Strategic Sports Development Officer

Are you passionate about communities and sporting opportunities, understanding how they are essential in delivering the highest possible quality of life, and improving happiness and wellbeing? If so, we need you! This is a unique opportunity to encourage, influence and enable the development of facilities for sport and sporting opportunities. Working with communities, sporting associations, clubs, professional bodies and the council's strategic planning, leisure, facilities and parks teams. You will have oversight and responsibility for the delivery of Huntingdonshire's indoor-built sports facilities and playing pitch and outdoor sports strategies.,

• Driving with energy to seek opportunities to encourage, influence and enable the development of sporting facilities and sporting opportunities within Huntingdonshire through prioritised action.
• Ensuring sporting needs are updated to reflect changing socio-demographic factors and opportunities for sport. Delivery must address access and health inequalities.
• Enabling appropriate provision of formal and informal sporting provision through housing development within Huntingdonshire.
• Inspiring and supporting community sport to secure funding that supports ongoing provision and development of sport to meet Huntingdonshire's needs.
• Collaborating with in-house sport provision, public, private and community partners, sporting associations and stakeholders to achieve improved health outcomes through sporting opportunities in Huntingdonshire., For many of our roles (and where it is possible) we are currently working remotely and anticipate in the future returning to a hybrid office model on a flexible basis. This will still include work-from-home and flexi-time opportunities to provide a good work-life balance whilst ensuring that teams benefit from in-person interaction. Candidates should therefore be within commutable distance of our offices in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire or able to attend meetings as required if further afield.
  
  With a degree in relevant sports development, recreation management or similar, you will have worked in a strategic capacity to develop strategy and action plans to deliver results.
A professional in the sports and leisure industry, you will also have a knowledge of policy and legislation relating to sport and physical activity. An understanding of sports facilities design and accessibility is needed to support the development of high-quality and low-operating-cost facilities that are sustainable within communities. An excellent communicator, you will need to have a customer and community focus able to suggest and develop ideas to influence better outcomes for our community; in respect of sporting opportunities, working on behalf of them with external developers and providers. Project management skills and the ability to manage a diverse workload with multiple contacts using evidence to influence and demonstrate successful outcomes are essential. An offer of employment is conditional upon having the right to work in the UK. Huntingdonshire District Council does not hold a Sponsorship Licence and are unable to provide a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) or take over sponsorship for any role.

Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) is passionate about providing high-quality services to our communities, residents and businesses. This means we must employ and retain the most talented and dedicated people. Situated within the heart of the Cambridge-Peterborough Growth Area, Huntingdonshire is a beautiful district that boasts thriving market towns and many attractive villages, each with its own identity. We are an innovative and forward-thinking local authority whose residents are at the heart of our decision-making. At HDC we want to employ staff who embody our icare values (Inspiring, Collaborative, Accountable, Respectful, Enterprising), all of which support our ultimate purpose of putting our customers first.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of our recruitment and along with our values we are committed to creating an inclusive working environment, where diversity is valued and there is equality of opportunity. We therefore welcome applications from all sections of the community and we offer a range of benefits, including flexitime, to encourage a work-life balance.