Lea Rowing Club is Recruiting:
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
Lead Coach – Beginner Pathway
Full-Time
£30,000–35,000
Fixed term appointment – one year
Reports to: Captain, Director of Rowing (when appointed)
Location:
Lea Rowing Club, Spring Hill, London E5 9BL
London Regatta Centre, Royal Docks, London E16 2QD
Application Closing date:
23:59 on Monday 20 July 2026
About Lea Rowing Club
We are Hackney’s rowing club. Founded in 1980 from the merger of five predecessor
clubs, we represent almost two hundred years of rowing heritage in East London.
Today Lea RC is one of the UK’s largest rowing clubs, with over 400 members and 100
junior athletes. We offer rowing to all ages and abilities with squads ranging from
recreational to high performance rowing. In 2022 we were named British Rowing’s Club
of the Year.
About the role
Lea RC has a long and proud tradition of welcoming adults into rowing and developing
their talents. We have one of the largest and most popular adult Learn to Row
programmes in the country, with almost 6,000 people signed up for updates, and
around 300 coming through the programme annually.
The first two years of that journey after Learn to Row are where rowers are made. It is
where the habits, the technique and the love of the sport that carry an athlete through
their entire rowing life take shape.
To date this stage has long been delivered by dedicated volunteers. Now we want to go
further and build on the strong foundation created by them. Getting these first two years
right matters enormously: sound technique and good habits formed early stay with a
rower for the rest of their time in the sport, and a confident, well-coached start is one of
the best investments we can make in an athlete’s competitive rowing future.
For the forthcoming 2026/27 season, we have settled on a two-year Beginner Pathway
for adult rowers joining from Learn to Row into the Club’s competitive pathways. As
Lead Coach, you will own the coaching of that pathway, including Learn to Row. You will
be the professional responsible for the technical development of these athletes, and
you will lead a team of volunteer coaches to deliver a consistent, high-quality
programme across the first two years.
Depending on your experience, this role may also expand to encompass mentoring and
development of volunteer coaches delivering other aspects of our competitive pathway.
This is, first and foremost, a coaching role. We want you by the water, raising the
technical standard of our early-years athletes and modelling excellent coaching.
However, you cannot work alone: getting the best from a team of volunteers, and
building something that outlasts any one person, is central to the job. Your role is to
make the role of the volunteers coherent and straightforward, alleviating the
administrative burdens associated with running a squad.
The two-year pathway is a starting concept, not a finished article, and we want you to
help shape it. Beyond the pathway itself, there is appetite to support the wider technical
education of the membership – running summer courses or sculling schools for
members who are past their first two years but still hungry to develop.
As this is a new role, the position is being offered on a fixed-term basis for one year
while we test and refine the model. If successful, there is scope for the duration of the
position to be extended.
This role will require flexible working, which will include a requirement to work early
mornings, evenings and weekends. You will also need to travel to attend competitions
and training camps.
We are looking someone to come into post ahead of the new season start in September.
For full Job Description and Person Specification please download the PDF from the link below.
To Apply:
Please send a covering letter (of no more than 2 sides of A4) and your CV to captain@learc.org.uk no later than Monday 20 July 2026
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