England Rugby
Coach Developer
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Working at the RFU means being part of the ‘bigger picture’ at England Rugby: to be rooted in our purpose, which is to enrich lives, introduce more people to rugby union & develop the sport for future generations. If our purpose resonates with you, and you recognise the value that sport can bring to people’s lives, we’d love to work with you. An opportunity has arisen for a Coach Developer to join our Game Development team on a fixed term basis.
Job Title: Club Developer
Department: Rugby Development
Reports to: Area Training Manager
Direct report(s): N/A
Salary Banding: c. £30,000 per annum
Job Level: Implement
Location: Homebased – Lancashire
Travel Requirements: Extensive travel to fulfil role needs. This includes travel to clubs, schools, colleges, universities within geographic location to deliver training and mentor coaches, and travel to meetings as required.
Employment Type: Fixed Term Contract (Maternity Cover: Oct 2026 – Jan 2028)
Working Hours: This is a full-time role, covering 35hrs per week on any five out of the seven days of the week (from Monday to Sunday inclusive). This role will require you to regularly work evenings and weekends to mentor and train rugby coaches. You should expect to work two evenings per week and at least one day per weekend during peak periods of the year.
Application Information:
- Please submit an anonymised CV (i.e. remove personal details). You do not need to submit a cover letter.
- Vacancy closing date: Friday 14th August at 12:00 noon
- Interviews are anticipated to be on 19th August 2026, and will be held at Sedgley Park RUFC
Everyone involved in rugby union in England is in a fortunate position to enrich lives and ensure rugby continues to thrive at every level across the country. As a National Governing Body, the RFU has a responsibility to set a high standard for inclusion, fairness and equality of opportunity. This role supports the plan to create a community of talented coaches across the game at all levels, the role holder will provide 1:1 and small group support for coaches in their own club, school, college or university. They will deliver coach education and development courses and manage communities of practice for coaches, playing a key role in improving the diversity of all facets of the game and creating an inclusive environment for all.
We are looking for a Coach Developer to join our Game Development team to inspire and develop coaches to provide high quality experiences for players, keeping them playing for longer to support our goal to recruit 50,000 new players by 2030.
Key responsibilities include:
- Working under the direction of the Area Training Manager to mentor coaches remotely and in their own coaching environment, including coaches operating in the talent pathway and those completing the England Rugby Advanced Coaching Award.
- Provide initial coach education through the delivery of England Rugby training courses for coaches.
- Provide ongoing coach development through the delivery of an agreed local programme of Continuous Coach Development courses.
- Lead online communities of practice for coaches.
- Improve inclusivity, opportunities, reduce discrimination and increase the numbers of rugby union coaches amongst women & girls, ethnically diverse communities, low socio-economic groups, young people and LGBT communities.
- Work with the Coach Development team to develop high-quality training content.
- Actively keep up to date with changes in the industry and develop subject matter knowledge through participating in relevant training, networks and other such forums.
- Produce succinct, relevant & agreed reports on progress against all key objectives in the job holder’s area of responsibility.
- Maintain high professional standards and ensure these are promoted in the community
- Act as an ambassador for, and promote the best interests of the RFU at all times, including the promotion of the RFU Core Values
- Undertake such other duties as may be required from time to time as are consistent with the responsibilities of the post and the needs of the RFU
- Actively collaborate with colleagues to contribute to the development and delivery of the current strategic, business and operational plans.
- Act as an ambassador for, and promote the best interests of the RFU, including the promotion of our culture and core values – This Rose Means Everyone: Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other.
- Undertake other duties as may be required from time to time as are consistent with the responsibilities of the post and the needs of the organisation.
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Qualifications, Skills & Experience:
The skills and attributes outlined in this description are not exhaustive and we welcome candidates who can bring different relevant experiences to the role.
- Be a role model for effective coaching practice
- Accelerate the learning of coaches
- Communicate effectively with individuals and groups
- Adopt a learner-centred approach to facilitation
- Select and use a range of delivery styles and methods to optimise learning
- Set, lead and review micro-coach sessions
- Plan and evaluate coach development sessions to optimise learning
- Conduct coach assessments
- Facilitate communities of practice
- Mentor coaches
- Assess, self-reflect and develop their own practice
- Be prepared to take on roles outside their normal functional responsibility when required
- Be IT literate and competent in the use of Microsoft Office Applications and online learning platforms
- Committed to actively contributing and building an inclusive culture in your role and day to day behaviours.
- Demonstrable experience of developing coaches through formal/informal training and mentoring, ideally within rugby union.
- A qualified sports coach/coach developer or can demonstrate they have the potential to achieve the England Rugby Advanced Coaching Award (Level 3 Coaching).
- Holds a mentoring qualification or can demonstrate they have the potential to achieve a mentoring qualification.
- Committed to embodying the ethos our culture by using our three core values – Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other – to guide your day-to-day decisions, actions and interactions.
- Committed to actively contributing and building an inclusive culture in your role and day to day behaviours.
- Current Driving Licence with no more than six points.
Additional Information:
- We want you to have every opportunity to demonstrate your skills, ability and potential. If there is anything we could do to support you through your application or to provide the best environment for your interviews, including assistance or adjustment, please reach out to recruitment [recruitment@rfu.com].
- During your application, we will ask questions about your identity. This information is considered highly confidential and will not be seen by hiring managers. You can find out more about why we ask these questions here.
- If you are a trans candidate applying for a job that requires a DBS check, please reach out to recruitment@rfu.com or directly to our safeguarding team (safeguarding@rfu.com) to use the confidential sensitive application route. This will provide applicants with the choice not to have any gender or name information disclosed on their DBS certificate.
- This role will require a DBS check.
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About England Rugby
England Rugby or Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the national governing body for rugby in England. We deliver three core activities, and our purpose is to enrich lives, introduce more people to rugby union and develop the sport for future generations.
Our core activities are:
- Rugby – supporting rugby from grassroots to performance level
- Commercial – building partnerships and hosting matches and events
- Running the business - ensuring our organization and people can thrive
Our Culture
At England Rugby, one of our core objectives is to drive rugby union to better reflect the diversity of society. We are aware that rugby, and sports in general, has not always been as welcoming an environment for everyone as we would like, and we are working hard to make rugby a more inclusive space for all identities.
We believe hiring people from underrepresented groups into positions at all levels is vital to creating spaces and initiatives that better support those identities. We would love to see applications from disabled people, LGBTQIA+ people, people from ethnically diverse communities, people of faith, people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and women and non-binary people.
We know that representation is more than just getting people through the door, it’s about keeping people by responding to structural barriers relating to identities and valuing the insights that different lived experiences bring. We have network groups that provide peer-to-peer support and drive forward change internally. We support colleagues to develop, and each colleague has access to a personal coaching platform that can provide same-day one-to-one coaching. We are pushing ourselves to create a more inclusive culture every day through role modelling our culture and core values; This Rose Means Everyone: Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other.
We know that flexible working is important to our colleagues, so our guiding principles are designed to support everyone to work in the way that suits them, their teams, and the organisation in the best way.
We want you to have every opportunity to demonstrate your skills, ability and potential. If there is anything we could do to support you through your application or to provide the best environment for your interviews, including assistance or adjustment, please reach out to recruitment@rfu.com.
What we can offer you
We are proud of the range of benefits we can provide:
- A variety of corporate discounts
- Priority access to purchase match tickets
- 25% discount in Rugby Store and EnglandRugby.com
- 25 days of annual leave
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