Chief Medical Officer
Vacancy description
Key Information
- Division:Men's Technical
- Location:National Football Centre, St George's Park
- Vacancy Type:Full-time, Permanent
- Closing Date:15 February 2026
The FA are looking for a Chief Medical Officer to deliver strategic medical leadership and clinical governance across England teams, ensuring the highest standards of medical governance and clinical practice, and provide guidance / standards to medical practitioners across our Men's, Women's and Para teams that ensure player health and welfare. This role will set medical policy, liaise with football stakeholders to agree clinical standards and oversee cardiac screening across English football and will be the principal medical authority on ethical, regulatory and risk-related matters.
Please include a covering letter with your application, clearly outlining why you are interested in the opportunity and how you meet the criteria.
What will you be doing?
- Provide strategic leadership for medical governance across England teams, ensuring governance frameworks are robust, regularly reviewed and formally documented.
- Lead the identification, assessment and management of clinical risks, ensuring timely escalation and mitigation to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of England players.
- Chair and lead cross-pathway medical governance forums to drive consistent, evidence-based best practice across:
- Cardiac screening
- Medicines management and controlled drugs
- Medical records and data governance
- Injury surveillance
- Medical indemnity and healthcare costs
- Medical equipment standards
- Provide senior medical leadership for the FA's Brain Health Strategy, leading the clinical and research components of the programme, including oversight of the annual Brain Health Symposium to share research and promote best practice across our football stakeholders.
- Oversee the FA's medical research in areas such as current former player studies, other brain health projects, and female athlete health. Work in close partnership with the PFA and professional leagues to ensure alignment and consistency.
- Lead and oversee the FA's game-wide cardiac screening programme, delivering a consistent, high-quality, end-to-end service across FA stakeholders, professional leagues in England and the PFA.
- Represent the FA on external medical and scientific working groups within UK Sports Medicine forums, UEFA and FIFA, sharing best practice and influencing the development of international standards.
- Act as the FA's senior medical representative on internal and external committees where CMO leadership is required (e.g. PFNCC Health & Safety Sub-Committee, UEFA Medical Committee).
- Provide expert medical advice to FA committees and colleges on medical standards and processes, including integrity matters, research strategy, and inclusion (e.g. transgender and DSD policies).
- Hold executive oversight of the FA's game-wide injury surveillance programme (covering England teams, EFL and WSL 1 & 2), working with the Premier League to align data and outcomes, and supporting the development of surveillance within the women's talent pathways and the wider grassroots game.
- Hold responsibility for the FA's Home Office controlled drugs policy and its implementation.
- Ensure effective coordination, communication and integration across all medical activity.
- Lead, develop and inspire FA medical practitioners, creating a culture of collaboration, engagement, continuous improvement and clinical excellence.
- Undertake any other such tasks that may be reasonably determined by the Chief Football Officer to be within the scope of the role.
- Execute additional tasks as required to meet the FA's changing priorities.
- Comply with all company policies and procedures to ensure the highest standards of health, safety, and wellbeing 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:
- Specialist registration in Sport & Exercise Medicine or equivalent significant experience at senior leadership level in sport.
- ATMMiF certificate or equivalent.
- Detailed understanding of the requirements of medical provision and ‘what it takes to win' in elite sport, ideally football.
- Evidence of working with high integrity and professional independence.
- Calm, authoritative, and credible in high-pressure and public-facing contexts.
- Experience of working across multidisciplinary teams.
- Be self-motivated and able to proactively lead and implement strategy.
- Have excellent written communication skills with attention to detail in written documents.
Beneficial to have:
- Have a solid understanding of medical provision in a variety of sporting contexts, across male, female, professional, international and grassroots competition.
- Experience in commissioning or leading research
- Familiarity with the current scientific evidence base relating to brain health in sport.
- Familiarity with the FA's emergency pitchside care courses and the wider background of emergency pitchside care in sport.
- Familiarity with the principles of cardiac screening in sport.
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 offering 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
Currently, we are working 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. The contractual location of this role can be found on the FA Careers page.
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 the Adobe Women’s 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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Benefits



