This position serves as the leader of the women’s basketball program and embraces the vision of principled leadership, academic integration, and competitive excellence. The Head Coach leads by developing a vision, setting team goals, and building a healthy and transformative culture. The Head Coach is responsible for all aspects of the program, including student-athlete development, planning and preparation for practices and contests, managing team staff, identifying and recruiting prospective student-athletes, budget, operational logistics, providing leadership to the respective Friends Group, and participating in appropriate University, community, alumni/ae and media relationships – all in compliance with University, Ivy League and NCAA rules and regulations.

The Head Coach uses athletics as the means to educate student-athletes. This position serves as a teacher and mentor in the holistic development of student-athletes to help build character and teach valuable life lessons including work ethic, discipline, resilience, accountability, adaptability, teamwork, humility, and leadership – in support of the University and College missions. The head coach impacts personal development in addition to athletic development in a meaningful and lasting way.

The Head Coach is responsible for ensuring the health and safety of student-athletes to achieve and maintain peak performance. In the Ivy League, program success is defined broadly and involves much more than winning – a successful program imparts the life lessons described in the above paragraph and results in high levels of student satisfaction and healthy team culture. This position is a key ambassador for the Athletics Department and the University and must reflect the highest levels of integrity, ethical behavior, and adherence to the Ivy League principles. Overall program success begins with the leadership of the Head Coach.

This position typically requires extensive experience in coaching the sport, with coaching at the collegiate level strongly preferred. Particularly for sports that are more prominent on an international level than in the United States, comparable experience may include playing and/or coaching in a professional or other high-performance environments, such as for a national team or at the Olympic level.

This is a term position renewable at the discretion of the Athletics Director.

Job-Specific Responsibilities

1. Team Management

• Implement and direct plans and strategies during practices and competition by teaching and coaching student-athletes. Develop student-athlete knowledge and skills of the sport and help the team perform at optimal competitive levels.
• Promotes a culture of education through athletics. Ensures student-athletes receive meaningful direction and support from coaches by fostering a spirit of continuous improvement and learning. Supports academic primacy by balancing athletic commitment within a richly rigorous academic environment.
• Develops and oversees the plan for student-athlete recruitment and retention that aligns with values of excellence and inclusion, responsible for strategy’s impact on team performance and reputation.
• Credibly and effectively leads and communicates with student-athletes. Mentors student-athletes in embracing leadership roles. Uses athletics to educate students about character development and accountability.
• Supports academic integration of student-athletes with the values of Harvard College.

2. Program Oversight

• Develops and supervises the execution of team strategy, budget, logistics, and operational direction; develops and executes effective recruiting strategy.
• Responsible for compliance with University, Ivy League, NCAA, and other rules and regulations (including the University Conflicts of Interest and Commitment policy).
• Leads, directs, and reviews the work of assistant coaches; recruits, hires, and develops assistant coaches.
• Participates in professional development and sport governance/leadership activities.
• Identifies, explores, and implements innovation opportunities/trends as appropriate.
• Identifies and resolves problems frequently of a complex nature, which may require intricate solutions that impact the team.
• Involves and communicates with athletics administrators, particularly the sport supervisor as necessary for integrated program oversight and success.

3. Communications & Influence

• Effectively communicates with Harvard community, including students, faculty and staff, alumni, and donors.
• Generates interest and enthusiasm for the sport within and outside of the Harvard community.
• Assists with applicable media communication and responds to media inquiries as appropriate.
• As appropriate, assists with influencing positive public interest.

4. Staff Management

• Recruits and hires assistant coaches and team personnel.
• Leads, directs, and sets goals for team personnel.
• Monitors and reviews the work of assistant coaches and staff – provides timely feedback and takes prompt corrective action as necessary.
• Keeps abreast of Harvard policies, communications, and initiatives relating to employee relations, and keeps assistant coaches and staff informed as necessary.
• Promptly responds to complaints by or against assistant coaches and staff pursuant to University policies.

In addition, the Head Coach must:

• Possess strong technical knowledge of college basketball including game preparation, video technology, and practice planning;
• Have demonstrated ability to attract and recruit a diverse group of outstanding applicants to the institution;
• Possess exceptional communication skills.
• Understand emerging issues in college athletics, including national trends and key Ivy League issues.

Basic Qualifications

• Requires a bachelor’s degree.
• Requires at least 7 years of Basketball coaching or other relevant experience.

Additional Qualifications and Skills

• Requires mastery of sport-specific (Basketball) knowledge and relevant issues.
• Understands, embraces, and demonstrates the philosophy, principles, and policies of college athletics.
• Requires advanced management and leadership knowledge.