About Us

The Perth Bears are Western Australia’s newest professional sporting club, set to join the NRL in 2027. As a high performance organisation, we’re committed to building strong foundations on and off the field to ensure long-term success. Joining our team means being part of a rare start-up opportunity in elite sport, where your expertise will directly shape the future of rugby league in WA and help deliver a legacy for our community.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Elite Pathways Manager, you will lead and coordinate the Perth Bears Academy and Pathways High Performance Program across multiple development pathways.

Working with athletes, coaches, affiliate clubs, and performance staff, you will design and deliver evidence based athletic development programs, oversee athlete testing and monitoring, support talent identification, and ensure alignment with the club’s NRL High Performance model.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the delivery of the Perth Bears Pathways High Performance Program across academy and development squads.
• Design and implement long-term athletic development programs aligned to the club’s NRL High Performance framework.
• Coordinate athlete testing, monitoring, profiling, and performance reporting across pathway programs.
• Oversee the physical development and progression of academy athletes preparing for elite rugby league environments.
• Deliver the annual Perth Elite Player Development Camp and support regional pathway initiatives.
• Collaborate with medical, coaching, and performance staff to support athlete wellbeing, injury management, and performance outcomes.
• Provide education to athletes, coaches, and parents on physical preparation, recovery, nutrition, and high-performance behaviours.
• Support talent identification and athlete development through the use of data, performance analytics, and evidence based decision making

What We’re Looking For

Must Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science, Sport Science, Human Movement, or a related discipline.
• ASCA accreditation (Level 2 preferred) or equivalent.
• Experience in elite or emerging elite athlete development, particularly with adolescent athletes.
• Demonstrated expertise in athlete testing, monitoring, and program design.
• Knowledge of long-term athlete development principles and rugby league physical preparation requirements.
• Current Driver Licence and ability to travel, as required.

Desirable

• Master’s degree in a relevant discipline.
• ASCA Level 3 accreditation or equivalent.
• Experience within NRL, academy, or elite sporting pathway environments.
• Experience working with performance technologies such as GPS, force plates, and velocity-based training systems.
• Experience leading staff, interns, or multidisciplinary projects

Why Join Us?

This is more than a job. It’s a rare opportunity to help shape the future of the Perth Bears and build the foundations of a new NRL club. As part of a start-up environment, your ideas, expertise, and leadership will directly influence the development of our players, coaches, and performance pathways.

You’ll have the chance to build a best-in-class development system from the ground up and work within an ambitious, collaborative, and high performing culture. Most importantly, you’ll leave a legacy on rugby league in Western Australia and help shape the next generation of Perth Bears talent.

Working in a Start-Up Environment

The Perth Bears are a start-up organisation in a critical foundation phase. Like other roles recruited to date, this position is intentionally hands-on and will initially operate with lean support structures.

The role will be fully accountable for establishing, delivering, and operating the function, while the club grows. This is not a role with layers of administration or inherited systems. You will be required to design processes, integrate technology platforms, build relationships, solve problems in real time, and deliver outcomes concurrently.

Success in this role requires comfort with ambiguity, strong personal accountability, and the ability to move seamlessly between strategic planning and day-to-day execution.