About the Role

This is an externally funded position with Crystal Palace Football Club (CPFC), this is an exciting opportunity to conduct applied research around the monitoring and modelling of the training process in Premier League football players.

This is a unique opportunity for an enthusiastic, collegial, and high-performing researcher seeking to embed themselves in a high-performance sporting environment. This role offers a rare opportunity to contribute to a long-term strategic research partnership between academia and elite sport. You’ll join a growing network of researchers working at the interface of sport performance, health, data science, and innovation, with real-world impact across Crystal Palace FC's teams and departments.

Your main duties and responsibilities will include, conducting high quality applied sport science research in a professional football club, including:

• Project management and coordination, research design and governance.
• Data collection and analysis (primarily quantitative, observational designs).
• Dissemination of findings to academic and practitioner audiences.
• Assist in embedding research into feedback mechanisms within CPFC and evaluating its impact.
• Publish research in peer-reviewed journals.
• Present at internal/external meetings, conferences, and stakeholder events – making research accessible to both expert and lay audiences.

This position is part of a significant research investment at CPFC across postgraduate (PhD, MRes) projects spanning sport science, rehabilitation, and computer science domains. These projects engage across CPFC’s senior men’s, senior women’s, and men’s academy teams, and you will play a central role in supporting the development of this collaborative research ecosystem. You will be expected to work from CPFC training ground offices (BR3 1RJ) with some travel to Edge Hill University Campus, Ormskirk.

For informal enquiries about this vacancy, you may wish to contact: Dr Dan Weaving, Senior Lecturer in Applied Sport Science at Weavind@edgehill.ac.uk

About You

As Post Doctoral Research Assistant in Applied Sport Science, you will have:

• Strong research background in a related discipline, ideally within a focus in the training process of athletes and processing of associated technologies. 
• Experience of conducting impactful applied research with stakeholders in high performance sporting organisations, and demonstratable approaches to translating insight from research into decision making.  
• Quantitative research skills and experience, including observational research designs, statistical analysis and analysis of wearable technology or associated data (e.g., GPS, IMU, force plate, video-derived data). 
• Applied knowledge and understanding of the training process of professional athletes across performance and rehabilitation contexts. 
• Data management skills and experience including the merging and aggregation of various data sources. 
• Proficiency with relevant analysis tools (e.g., R, Python, MATLAB).
• Strong communication and collaborative skills and a friendly, open personality relevant to thriving within interdisciplinary environments.

At Edge Hill University we value the benefits a rich and diverse workforce brings to our community and therefore welcome applications from all sections of society.

About Us

At Edge Hill University we believe in the life changing opportunities knowledge can create. Since 1885, we’ve been creating access to knowledge for those who may not have had the opportunity to before. 

Today, the effect we have has a far-reaching impact, not just for those who come to study here but for those who work, invest in, and live in our local communities too. So, if you’ve ever wondered if one person can make a difference, simply speak to our alumni, students, and award-winning staff.

Because for us education isn’t about how much you take in. It’s about what you take out into the world. 

Inspiring minds and changing futures since 1885, Edge Hill University is “A great success story… an institution that improves and impresses year after year” – Times Higher Education.