Job Description

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Job Type: Employee
Duration in Months (for fixed-term jobs): N/A
Job Family: Athletic Operations
# of Open Positions: 1
Faculty/Service - Department: Recreation and Varsity Sports
Campus: Main Campus
Union Affiliation: N/A
Date Posted (YYYY/MM/DD): 2025/10/27
Applications must be received BEFORE (YYYY/MM/DD): 2025/11/07
Hours per week: 35
Salary Grade: Non-Union Grade NM1
Salary Range: $104,880.00 - $131,101.00
About Student Affairs:
Student Affairs is at the very heart of the student experience at the University of Ottawa. We recruit the very best future students, support them throughout their university years and leave them well-prepared for fulfilling careers and future studies. Our team of more than 600 dedicated staff provides the services that keep students happy, well and thriving as they pursue their ambitions. We help them apply and enroll for courses, we oversee 11 residences and an award-winning Dining Hall, we organize fun events, we provide extensive recreation program opportunities and varsity sports activities, we run an innovative career development and experiential learning program and much more!
There's nothing more rewarding than helping future generations reach their full potential at a world-class university. With our wide variety of career opportunities and professional development pathways, we're sure that you'll enjoy the experience as much as our students do.
Position purpose:
Provides strategic leadership and operational oversight of campus recreation programs, facilities, and staff. Ensures the delivery of inclusive, innovative, and sustainable recreational experiences that support student well-being, foster community engagement, and align with the University's mission. This includes all uOttawa fitness and instructional programs, aquatic programming, intramurals and camps.
In this role, your responsibilities will include:
Provide strategic representation for campus recreation within the senior leadership team, ensuring optimal resource utilization and contributing to department-wide decisions that shape the strategic direction, mission and objectives of Recreation and Varsity Sports (RVS).
Lead the development, execution and evaluation of campus recreation programs for students, staff and the external community ensuring alignment with strategic goals, budgetary targets and performance metrics.
Drive the strategic planning and development of sport and recreation infrastructure in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, ensuring facilities meet current and future demands of the university and its partners.
Perform high level analysis of program and facility needs, benchmarking against industry standards and trends to inform strategic decisions that address the unique needs of the University of Ottawa population.
Oversee the strategic allocation of facility resources for all RVS programming, ensuring equitable access and alignment with organizational priorities.
Foster cross-functional collaboration with senior management across RVS sectors to optimize shared resources and achieve integrated departmental objectives in areas such as Marketing, Promotion, Communication, High Performance, IT, Operations, Finance and Human Resources.
Develop and manage the budget and resources allocated in alignment with RVS' annual strategic plan, ensuring financial sustainability and effective use of allocated funds.
Provide strategic leadership in revenue generation through campus recreation programming, setting short and long-term goals to enhance internal and external funding streams.
Lead the recruitment, development, and performance management of recreation staff, fostering a high-performing team culture aligned with departmental values and objectives.
What you will bring:
University degree in sport management, business administration or recreation or an equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience
Five years experience working in a recreational sports, fitness or athletics environment in a supervisory capacity
Five years of experience in human resource and financial management
Bilingualism - French and English (spoken and written)
Experience in developing, implementing and evaluating strategies
Extensive experience in leading and executing several projects simultaneously and prioritizing tasks, often under tight deadlines
Ability to work autonomously and in a team environment
Strong interpersonal skills, exhibits diplomacy and tact, excellent negotiating, conflict resolution and problem-solving skills
Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa:
Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.
The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact hrtalentmanagement@uottawa.ca to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.
Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click to find out more.
If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students, selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.
Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 - Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.

Skills Required