Organisation Blackburn Rovers Football & Athletic Ltd Salary £35,000 - £40,000 per annum dependent on experience Location Blackburn Contract type Permanent (Full time) Closing date 19 June 2025 Job Description Job title: Sports Scientist (Training Load Specialism)
Department: 1st Team/Senior Performance
Based at: Senior Training Centre, Old Langho, Blackburn, BB6 8FA. Flexibility regarding location is required.
Reports to: Head of Performance
Responsible for: N/A
Hours of work: 40 hours per week plus any additional hours necessary for the performance of duties. This will include evening and weekend work.
Contractual Status: Permanent
Job purpose: Deliver and enhance the Club’s football science provision in line with the Club’s strategic objectives – to prevent injury and to enhance individual and collective training & match performance.
Duties and responsibilities:
• To be committed to ensuring the safeguarding and welfare of all elite players, promoting their well-being needs whilst maintaining professional boundaries;
• Evaluate and monitor all First Team player’s physical capacities through a variety of physical, biochemical & subjective testing methods;
• Produce detailed and meaningful match, training and rehab reports on a daily, weekly and quarterly basis;
• Analyse a range of data and produce reports that detail the current training status of the individual player;
• Assist the S&C coach in designing to deliver effective individualised (on & off-pitch) strength and conditioning where required;
• Work closely with the Medical Department to advise, plan and deliver
individualised training loads & pre-training preparation sessions when
required;
• Plan and deliver regular performance profiling & testing for all first team players and ensure effective and timely feedback to all high-performance staff;
• Regularly liaise with the various club departments regarding fit players, injured players and assist with end-stage rehabilitation programmes from a load management perspective;
• Provide a robust testing & load monitoring club strategy alignment from 1st team down through the academy age groups;
• Deliver multidisciplinary 1st team & academy education throughout the seasonaround load monitoring;
• Drive department progression by continually researching new and innovative processes that improve athletic development; and
• Assist in the production of two-peer reviewed research publications in their key area of work per season;
• Any other duty as reasonably assigned for the success and productivity of the department.
Skills required:
• High level competence & ability to use a range of software packages to effectively document, analyse and report information efficiently.
• Have familiarity with different types of football data sources.
• Experience with machine learning and be proficient in Python/ R & SQL.
• Knowledge of and experience with other Programming Languages is
advantageous.
• High level quality & capability to utilise GPS and heart rate tracking
technologies;
• High competency with data visualisation is necessary for this role,
programmatic visualisation or use of a BI tool (Power BI, Tableau etc.).
• Ability and experience of force plates, Vald equipment, VBT devices, GPS devices, amongst various other profiling and diagnostic tools;
• Ability to effectively communicate information related to individual athletic performance to a wide variety of staff;
• Ability to meet specific deadlines and work in a high-pressure environment;
• Ability to self-manage and show initiative; and the ability to work effectively in a team environment.
Knowledge required:
• Knowledge of physiology, biochemical monitoring, strength & conditioning, training load management & additional scientific principles that underpin effective training programme design, evaluation and monitoring in elite football.
Qualifications required:
Essential
• BSc/BA in Sports Science
• MSc/MRes/MPhil in Sports Science
• UKSCA accreditation (or similar)
• Full UK Driving Licence
Desirable
• Working towards PhD
• UEFA B/A coaching licence (or equivalent)
DBS check required: Yes (enhanced)