Founded in 1882, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is an English Premier League Club, based in North London.

Led by the late great Bill Nicholson, the Club became the first in England to win the League and FA Cup Double in 1961, and the first in the UK to win a European Trophy two years later. Spurs has since been home to some of the game’s great entertainers, including Jimmy Greaves, Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne, David Ginola, Gareth Bale, Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane.

In April 2019, the Club opened an iconic new stadium that sits at the heart of a £1billion sport-led regeneration of North Tottenham. The stadium is the largest football club stadium in London and is a multi-use venue with the ability to host a variety of events 365 days a year, including NFL, boxing, rugby, concerts, and other major events, plus visitor attractions including Stadium Tours and the Dare Skywalk.

The stadium development scheme has to date created more than 4,000 new jobs for local people, with circa £300m pumped into the local economy each year.

Tottenham Hotspur has:

• A clear strategy to develop talent from within its Academy, showcased by a strong track record of Academy players graduating to the first-team squad.


• A £100m state-of-the-art Training Centre that supports the Club’s ambition to attract, develop and retain the best talent.


• Commercial partnerships with globally recognised brands including AIA Group Limited (AIA), one of the world’s leading providers of life insurance services, and Nike, the world’s leading sports footwear and apparel company.


• A commitment to minimizing its environmental impact across Club operations, being named as the greenest in the Premier League for the past three years. Tottenham Hotspur is a signatory of the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, committing to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and become net zero carbon by 2040.


• An award-winning Foundation that is renowned for creating opportunities to help enhance the lives of people in its local community through education, employment, health, and social inclusion programmes.

The Club is seeking an Academy Nutritionist to be responsible for leading the nutritional support programme for the U18 squad and emerging talents within the academy. The primary focus will be to educate players, parents, and host families in the U18 programme around the importance of nutrition for development and performance, as well as overseeing all the nutritional strategies and content provided to the whole Academy system.

A food-first philosophy should be encouraged with the aim of maximising player development, preventing injury and illness and optimising preparation for, and recovery from, training and competition. The role will require exceptional communication skills that enable the successful candidate to engage with a player’s support team to help them understand and implement good nutritional habits.

The successful candidate will have primary responsibility for developing individual player plans and supporting high value elite talent players. A nutrition programme incorporating football centred workshops and individual 1:1 support is paramount.

JOB PURPOSE

The U18 Academy Nutritionist will have the opportunity to develop the Nutrition Hub, an area dedicated to promoting optimal nutrition habits. Players will receive individualised nutrition products and snacks from the hub while having the opportunity to engage 1:1 with the Academy Nutritionist on a day-to-day basis.

The role requires an engaging individual with an established professional background who can utilise their expertise in performance nutrition to aid and impact player performance, body composition, availability. Most importantly they must demonstrate improvements in academy player nutrition habits that mirror professional player behaviours.

The position will involve working some matches for the U18 playing group, both home and away. The position requires cooperation with existing coaching, performance, and catering staff to determine appropriate methods of implementing the overall Academy Performance Nutrition Strategy. As such, strong interpersonal and communication skills are essential. The candidate will be required to develop innovative nutrition strategies while managing an allocated budget of spending.

This is a Full-time permanent position. Flexibility is required working across a Monday-Sunday rota and over bank holidays, weekends etc. to ensure that all responsibilities are met throughout the season.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work with the Head of Academy Sport Science to develop a successful Academy Nutrition philosophy and education programme that reflects the nutrition expectations of the team 1st team.


• Work within the Sport Science performance support team, medical team, and relevant performance/coaching staff to deliver and successfully implement team and individual player plans for the Academy.


• Deliver workshops (theoretical and practical) to players, parents, and host families.


• Ensure ongoing adherence to the nutritional programme by utilising several methods, including player friendly content and resources, educational programmes, workshops and 1-1 communication.


• Provide further reinforcement of the nutritional framework, conducted by individual consultations with players and their support networks, encouraging a 24hr professional mentality surrounding whole food choices. This will involve cooking lessons, education sessions and liaison with parents and host families whilst working within the rules of professional confidentiality, codes of conduct, standards, and guidelines.


• Be present at key mealtimes to reinforce messages.


• Ensure any supplement use is in accordance with anti-doping regulations. and maintain an up-to-date record of use.


• Help to conduct continual objective monitoring of any nutritional interventions (supplement or whole food) imposed upon the Academy players.


• Distribute regular reports amongst the multidisciplinary team to demonstrate any objective assessments.


• Provide reflective reports to the Nutrition Department and work collectively to improve the standard of performance nutrition in the club.


• Actively seek CPD opportunities that develop both the individual and the Nutrition Team.


• Conduct regular body composition assessment with the U18 cohort.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Proactive in nature and able to generate innovative ideas


• Values & respects others, builds relationships, collaborates


• Gets things done, delivers to highest of standards, takes responsibility and is able to be flexible.


• Exceptionally high degree of personal and professional integrity.


• A strong team ethos with demonstrable abilities in building and maintaining productive relationships with both coaching and playing staff within a high-performance environment.


• Excellent interpersonal skills, with clear and adaptable communication skills that foster productive working relationships at all levels.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Degree level or equivalent in appropriate subject (e.g., Nutrition, Sports Science, Dietetics). (Essential)


• ISAK Level 1 Accreditation (Essential)


• Experience in high performance sport, preferably football and/or youth sport, providing nutritional support to athletes and coaches to improve performance. (Essential)


• Post-graduate qualification in a relevant area (e.g., MSc, IOC Diploma in Sports Nutrition). (Desirable)


• Graduate or High-Performance registrant on the Sport and Exercise Nutrition register (SENr). (Desirable)


• Experience of managing supplement use in sport, with practical knowledge and understanding of the use of nutritional supplements and ergogenic aids.


• A dynamic ability to translate food science into practical advice for footballers and use excellent, engaging communication skills to motivate behavioural change in those individuals that require it.


• Experience of implementing effective strategies for individuals with body composition issues within a sports performance environment.


• An understanding of the various sports science/sports medicine disciplines, how they integrate with sports nutrition and a verifiable record of working within a high performance multi-disciplinary team to deliver an effective programme.


• An interest in football, with the importance of promoting and supporting equality, safeguarding and anti-doping in sport.


• Experience in analysing sport specific demands to develop, implement and evaluate the nutritional programme put in place.


• Current Safeguarding Children certificate and First Aid (desirable)


• Excellent IT skills.