Vacancy description
Key Information
- Division:Men's Technical
- Location:Home based
- Vacancy Type:Casual Contract
- Closing Date:12 June 2025
Unite the Game and Inspire the Nation through Winning England Teams.
The Football Association is seeking to recruit an experienced, passionate, driven sport psychologist to work as part of a collaborative psychology team supporting the England men's pathway teams. The roles will suit psychologists who have experience working collaboratively in high performance teams to positively impact performance of players and staff alike. The role has some flexibility in terms of the FTE. The role will involve National and International travel to support England teams prepare for and play international fixtures and tournaments.
The role is a casual position that requires approx. 80-100 working days in a calendar year. The successful applicant will be home based, but will be expected to commute to work at our National Football Centre in Burton-Upon-Trent where required, as well as attending national and international football camps with English national teams.
What You'll Do?
- Proactively contribute to the delivery of a clearly defined and aligned performance-driven psychology strategy within the England men's pathway.
- Work with key stakeholders to improve performance through the development, effective implementation, and robust evaluation of psychology support to coaches, MDT staff and players.
- Build greater connections with academy clubs to enable relevant staff to have a better understanding of players and to enable more consistent and aligned support between the work being done in clubs and England teams.
- Support the Head of Psychology in the evolution of psychology strategy and deliver against a number of components within the wider psychology strategy.
- 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 You'll Need?
Essential for the role:
Knowledge
- BSc and MSc in psychology / sport psychology (or relevant equivalent).
- British Psychological Society Chartered Status or BASES Support Accredited (or equivalent).
- Registered with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC).
Experience
- Extensive experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team in the delivery of psychological support to high performance sport.
- Extensive experience in providing performance impacting psychological support to tactical / decision making-sports.
- Experience of providing support that targets the optimisation of team dynamics/behaviour.
- Experience of contributing to the creation of player-specific plans (e.g. formulations) and enhancing greater understanding and awareness amongst teams of coaches and support staff.
- Experience of working closely with and directly advising senior stakeholders within a National Governing Body (i.e. programme managers, head coach, Technical Director, General Manager etc).
Technical Skills
- Verbal and written knowledge of English language.
- Ability to create presentations and present to a wide range of key stakeholders.
Beneficial to have:
Knowledge
- PhD in psychology / sport psychology or relevant equivalent.
Experience
- Experience of coaching.
- Have travelled with a team to major international competition at senior or junior level (e.g. Olympic or Paralympic Games, World or European Championships, Commonwealth Games or professional equivalent).
Technical Skills
- Possess a working understanding of match analysis software.
What's in it for you?
We pride ourselves in offering a competitive rate of pay as well as great opportunities to develop and grow in your role.
We are committed to ensuring everyone can flourish in their roles, and by doing this, we offer top-of-the-range facilities across two core business locations. 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 have 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 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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