. A significant proportion of a PDs week will be spent ensuring individuals and teams have the necessary role clarity and autonomy to lead critical projects and areas of work, often directly coaching staff through challenging situations and decisions encountered in their day-to-day work. As figureheads for the programme, PDs have lead responsibility for setting the tone for the working culture – they are instrumental to facilitating strong multi-disciplinary approaches, ensuring adherence to good practice and behavioural standards, and creating an environment that fosters continuous improvement and innovation.

In order to finance a comprehensive high performance programme, most PDs effectively run a multi-million pound business. They need to be skilled at securing resources, managing a sizeable budget and meeting the various processes and reporting requirements of investors, partners and providers. PDs will generally work closely with the Chair, CEO and Head of Finance, along with the NGB Board, public funders such as UK Sport, commercial sponsors, training centre hosts and partner clubs. Being able to operate at executive level and to build strategic relationships that engage, inform and maintain the confidence of key stakeholders is an essential aspect of the modern PD role.

PDs tend to be driven by a deep passion for sport and a genuine desire to help others achieve their full potential. They accept that winning in sport is inherently complex and unpredictable – even with the best preparation results are never guaranteed. Those who thrive enjoy the pursuit of extraordinary goals and the pressure of delivering top level performances in the public eye at major events. They they don’t shy away from making tough decisions (especially those involving selection of athletes or recruitment/retention of staff) and accept they regularly need to problem solve and find creative solutions in order to navigate constraints. Most of all PDs are visionaries – they have the ability to realise the future while still delivering in the present.

Current vacancies

Watch our videos to find out more about pathways into the role and what it involves:

Please consent 'Functional' cookies to view this content

Steven Seligmann - Shooting
Steven talks about coming from professional sport, his leadership journey and how his role has evolved across cycles

As a team, we work together and really get into the details and processes that will make the critical differences for athletes. That's what it’s all about: providing athletes with the resources and support they need to deliver their performances on the day.

Essential PD Skills and Experience

The diagram below provides an overview of the mix of skills and expertise required to be effective in the PD the role. Broad Leadership Expertise describes core transferrable leadership skills which may be accumulated through experiences outside of a sport setting. Deep Performance Sport Expertise describes technical sport skills and applied expertise in leading high performance programmes and teams that would be accumulated through specific experiences in a performance sport setting. Please refer to the PD Job Description and UK Sport Leadership Development Framework for a more detailed explanation of requirements and to check your readiness for the PD role.

Broad Leadership Expertise

Leading Self

  1. Understands and cares for self
  2. Open to learning
  3. Relationship builder
  4. Passion and Drive
  5. Integrity

Leading Others

  1. Manages and aligns people and process to drive performance
  2. Energises and develops others
  3. Embraces change
  4. Judgement and Decision Making
  5. Thriving environment

Leading performance

Leading performance
Performance Sport Expertise
  1. Leads the development of high-performance strategy, systems, pathways and culture which delivers repeated international success
  2. Leads and works through ‘Heads of’/ Senior Leadership Teams building effective multi-disciplinary teams that deliver integrated performance support
  3. Prioritises allocation of staff and resources and manages budget to provide optimal training environments, competition opportunities and athlete support
  4. Prepares athletes and staff to deliver peak performance at major events and leads them in that environment
  5. Understands and applies current high-performance sport methodologies and good practice in own and team’s work (e.g. in respect of performance modelling and planning, athlete selection, anti-doping, athlete and staff welfare etc.)
  6. Builds and maintains effective relationships which secure support, resources and expertise from key agencies, stakeholders and partners

Leading Leaders

  1. Leading performance, process and people
  2. Inspiring vision and direction
  3. Flexible and adaptable
  4. Empowerment

Leading the Organisation

  1. Leading organisational performance and culture
  2. Systems Thinking
  3. Orchestrating Alignment
  4. Inspiration
  5. Drives Innovation

Pathways into the PD role

Given the required understanding of performance sport and ability to lead and develop high performance sport programmes and teams, it’s perhaps not surprising that the most common pathways into the PD role are through existing roles in sport. Of the 60 PDs who have held the position since it first came into being in 2000:

  • 60% came through a coaching route - approximately two thirds were Head Coach for 8 years or more before becoming a PD
  • 40% came through other leadership or management routes – all had at least 6 years experience as Programme Managers, High Performance Centre Managers, Science and Medicine Leads or Performance Pathway Managers

Interviews with past and current PDs identified the following as critical development experiences for success and longevity in the role:

  • experience of leading a high-performance programme or
    functional/discipline area
     
    essential for developing strategic planning skills; learning how to structure/re-structure systems and teams; learning how to prioritise and align work; learning how/when to adapt plans; becoming with decision-making responsibility;
  • experience of working with/in a team of coaches and technical
    support staff

    essential for establishing credibility, being able to ‘speak the language’ and influence technical experts; understanding how to integrate performance support and facilitate effective multi-disciplinary team working
  • experience of working in/leading a (senior) national team in
    international competition
     
    essential for understanding standards of performance and the broader competitive landscape; learning how to manage self and others in the pressure of the performance environment; understanding how to deliver peak performance when it matters most
  • working in/gaining exposure to different sports 
    essential for gaining broader references of ‘what good looks like’; understanding different sporting cultures and contexts and learning how to work in them to influence change (important for moving between sports and extending career)
Thinking of becoming a PD – plan your next step and find your fit

We hope the earlier sections on this page have provided a good overview of the PD role and the skills and experience needed. Whether you’re ready to apply now, or preparing for the future, this section will help you take your next career step.

  • Explore your interests, strengths and areas for development 
    • Is this role right for you?
    • What do you already have?
    • What do you need to learn or get more experience in?
  • Understand more about your work values and career anchors
    • What do you need for work to be really satisfying?
    • What unique value do you bring to a prospective employer?
    • How well does the organisation and World Class Programme philosophy fit with your values and beliefs?
  • Build networks and contacts to help access the experiences and opportunities you need
  • Update your CV and prepare for interview

More information

PD Job Description

UK Sport Leadership Development Framework



Career management resources

Interests Inventory

Career Anchors Assessment

Work Values Checklist

Career Data Template

CV Builder

 

Advice and guidance

Alex Stacey

talentqueries@uksport.gov.uk

Looking to work in sport?
Find or advertise sports jobs in the UK
Search now
Our funders
  • Funded by UK Government
  • TNL partners
Who we work with
  • British Olympic Association
  • Paralympics GB
  • Logo of the UK Sports Institute
  • Sport England
  • Sport Northern Ireland
  • Sport Wales
  • Sport Scotland
  • Logo of the British Elite Athletes Association
  • Logo for UK Coaching
  • Logo of Sport Resolutions
Sitelogo
Sitemap
  • Homepage
  • About us
  • Our work
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
  • Resources
  • Jobs in sport
  • Website terms and privacy policy
  • Editorial policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility
  • Freedom of Information
  • Welsh language scheme
  • FAQs
Contact
UK Sport
6th Floor
10 South Colonnade
London
E14 4PU
E: info@uksport.gov.uk
T: +44 (0) 20 7211 5100
Follow us
Twitter Youtube Instagram LinkedIn

© Copyright UK Sport 2025