NJ/NY Gotham FC (“Gotham FC” or “the Club”) is a National Women’s Soccer League (“NWSL”) team representing New Jersey and New York. The team plays at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, NJ. At Gotham FC, we don’t just play soccer; we set trends, challenge the status quo, and lead with bold creativity. While our roots are grounded in the tradition of the beautiful game, everything else about us is fiercely original. We’re here to redefine expectations, break boundaries, and build something that hasn’t been done before. If you’re ready to push the limits and make an impact, you belong at Gotham FC.
The Role:
Gotham FC is seeking an experienced, highly skilled, player-centered Physical Therapist to provide elite physical therapy, rehabilitation, and return-to-performance support for first-team players.
This role is central to Gotham FC’s integrated Human Performance model. The Physical Therapist will evaluate and treat musculoskeletal conditions; design and deliver individualized rehabilitation plans; support field- and gym-based progression; and work within the Department of Human Performance and with technical staff and external medical providers.
The ideal candidate is an excellent clinician and practitioner who can combine high-quality hands-on treatment with objective assessment, rehabilitation programming, player education, clear communication, and thoughtful interdisciplinary decision-making. The role requires flexible hours, including matchdays, weekends, and travel of up to 100% of the team schedule.
Key Responsibilities:
Physical Therapy and Clinical Rehabilitation
• Complete comprehensive physical therapy evaluations, and manage musculoskeletal injuries, post-operative cases, movement impairments, and performance-limiting conditions within professional scope and applicable licensure requirements.
• Own the individualized rehabilitation program for each assigned player, restoring function, range of motion, strength, power, movement quality, conditioning capacity, and soccer-specific readiness.
• Deliver evidence-informed manual therapy, therapeutic exercise, neuromuscular re-education, functional training, and player education.
• Own individualized injury-risk reduction plans for players flagged by screening or recurring issues.
• Complete clinical documentation within club-defined timelines, in line with club policies, professional standards, and applicable privacy requirements.
• Escalate clinical concerns, red flags, progression barriers, and referral needs the same day through established medical processes.
Return-to-Performance and Field-Based Rehabilitation
• Collaborate with the Director of Human Performance and the Head of Medical Performance to build the written, criteria-based rehabilitation and return-to-performance plan for each time-loss injury, and lead or support delivery as the Director of Human Performance assigns case by case.
• Collaborate on, support, and deliver gym- and field-based rehabilitation, including soccer-specific movement, running, acceleration, deceleration, change of direction, high-speed exposure, technical actions, and progressive team-training integration.
• Base progression decisions on documented objective assessments, clinical findings, player-reported response, strength and functional measures, load tolerance, and sport-specific demands.
• Provide daily player status updates covering restrictions, completed work, current capacity, and recommended next steps.
• Attend rehabilitation case reviews, and complete a recurrence review for each reinjury.
• Provide a written readiness recommendation before each player returns to team training. Final medical clearance and selection decisions follow established club and medical processes.
Department Collaboration
• Work within the Department of Human Performance and with technical staff to support daily player care, injury triage, treatment planning, and player-availability workflows.
• Document daily handoffs with the Performance Coach and Performance Fitness Coach for each rehabilitation player, aligning clinical rehabilitation with individual, supplemental, and team-training demands.
• Integrate relevant testing, monitoring, load, and physical-profile information from the Performance Scientist into rehabilitation and reconditioning plans.
• Document communication with team physicians, surgeons, and external providers through approved club procedures.
• Provide each rehabilitation player with a written plan covering milestones, restrictions, progression criteria, and next steps.
Department Development and Operations
• Own assigned rehabilitation protocols, return-to-performance criteria, and clinical documentation standards, and keep them current.
• Lead assigned innovation or quality-improvement projects at the player or organizational level, such as projects that improve rehabilitation delivery, clinical decision support, player education, or medical performance integration.
• Complete weekly checks to keep the treatment and rehabilitation environment clean, organized, safe, and player-ready.
• Maintain the rehabilitation equipment inventory and maintenance log, and submit supply requests.
• Attend assigned medical, performance, rehabilitation, and interdisciplinary meetings.
• Maintain current professional licensure, required certifications, and continuing education.
Required Qualifications:
• Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree from an accredited physical therapy program.
• Current, unrestricted physical therapy license in the applicable jurisdiction, or eligibility to obtain licensure before employment begins.
• Current CPR/AED and First Aid certification.
• Eligibility to meet all club, league, and regulatory requirements for providing physical therapy services in the team’s training and competition environments.
• Minimum of four years of progressive experience in sports physical therapy, rehabilitation, or performance physical therapy within professional sports, elite soccer, Olympic sport, NCAA Division I, or a comparable high-performance team-sport environment.
• Demonstrated expertise in musculoskeletal assessment, manual therapy, therapeutic exercise, functional rehabilitation, and return-to-sport progression.
• Demonstrated experience treating and progressing athletes through post-operative rehabilitation, lower extremity injuries, soft-tissue injuries, and complex return-to-performance cases.
• Experience delivering field-based rehabilitation and working with strength and conditioning or fitness staff to transition athletes from rehabilitation into full training.
• Strong understanding of soccer-specific movement demands, running exposure, acceleration, deceleration, change of direction, high-speed running, and progressive team-training integration.
• Experience using objective testing and athlete-monitoring information to support rehabilitation and return to-performance decisions.
• Strong clinical documentation, organization, communication, and player-education skills.
• Ability to build trusted relationships with elite athletes while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively within an integrated human performance department, with physicians and orthopedic providers, and with technical staff.
• Ability to work flexible hours, weekends, matchdays, and travel of up to 100% of the team schedule.
Preferred Qualifications
• Board Certification in Sports Physical Therapy (SCS), Orthopaedic Physical Therapy (OCS), or another relevant specialty certification.
• Fellowship training, residency training, advanced manual therapy training, or equivalent demonstrated expertise in sports or orthopedic rehabilitation.
• Experience in NWSL, MLS, USL, NCAA Division I, international professional soccer, or a comparable elite women’s-sport or field-based team-sport environment.
• Experience supporting elite women’s soccer and individualized female-athlete health, rehabilitation, and performance needs.
• Experience with force platforms, dynamometry, isokinetic testing, GPS/LPS, motion analysis, force-velocity profiling, and athlete-monitoring systems.
• Experience managing, mentoring, or developing PTs, ATCs, interns, or rehabilitation staff.
• Demonstrated contribution to rehabilitation protocols, return-to-performance systems, clinical education, quality-improvement initiatives, or interdisciplinary performance models.
• Additional athletic training credential, strength and conditioning credential, dry needling certification where permitted, or other relevant advanced qualifications.
Location:
This position is fully in-person, based at Gotham FC’s soccer operations office and practice facility, located in Whippany, New Jersey. Ability to attend all home games and any mandatory events as well as away games, as necessary. A willingness to travel for other business-related needs, as they arise. Ability to work at the team’s business operations office in Jersey City, New Jersey, as needed. Gotham FC requires its associates to live in its market, that is, within reasonable commuting distance of Gotham FC’s offices, practice facility and Sports Illustrated Stadium.
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Gotham FC is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes everyone to our team. We are committed to broadening the pool of qualified talent for consideration, including those who have been historically underrepresented. We strongly encourage people of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and non-binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities to apply.
Job type: Full-Time, Exempt
Salary range: $115-$165k annually
Benefits: Medical, Dental & Vision benefit plans available for Employee and Family, Employee funded 401(k) option
This job description is a broad summary of the essential job functions and general duties for this position, the additional job duties that may be required from time-to-time, the level of knowledge and skill typically required, and the scope of responsibility, but should not be considered an all-inclusive listing of work requirements. The person in this role may be required to and must be willing to perform other duties as assigned, to meet organizational needs. This job description may be modified from time to time, at the sole discretion of Gotham FC. This employee must follow and enforce all policies and procedures formulated by Gotham FC and be a role model for the organization.
The existence of this job description does not modify the employee’s “at-will” status. That is, unless a signed employment contract specifying a term of employment exists between Gotham FC and the employee or his/her/their representative, both Gotham FC and the employee will have the right to terminate the employment relationship at any time, with or without reason or notice, unless otherwise prohibited by law.