Vacancy description
Key Information
- Division:St. George's Park Operations
- Location:National Football Centre, St George's Park
- Vacancy Type:Fixed Term Contract, Full-time
- Closing Date:19 August 2025
Set the bar for greatness...
The Football Association has an exciting opportunity for a Programme Manager (SGP 2.0) to join our Operations team on a 2-year fixed-term contract.
‘SGP 2.0' is a high-profile, multi-year initiative to upgrade the FA's performance centre for England teams and coach education. Working to support the SGP General Manager, the Programme Manager will be responsible for PMO oversight and coordination of multiple strategic projects across various workstreams within SGP 2.0. This involves coordinating efforts between different functions and FA divisions, overseeing milestones, connections and dependencies and managing risk in alignment with SGP 2.0's strategic objectives and FA organisational processes.
This role is based at St George's Park and will require the successful candidate to work on site approximately 3 days a week.
What will you be doing?
- Drive collaboration between teams, departments and divisions, to ensure connectivity, joined-up thinking and synergies aligned to SGP's purpose and the SGP 2.0 strategy.
- Coordinate delivery across projects and activities through consolidated programme plans, ensuring progress is accurately tracked and reported, risks are effectively managed, and accountabilities are clear and upheld.
- Oversee programme deliverables, timelines, milestones, risks and interdependencies to ensure that projects are delivered on time, within scope, meet quality standards, and minimise disruption to live site activities.
- In collaboration with the SGP Capital Projects Manager and SGP Finance Business Partners, track the SGP 2.0 budget to ensure cost-effective use of resources, accurate change control, and maximum value for the FA.
- Coordinate governance forums to enable effective information sharing and timely decision making.
- Build and maintain strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure a collaborative and cross-functional approach, ensuring projects are resourced for successful delivery.
- Take ownership of cross-functional projects and initiatives as required.
- Be prepared to provide ‘hands-on' surge capacity to resolve issues and keep individual projects on track.
- Assist SGP Dept Managers to define, establish, and embed post-project changes to the SGP operating model.
- Conduct post-project evaluations to assess effectiveness and identify lessons learned, using this insight to inform future programme management.
- Provide support to the broader SGP strategy, business and financial planning cycles as required.
- 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:
- Undergraduate degree or equivalent.
- Project management qualification.
- PMO support to programmes in complex and fast-paced environments.
- A flexible and adaptable approach.
- Ability to align programmes with strategy, make informed decisions, and manage risk effectively.
- Strong leadership and influencing skills, with the ability to manage multiple stakeholders.
- Relationship building within a matrix-structured organisation and the ability to galvanise people within non-direct reporting structures.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities.
- Excellent organisational and planning skills.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
- Familiarity with project management software.
- Concise report writing skills.
- Microsoft Office, in particular Excel and PowerPoint.
- Confident presentations to a wide range of key stakeholders.
Beneficial to have:
- MBA or relevant postgraduate qualification.
- Programme management qualification.
- Experience working in an elite sports environment.
- Experience working on capital projects and construction programmes.
- Passion for sport and/or football.
- Financial planning and management.
- Familiarity with Smartsheet software.
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 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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