POSITION SUMMARY
USA Lacrosse is looking for someone to join our team as our Director, Center for Sports Science & Safety for a three-year limited-term opportunity.  This critical role leads and coordinates the strategy for activities of the USA Lacrosse Center for Sports Science & Safety.  The primary focus for this role include the following three (3) key areas for USA Lacrosse: 

  • Provides leadership and direct applied sport science support for the National Teams (NT) and National Teams Development Program (NTDP). 
  • Leads and oversees the applied research and innovation program. 
  • Guides and collaborates in knowledge translation and education.   

The Director, Center for Sport Science & Safety partners with the VP, High Performance to advance athlete health, training, and performance through lacrosse-specific research, education, policy development, and best practices.  As the subject matter expert and collaborative thought leader, this role works across departments and with key stakeholders to deliver impactful athlete support, research, and educational initiatives that drive positive outcomes for all athletes.

If you are an analytical, collaborative, and driven researcher who wants to enhance sport science and safety to support elite athletes excel on the lacrosse field, this could be a great opportunity for you.  You will work alongside talented and passionate professionals, top athletes, coaches, medical personnel, and research collaborators to apply and develop sport science best practices and research findings to enable athletes to perform at peak levels.   

A Typical Day Looks Like…
Strategy & Oversight of Sport Science & Safety

  • Develops and leads the strategy for USA Lacrosse’s Center for Sport Science & Safety (the Center) initiatives, including but not limited to, the use of data and development of best-in-class health and safety, training, and performance protocols and services for our National Teams (NTs) and National Team Development Program (NTDP). 
  • Supports the management of the Integrated Interdisciplinary Support Team (IIST) personnel who support the NTs and NTDP (i.e., medical support personnel, strength and conditioning coaches, and other ad hoc allied healthcare and performance personnel).  This includes providing collaboration with the Lead, Medical and Performance Services.
  • Collaborates cross-departmentally to incorporate NTs, NTDP, Athlete Protection, and High-Performance standards, practices, and initiatives throughout the organization for a unified message and direction.   
  • Continually evaluates programs and looks to advance USA Lacrosse’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within the Center.

National Teams & National Teams Development Program

  • Collaborates with NT and NTDP staff and coaches to coordinate and organize the implementation of applied sport science initiatives.  This includes leading the collection, management, analysis, and reporting on training, competition, and performance testing data for NTs and NTDP athletes.
  • Travels with USA Lacrosse’s NTs and NTDP to implement and oversee all protocols for athlete monitoring systems, including but not limited to, GPS, heart rate, surveys, and hydration. 
  • Applies best practices to data lifecycle management including, but not limited to, data collection, processing, storage/access, analysis, interpretation, visualization, and dissemination to ensure accuracy and compliance. 
  • Responsible for managing technology platforms used within the NTs and NTDP related to health, training, and performance data inclusive of support personnel onboarding and overall player management.
  • Supports USAL NT and NTDP staff in the management of NT and NTDP events (i.e., training camps, competitions, etc.) operations.

Research, Analysis, & Reporting

  • Stays up to date and informed on current research, best practices, and emerging technologies relevant to sports science, sharing insights with the team to enhance department initiatives.  This includes having a pulse on what other National Governing Body’s (NGB’s) are doing.
  • Helps oversee and lead the internal applied sport science research program.  This includes identifying and prioritizing projects, coordinating and managing collaboration with external SMEs, executing MOUs, and internal use of data insights.   
  • Manages applied sport science research protocols to ensure projects remain on schedule and are successfully completed.  This includes troubleshooting and escalating roadblocks to the VP, High Performance as appropriate.
  • Generates post-event (i.e., camps, competitions, combines, etc.) reports and data feedback workflows to promote the dissemination of data and performance insights to appropriate NT and NTDP stakeholders.
  • Leads the preparation of scientific conference presentations and scientific manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Administration & Communication

  • Collaborates with the marketing and communications team to develop lacrosse-specific educational assets and content across different formats for USA Lacrosse members on relevant and timely sport science/medicine topics.  Ensuring appropriate knowledge translation is critical to this process.
  • Implements and updates internal SOPs for sport science protocols for areas including, but not limited to, GPS technology, hydration monitoring, recovery/regeneration strategies, and injury surveillance.
  • Assists in the development of long-term athlete profiling across technical, tactical, physical, and mental performance pillars.
  • Supports return-to-play protocols with NT and NTDP medical support personnel as needed.
  • Supports the VP, High Performance by providing administrative leadership and organizational support managing the annual operating budget and the Sports Science & Safety Committee.