Vacancy description
Key Information
- Division:Football Operations
- Location:Home based
- Vacancy Type:Part-time, Permanent
- Closing Date:6 October 2026
The FA is seeking a passionate and driven Women's Refereeing Recruitment & Retention Officer to help shape the future of women's refereeing in England. This is a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact on the game by increasing the number and diversity of women referees nationwide and enhancing the experience of women match officials at every stage of the pathway.
What will you be doing?
- Lead national recruitment initiatives to increase the number and diversity of women referees, ensuring activity is targeted, evidence-led, and aligned to FA Refereeing Strategy 2035.
- Develop and deliver retention strategies that improve engagement, support, confidence, wellbeing and long-term participation for women referees across the grassroots and developing pathway.
- Support delivery of the women's refereeing strategic objectives linked to workforce growth and improved referee experience, working closely with the Senior Manager – Women's Refereeing and wider refereeing department colleagues.
- Embed the Refereeing DNA into recruitment, onboarding, development, and engagement activity so that women referees receive a consistent, values-led experience from their first contact with refereeing.
- Connect recruitment and retention activity to the National Referee Curriculum, with particular focus on the Foundation and Perform stages to support new referees, developing officials, and those progressing through the early pathway.
- Support the identification of high-potential female match officials through targeted talent identification activity, referrals and local partnerships, contributing to the development of a diverse national talent pool
- Build strong partnerships with County FAs, leagues, clubs, schools, colleges, universities, community organisations, and education providers to grow local women's referee pathways and diversify routes into refereeing.
- Design and coordinate national campaigns, local activation plans, and targeted interventions that encourage women and girls to start, continue, and progress in refereeing.
- Monitor workforce data, participant feedback, course conversion, registration, retention, and engagement measures to identify trends, evaluate impact, and inform continuous improvement.
- Work with communications, learning, development, safeguarding, and operations colleagues to ensure recruitment and retention activity is joined up, inclusive, safe, and accessible.
- Provide regular updates, insight, and recommendations to the Senior Manager – Women's Refereeing on progress against recruitment, retention, experience, and participation objectives.
- 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.
What are we looking for?
Candidates who can demonstrate some or all of the following:
- Experience of designing, delivering or supporting programmes, projects or initiatives that drive recruitment, retention, participation, engagement, learning, workforce development or community growth.
- A passion for creating inclusive environments and encouraging greater participation among women, girls and underrepresented groups in sport.
- Strong relationship-building skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders and partners.
- Excellent communication and engagement skills, with experience presenting, facilitating or influencing across different audiences.
- Strong planning and organisational skills, with the ability to coordinate multiple activities, manage priorities and deliver outcomes.
- Ability to use insight, feedback and data to evaluate activity, identify opportunities for improvement and measure impact.
- A proactive and solutions-focused approach, with the confidence to work independently and as part of a team.
- A commitment to inclusion, safeguarding, wellbeing and creating positive experiences for participants, volunteers or customers.
We recognise that skills and experience can be gained in many different settings. If you are excited by this opportunity but do not meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply.
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Knowledge of football, refereeing or the women's and girls' game in England.
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Understanding of the referee pathway, workforce development pathways or talent development programmes.
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Experience working within football, sport, education, community development or a membership-based organisation.
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Experience delivering participation, volunteer, recruitment or engagement initiatives through local delivery partners.
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Experience developing targeted campaigns, engagement plans or programmes aimed at women, girls or underrepresented groups.
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Experience using digital platforms, learning management systems, CRM tools or reporting dashboards to monitor engagement and outcomes.
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Experience as a referee, coach, mentor, volunteer, educator or participant within sport.
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An understanding of the barriers and opportunities associated with attracting, developing and retaining diverse volunteer workforces.
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 on 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, encourages 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.
- Private medical cover funded by The FA.
- A contributory pension scheme.
- An additional 'Thank You' day's leave, volunteering days, as well as 25 days of 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
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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