Head of Competitions – LTA
LTA

The LTA’s vision is “Tennis Opened Up” and its mission is to make tennis Relevant, Accessible, Welcoming and Enjoyable for all.

The LTA Competitions team sits within the Participation Directorate and works with teams from across the organisation and external partners to deliver a calendar of international, national, regional, county and recreational competitions, in order to grow the number of adults and juniors competing across GB. The team support and service competition at every level of the competitive structure, including the attraction, retention and development of a competition workforce (Officials and Organisers) and develop the competition structure to help grow and sustain participation. The team has responsibility for co-ordinating a calendar of disability competitions and managing the GB Representative Teams for Visual Impaired (VI), Learning Disability (LD) and Deaf tennis.

The primary aim of the role will be to develop a strategy to grow competition at all levels with a focus on the recreational end of the game, providing leadership for this key area of tennis within and outside the organisation, and excellent management of the competition team, ensuring a collaborative approach with the wider competition landscape.

Key Accountabilities 

Strategy & Management

• To work with the Participation Director, Executive and Leadership Team colleagues to plan and develop a national recreational competition strategy for regional coordination and local delivery.
• To manage the Competitions Team and provide direction and support to the regionally based Competition Development Partners in the development, planning, and delivery of competition at a local level across GB.
• To work with the Heads of Regions and Competition Development Partners to set regional competition targets that are aligned to the national strategy and support competition growth.
• To manage the competition budget, including regular reporting with the Finance Team.
• To develop a yearly operational team plan, team objectives and line manage the team and direct reports, including carrying out regular reviews of progress against the competition strategy and plans.

Competition 

• To develop and deliver competition products, based on insight, that will support more people playing tennis across the key delivery channels of clubs, parks, education and community.
• To develop and scale our plans for Junior Recreational Competition, including the delivery of the LTA Youth Competition.
• To develop plans to scale the number of adults taking part in park competition via Local Tennis Leagues in conjunction with the Regional Team and Parks Team.
• To oversee the successful planning and delivery of Team Competition including LTA National League, LTA Youth Schools and County Cup competition, working with and through key stakeholders including the organiser network, to ultimately achieve growth in the number of players taking part.
• To lead and manage competition support including the ITF World Tennis Number, LTA rankings and the Competition Management System including online entry, TTP, LP.
• To work closely with the Technology and Digital Transformation Teams to ensure the competition services for players, parents and the workforce are robust, reliable and developed to support improvement in the delivery of competition at all levels.
• To work with the Performance Team to develop the Performance Competition Calendar.
• To lead and manage the competitive framework from local to national level competition including sanctioning / grading, disability competition and the 10U competition framework.
• To lead and manage the Officiating team to develop and deliver plans to grow the competition workforce, including referees, umpires and competition organisers.
• To oversee the servicing of the Competition Discipline System and the production of the Competition Regulations, working with the Legal team.
• To lead and manage the disability competition programme for VI, Deaf, LD and Wheelchair players at a local, regional and national level and the GB disability performance activities for VI, Deaf and LD.
• To work with Seniors Tennis GB to develop and grow the provision of competition for ‘seniors’ ensuring alignment with the LTA and competitions team.

General

• To work cross functionally, particularly with the Participation Team, to ensure plans are joined up and delivered in a connected way at a national, regional, county and local level.
• To work with the Marketing & Communication teams to develop and implement communication and marketing plans to raise awareness of competitions in order to attract more participants.
• To work with the Commercial team in delivering the commercial strategy for competition, including the delivery of any contractual rights.
• To create, build and sustain effective working relationships and networks with key partners particularly others in similar roles in other sports, National Tennis Association and professional bodies, learning best practice to improve the delivery of competition.
• To work with the Property and Operations Teams on plans to ensure the provision of strategically important tennis competition venues.
• To be part of the LTA Leadership Team and to contribute and support the wider strategic plans for British Tennis.

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