About the job

Note to applicants: Applications will only be accepted via email, detailed in the How to Apply section below.

About Us

The Perth Bears are Western Australia’s newest professional sporting club, set to join the NRL in 2027. As a highperformance organisation, we are committed to building strong foundations on and off the field to ensure long term success.

Joining the Perth Bears means being part of a rare opportunity in elite sport, where your leadership will directly shape the future of rugby league in Western Australia and help deliver a lasting legacy for our community.

The Perth Bears will move through various phases as the club evolves: start up, build and developed. Having successfully navigated the start-up phase, the club now enters the build phase as we prepare to enter the competition in the 2027 NRL season.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Board, the Chief Executive Officer is responsible for leading the strategic direction, management and performance of the Perth Bears organisation as a whole. The role provides leadership across all functions, including football, commercial, business operations, community and game development, and technology, data and innovation.

The CEO will drive the delivery of the Perth Bears Strategic Plan (Our Strategy | Perth Bears: Official Bears Website).

This includes building a high performance culture, ensuring compliance with NRL rules and regulations, and delivering a sustainable and successful organisation, on and off the field, for the long term.

What You’ll Do

• Strategy and Board: Lead the delivery and evolution of the club’s strategic plan, working in close partnership with the Chairman and Board.
• Football performance: Oversee the football department, through the General Manager of Football, to build a competitive, sustainable and high performing program.
• Commercial growth: Drive revenue across partnerships, membership, ticketing, hospitality and events to underpin the club’s long term financial sustainability.
• Financial and operational management: Ensure sound financial management, budgeting and reporting, including salary cap compliance and delivery of the Perth Bears Elite Training Facility.
• Governance and risk: Maintain robust governance, risk management and integrity frameworks consistent with NRL and statutory obligations. Ensure personal and organisation knowledge and compliance with NRL Rules and policies affecting the conduct of an NRL franchise.
• Stakeholders and community: Build strong relationships with the NRL, government, venue and commercial partners, NRL Western Australia, members, fans and the wider WA community.
• People and culture: Lead and develop the Executive Team, fostering a values-led, inclusive and high-performance culture across the club.
• Club ambassador: Act as the public face and principal spokesperson of the Perth Bears.

What We Are Looking For

• Senior leadership experience across commercial, business and elite sporting environments, ideally within rugby league.
• Previous experience as a Chief Executive Officer or equivalent, with the ability to draw on that experience to develop and mentor the Executive Team.
• A balanced, whole-of-organisation perspective, weighing football, commercial, operational and community priorities objectively.
• A proven track record of collaborative leadership and mentoring.
• A strong understanding of diverse stakeholder requirements and the ability to build effective, trusted relationships at all levels.
• Experience leading large teams in a high pressure, high profile environment.
• A strong understanding of the evolving role and application of technology, data and innovation in elite sport.
• A demonstrated ability to lead change and challenge convention, unconstrained by traditional ways of doing things.
• Strong experience in the financial and operational management of an organisation of comparable scale and complexity.
• Experience working with and reporting to a Board, with a sound understanding of corporate governance.
• Demonstrated resilience of character.

Why Join Us

As CEO, your vision, energy and leadership will directly shape the club’s future and its place in Australian sport.

• A rare opportunity to build an elite sporting organisation, within a high profile, values driven club and join the team ahead of our debut season.
• Lead a dynamic, ambitious and supportive culture
• Leave a lasting mark on rugby league in Western Australia

Important Information

Applications close at 12:00 noon (AWST) on Thursday 22 October 2026.

This role is not open to recruitment agencies.