Head of Competition Development

Hey! We’re the LTA and we’re pleased to meet you! 👋

The LTA's vision is ‘Tennis Opened Up’, and our mission is to transform communities through tennis, focusing on three areas – making tennis welcoming, enjoyable and inspiring to everyone.

The Role

The Competition team oversee the planning and delivery of all LTA staged competitions at an international and national level, as well as supporting regional, county, and local level competition activity. The team also oversees Padel competition, team competition, disability competition and associated GB representative teams. The team are responsible for servicing competition in Britain, which includes Officiating, Ratings (World Tennis Number) and Rankings, rules and regulations and the digital systems to find and enter competition.

This role will play an important part in delivering against the new Competition Plan 2025-29 and onwards. The primary aim of the role will be to lead on the strategic development and implementation of competition offers to attract and retain more adult and junior players in tennis and padel.

Please note, the application window for this role closes on Wednesday 15th January 2025.

Initial interviews will take place via Microsoft Teams from the week commencing 27th January 2025.

Final interviews will take place in-person at the National Tennis Centre, from the week commencing 3rd February 2025.

Key Accountabilities

• Work with the Head of Competition to lead the strategic development, implementation and on-going evolution of the competition products and programmes to successfully deliver the Competition Plan.

• Responsibility to work with the Head of Competition, as part of the Competitions SMT, to manage workload across the team and successfully deliver the Competition Plan.

• Manage the Competition Development Managers and provide direction and support in the delivery of the relevant elements of the annual operational plan and achievement of the associated metrics.

• Manage the competition development budget, including regular reporting to the Head of Competition and Finance Team.

• Develop and introduce a new innovative and inclusive competition offer as part of LTA Youth, at the entry point of the competition structure and own a place in the weekly calendar.

• Oversee the strategic development, growth and operational delivery of the Local Tennis Leagues plan to grow adult competitive play in parks.

• Oversee the strategic development of targeted interventions with a focus on LSEG, Disability and Women and Girls audiences, to diversify and grow the competitive player base.

• Oversee the strategic development, growth and delivery of Play Your Way to Wimbledon and lead and manage the collaboration with the lead partners.

• Review competition for schools and universities and scale the competition offer to reach more schools and pupils and provide more opportunities to compete.

• Work closely with other teams across the business to ensure competition offers provide simple and effective solutions, that are well-packaged, effectively cascaded and communicated.

• Create, build and sustain effective working relationships and networks with key partners particularly others in similar roles in other sports, National Tennis Associations and professional bodies, learning best practice to improve the delivery of competition.

Our Benefits

• 25 days annual leave

• Pension

• Life assurance

• Reimbursement of eye tests

• Long service awards, plus monthly and annual colleague awards

• Private Medical & Health Insurance

• Free onsite gym & use of the Tennis & Padel courts

• Cycle to Work Scheme

• Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental leave

• Free mental health first aider support

• Colleague ticket offerings for Major Events and The Championships, Wimbledon

• Annual Bonus Scheme

• Free parking & bike racks

• Retail discounts from our partner brands

• Training & Development

• Summer and Christmas parties

• Free tea and coffee provided daily

• Electrical vehicle charging points

• Staff lockers

• 30% discounts in our café at the National Tennis Centre

Our Culture

The LTA, through its vision ‘Tennis Opened Up’, is committed to creating a diverse environment where all colleagues feel included and a strong sense of belonging. We are proud to actively invite applications from all candidates who meet the essential criteria and can work in the UK. We commit that everyone will receive equal consideration for employment irrespective of your ethnicity, religion, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, age, any disability, marital or civil partnership status, and pregnancy or maternity status.

We particularly welcome applications from:

• People from ethnically diverse communities

• Deaf and disabled people

• Members of the LGBTQ+ community

• People with lived experience of the UK's many and varied communities

The LTA Tennis Foundation is a new tennis charity that partners with brilliant people and organisations to improve lives through tennis. It shares the LTA’s vision of ‘Tennis Opened Up’, and it wants to use our sport to make a real difference to people across the whole country. All LTA colleagues have the chance to get involved with the LTA TF, with some directly involved in delivering and leading its work.

To truly deliver our vision of 'Tennis Opened Up', we believe it is critical that the LTA plays our part in contributing to a healthier and more sustainable society. We want to grow tennis in Britain, but do so in a responsible way, protecting and supporting the environment and working with everyone in the sport to tackle our climate impacts. We are committed to ensuring a lasting future for tennis in Britain, and our Environmental Sustainability Plan sets out how we will do this.