Vacancy description
Key Information
- Salary:Competitive
- Division:Grassroots Football
- Location:Wembley Stadium
- Vacancy Type:Full-time, Permanent
- Closing Date:6 April 2025
The FA is looking for a Business Strategy & Performance Manager to provide high quality strategic support for some of our key strategic Grassroots programmes and to support the performance and reporting functions for the Grassroots division, driving progress against our 24-28 Grassroots Strategy.
Please note that if shortlisted you will be asked to complete an online video interview, with a deadline of Monday 21st April. If successful at this stage, you will be invited to attend an in person interview on Tuesday 6th or Wednesday 7th May 2025.
Please include a cover letter with your application, outlining your interest and suitability for the role.
What will you be doing?
Strategy
- Lead and deliver key strategic programmes, working with the subject matter experts across the Grassroots division, wider FA and County FAs to ensure they are effectively scoped, planned and collaboratively delivered.
- Lead on the implementation plans for new strategies, working with policy leads to ensure they are appropriately embedded within the operational plans for the Grassroots division and that we are driving forward progress on a day-to-day basis.
- Provide thought leadership and check-and-challenge across the Grassroots division to maximise return on investment and deliver against our strategy.
Performance Management
- Support on all reporting requirements for the Grassroots Division including FA Game Changers, our Grassroots Strategy KPIs and County FA KPIs
- Use insight, analysis and reporting information to deliver presentations to key external and internal stakeholders to keep them updated and inform future direction of programmes.
- Use data to identify any performance issues or risks and work with policy teams to design and implement necessary strategy interventions.
General
- Support the National Game Board, including programme development, performance reporting and alignment with strategic activities of The FA overall and the Grassroots division specifically.
- Deliver all ad-hoc, emerging project work or support related to the new Grassroots 2024-28 strategy and future strategies
- Develop tools to support and upskill the Grassroots division on programme management, production and performance reporting to continually raise standards
- Executes additional tasks as required to meet the FA's changing priorities.
- Comply with all company policies and procedures to ensure that the highest standards of health, safety, and well-being can be maintained.
- As part of the FA's commitment to ensuring a safe environment for everyone in football, every employee will be required to complete a DBS check. The level of the check required will be based on the activity of the specific job role and in line with legislation and government guidance.
What are we looking for?
Essential for the role:
Knowledge
- Strong understanding and experience of strategy development
- Strong experience of analysing and presenting data in various formats
- Ability to think strategically and provide thought leadership
Experience
- Experience of developing and delivering strategic programmes
- Prior experience working within the football sector, strategy and/or management consultancy
- Experience of adopting a hypothesis-lead approach to problem solving
- Experience of working within performance reporting including designing new systems & models, building regular reports and presenting them to stakeholders
Technical Skills
- Advanced Microsoft Office skills, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Strong collaboration skills and ability to influence across an organisation
- Strong data analysis, visualisation and reporting skills
- Strategic programme delivery skills, with experience in scoping, delivering and embedding projects within organisations
Beneficial to have:
Knowledge
- Degree-level qualification
- Experience of analysing reports using Power BI
- Excellent Power Point and visualisation skills
Experience
- Professional or voluntary experience working in grassroots football, a County FA or grassroots sports more broadly
- Experience of stakeholder engagement on strategic projects or programmes
Technical Skills
- Prior experience is developing strategic roadmaps and other strategy communication tools
- Prior expertise in delivering cultural and organisational change initiatives
What's in it for you?
We are committed to ensuring everyone can flourish in their roles, to achieve this we have unique office spaces under the arch of the iconic Wembley National Stadium, which is the home of English Football. We are also delighted to offer a world-class, Elite Performance Centre, St. George's Park in Staffordshire which is an exceptional setting to develop and inspire high-performing England teams and leaders.
We pride ourselves in offering a competitive salary as well as great opportunities to develop and grow in your role. But that is not all; we also have a range of exciting benefits, some of which can be found below:
- Access to event day tickets at Wembley Stadium, alongside a host of regular internal events throughout the season, encouraging you to connect and learn with your colleagues and look after your mental health and well-being.
- Free, nutritious lunches at Wembley Stadium and St. George's Park.
- Free private medical cover.
- A contributory pension scheme.
- An additional 'Thank You' days leave, volunteering days as well as 25 days annual leave (based on a full-time, permanent contract.)
- A hybrid working model which offers greater flexibility.
For more information on what it is like to work at The FA, please visit our FA Careers page, https://www.thefa.com/about-football-association/careers
We are a diverse workplace, aspiring to represent football across the country. The Football Association actively promotes inclusion and diversity, encouraging you to be the best version of yourself at work.
We welcome applications from everyone and are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. If you have any particular requirements in respect of the recruitment or interview process, please mention this during your application.
As part of the FA's commitment to ensuring a safe environment for everyone in football, every employee will be required to complete a DBS check. The level of the check required will be based on the activity of the specific job role and in line with legislation and government guidance.
ABOUT US
The Football Association [The FA] is the not-for-profit governing body of football in England. It is responsible for promoting and developing every level of the game, from grassroots through to the professional game, and generates significant revenue to support investment into English football each year.
The FA oversees England international teams across men’s, women’s, youth and disability football, as well as running the National League System and FA Competitions including the Emirates FA Cup, and Women’s Adobe FA Cup, and the world-class facilities of Wembley Stadium and St. George’s Park, all with a purpose to inspire positive change through football.
Our game can tackle some of society’s core challenges. It can bring communities together, nationally and locally. It can be a platform for inclusion, ensuring there is a place for all. It can get people active and promote wellbeing often at a time when we need it most. With UEFA EURO 2028 – hosted in the UK and Ireland – on the horizon, we have an incredible opportunity to transform football across the country.
Now is the time to inspire positive change.
We currently work within a hybrid working model whereby the expectation is to work from your contractual location for part of the week, and as and when required by the team. The remaining days can be worked remotely. We will continue to monitor this model, and it may be adjusted in future if deemed necessary.
Your contract with The FA will specify a fixed location of Wembley Stadium or St. George’s Park unless the role is advertised as a homebased contract. The contractual location of this role can be found at the top of this advert on our FA vacancy page.
THE PROCESS
We believe that assessment and selection should be robust, fair, and inclusive.
Following receipt of your application and the closing of the application process, you can expect a period of circa two weeks for us to thoroughly screen and shortlist, ahead of any next stage and interview.
Please note, we receive a high volume of applications so this can vary but we ensure that our assessor panel reviews all applications, and no use of automated screening or AI is used.
At an interview, we want to ensure that we see the best of you as an individual and increase our understanding of your skills and experience relevant to the demands of the role. It is very much a two-way process with importance placed on the candidate experience so that regardless of outcome, you feel valued, and treated fairly and hopefully have a positive experience.
No process is ever the same, but we would like to create an environment that is welcoming and ensures the experience is as enjoyable as possible.
We tailor our assessment and selection depending on the nature and demands of the role. The FA Resourcing Team will provide you with as much notice as possible about the process and the format of any interview will always be communicated to you in advance, including what to expect on the day and who you will be seeing.
We often receive a high volume of applications, and for certain roles, we will supplement your application, utilising our on-demand video interviewing platform. On-demand video interviews enable you to answer preset questions, in the comfort of your own home or office setting and at a convenient time for you, giving us greater insight into you as an individual and the skills and experience you might bring to the role and working at The FA.
We also utilise Microsoft Teams for virtual interviews and of course host you at our world class venues, Wembley Stadium and our National Football Centre, St. George’s Park.
GROUP STRATEGY
WE HAVE MOVED FOOTBALL FORWARD.
From 2020 - 2024, we have – in collaboration with our key partners – been able to deliver meaningful change across the game.
From winning our first major tournament in over 50 years to delivering thousands of high-quality pitches to the grassroots game.
BUT WE CAN’T STOP NOW - AND WE WON’T.
This new strategy is about doubling down. Our game can tackle some of society’s core challenges. It can bring communities together, nationally and locally.
It can be a platform for inclusion, ensuring there is a place for all. It can get people active and promote wellbeing often at a time when we need it most.
With UEFA EURO 2028 – hosted in the UK and Ireland – on the horizon, we have an incredible opportunity to transform football across the country.
NOW IS THE TIME TO INSPIRE POSITIVE CHANGE.
Our ultimate purpose is to ‘Inspire positive change through football’ – everything we do ultimately ladders up to this end goal.
The 2024-2028 strategy focuses on tackling four long-term strategic challenges that will fulfil this purpose and drive real change across the game, our ‘Game Changer’ objectives.
Underpinning these Game Changers are then four activities and approaches that will enable us to meet challenges head on, our ‘Drivers’.
EDI STRATEGY
Our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy forms an integral part of our long-term commitment to using our influence across English football to create a game free from discrimination.
A GAME FREE FROM DISCRIMINATION
Our 2024 – 2028 strategy outlines three fundamental pillars for delivering a game free from discrimination – Boosting Representation, Driving Inclusion and Tackling Discrimination.
These pillars ensure that our work uniting communities, improving lives, and inspiring positive change on and off the pitch will remain a core priority for English football for years to come.
We are a diverse workplace, aspiring to represent football across the country. The FA actively promotes inclusion and diversity, encouraging you to be the best version of yourself at work.
We welcome applications from everyone and are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. If you have any particular requirements in respect of the recruitment or interview process, please mention this during your application.
As part of The FA’s commitment to ensuring a safe environment for everyone in football, every employee will be required to complete a DBS check. The level of the check required will be based on the activity of the specific job role and in line with legislation and government guidance.
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