Head of International

Brief role description:

The Head of International Growth is a new strategic leadership role that will enable parkrun to unlock dynamic, sustainable growth across some of key geographies — currently Europe, Africa, and America, though these may evolve over time. Reporting to the CEO and working closely with the Global Heads of Commercial, Legal and Governance and Event Delivery and Volunteering, the successful candidate will lead the development and execution of parkrun’s international growth strategy.

They will support country managers and regional teams to build scalable, values-led operations that drive participation, social impact, and revenue, while ensuring alignment with parkrun’s global purpose and compliance standards. The role will also oversee market analysis, prioritisation, and partnership development, with accountability for growth KPIs, budget oversight, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver measurable impact across existing and new countries.

This role will:

• Work with country and regional managers to build parkrun’s international strategy, identifying opportunities to grow parkrun both within our existing footprint and also into new countries.

• Develop parkrun’s strategic connectivity and brand awareness in key countries, building advocacy for our vision and purpose.

• Enable sustainable commercial growth by building and delivering revenue strategies tailored to the regional opportunities and overseeing budgets

• Provide inspirational leadership to Country and Regional Managers and advocate for their needs to the Global leadership team.

• Be an expert at strong relationship building including via virtual channels and be prepared to work flexibly to manage a broad geographic remit. This will include some travel but much of the work will need to be conducted virtually.

About parkrun

parkrun is a health and wellbeing charity and our vision is to create a healthier and happier planet.

Since our conception in 2004, parkrun has evolved into a global social movement with a vibrant and inclusive community at its core. Our mission is to transform lives by empowering people to be active, together, outdoors in their local community. Each and every weekend, we deliver free, weekly timed events that people of all ages and backgrounds can join in. By tackling barriers to participation, we encourage communities to come together and embrace regular physical activity.

In 2026 we celebrated our 1 millionth event and regularly have 500,000 people participating in parkrun each weekend. parkrun spans over 3000 locations in 23 countries with more than 12 million people registered, and counting.

And we have really only just begun.

Main responsibilities:

• Strategic Influence & Stature: Drive the overall presence, reputation, and stature of parkrun across North America, Europe and Africa. Champion Parkrun's mission to break down barriers to physical activity, establishing the brand as a recognised and respected leader in community health and wellbeing.

• Strategic Partnerships & Coalitions: Cultivate and secure strategic relationships across commercial, governmental and participation based stakeholders, creating a network of advocates for parkrun’s vision and ambition aligned to strategic aims.

• Revenue Generation & Sustainability: Working with the Global Commercial team, design and execute commercial revenue strategies tailored to North America, Europe and Africa. Identify, negotiate, and secure sustainable funding streams, corporate sponsor ships, and grants and foundations which ensure regional financial self-sustainability and fund future international expansion.

• Participation Growth: Support local teams to hit country participation growth targets and explore approaches to accelerate growth, using…