Vacancy description
Key Information
- Division:FA Learning
- Location:National Football Centre, St George's Park
- Vacancy Type:Full-time, Permanent
- Closing Date:12 June 2025
Develop and inspire elite performance...
The FA are excited to be recruiting for a Men's Elite Coach Developer to join our FA Learning division. The Elite Coach Developer will play a central role in nurturing and supporting homegrown coaching talent at the top end of the men's game. This hands-on role focuses on directly engaging with elite coaches to co-design and deliver impactful development experiences that go beyond qualifications.
The role blends a deep understanding of elite football environments with practical coach development expertise, ensuring a direct impact on the quality of coaching within the professional game. With a focus on elite coaching, the role will also support the strategic intent of England winning teams by providing a personalised development programme for our age-group national coaches. In a key role in professional football, it will collaborate closely with the FA Technical Director and external professional game stakeholders.
What will you be doing?
- Work closely with coaches operating at the highest levels of the game to deliver bespoke development support, including ongoing mentorship and feedback that extends beyond formal qualifications and addresses the complex demands of elite football.
- Facilitate communities of practice and peer learning groups that allow elite coaches to share knowledge and reflect on challenges in high-performance football.
- Design individual development plans for coaches working within national teams and elite clubs, aligning with long-term performance and development goals.
- Collaborate with national team staff to support the development of England age group coaches, focusing on their in-situ development and leadership impact.
- Integrate sports psychology, leadership development, and emotional intelligence into coach development programmes, supporting the whole coach.
- Support and guide elite coaches through critical transitions (e.g., moving from academy to first team, or from national age group to senior environments).
- Facilitate experiential development through international study visits, shadowing opportunities, and cross-sport learning.
- Implement tools and methodologies for identifying, tracking and measuring elite coaches across the professional game to support succession planning.
- Support the Qualifications Lead to ensure qualifications are fit for purpose for coaches working in the elite game.
- Champion equality, diversity, and inclusion by ensuring fair access and support for underrepresented coaches.
- Track and evaluate the effectiveness of all activities and regularly report on progress, identifying key outcomes and areas for further development to ensure the continuous enhancement of elite coach development.
- Manage the budget for elite coach development programmes, ensuring resources are effectively allocated to support key initiatives.
- Executes 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:
- UEFA A or Pro License.
- First-hand experience working within elite football environments (senior first team or national team level).
- Proven ability to develop coaches through observation, feedback, mentorship, and co-delivery.
- Strong understanding of high-performance coaching practice and its day-to-day realities.
- Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to connect meaningfully with coaches and build trust quickly.
- Skilled in video and data analysis, with the ability to use performance insights to inform coach development.
- Deep understanding of adult learning and coach education principles, especially in high-stakes environments.
- Ability to translate strategy into practical, impactful interventions with real coaching value.
Beneficial to have:
- Undergraduate/postgraduate degree in sports science or a related area.
- Hands-on experience coaching at the elite level or with high-performance teams/players.
- Expertise in sports psychology, especially in working with elite coaches to help them manage the psychological demands of their role and improve their leadership and player management skills.
- Strong project management skills to design, deliver, and oversee long-term coach development programmes.
- Ability to drive innovation by integrating new research, technology, and methods into coaching development programs.
- Ability to deliver presentations, workshops, and seminars at conferences or within the organisation, sharing insights on elite coaching practices and trends.
- Ability to work effectively with coaches and players from diverse cultural backgrounds, understanding the nuances and challenges of coaching in international or multicultural environments.
- Strong ability to analyse data and produce reports on coaching development programs, outcomes, and areas for improvement.
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
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.
Share this page
Vacancy Alerts
Benefits
Recommended Jobs
