Business Strategy & Performance Manager

Organisation: The Football Association
Salary: Competitive
Location: Wembley Stadium
Contract type: Permanent (Full time)
Closing date: 2 November 2025
Job Description: We are seeking a strategic Business Strategy and Performance Manager with strong analytical skills to play a key role in advancing our 2024–2028 Grassroots Strategy. This role will provide quality strategic support across key Grassroots programmes, while also supporting on performance monitoring and reporting for the division.

Please include a cover letter with your application, clearly outlining your interest in the position and how you meet the criteria.

If shortlisted you will be asked to complete an online video interview and will be informed of this on or around 5th November and will have one week to complete this.

If successful beyond the video interview stage you will be invited to attend an in person interview at Wembley Stadium on the 25th November.

What will you be doing?

Strategy

Lead the strategy development of key football programmes, working with the subject matter experts across the Grassroots division, wider FA and County FAs to ensure they are effectively scoped, planned and collaboratively delivered.
Lead on the implementation plans for new strategies, working with policy leads to ensure they are appropriately embedded within the operational plans for the Grassroots division and that we are driving forward progress on a day-to-day basis.
Provide thought leadership and check-and-challenge across the Grassroots division to maximise return on investment and deliver against our strategy.

Performance Management

Support on all reporting for the Grassroots Division including FA Game Changers, our Grassroots Strategy KPIs and County FA KPIs
Use insight, analysis and reporting information to deliver presentations to key external and internal stakeholders to keep them updated and inform future direction of programmes.
Use data to identify any performance issues or risks and work with policy teams to design and implement necessary strategy interventions.

General

Support the National Game Board, including programme development, performance reporting and alignment with strategic activities of The FA overall and the Grassroots division specifically.
Deliver all ad-hoc, emerging project work or support related to the new Grassroots 2024-28 strategy and future strategies
Develop tools to support and upskill the Grassroots division on programme management, production and performance reporting to continually raise standards
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:

Knowledge

Strong understanding of strategy development
Analysing and presenting data in various formats
Ability to think strategically and provide thought leadership
Excellent Power Point and visualisation skills
Managing and aligning key stakeholders

Experience

Experience of developing and delivering strategic programmes
Prior experience working in strategy and/or a management consultancy
Experience of adopting a hypothesis-led approach to problem solving
Experience of working within performance reporting including designing new systems & models, building regular reports and presenting them to stakeholders

Technical Skills

Strong data analysis, visualisation and reporting skills
Advanced Microsoft Office skills, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Strong time management and independent working, being able to juggle multiple workstreams and prioritise effectively
Strong collaboration skills and ability to influence across an organisation
Strategic programme delivery skills, with experience in scoping, delivering and embedding projects within organisations

Beneficial to have:

Knowledge

Degree-level qualification
Analysing reports using Power BI

Experience

Professional or voluntary experience working in grassroots football, a County FA or grassroots sports more broadly
Experience of stakeholder engagement on strategic projects or programmes

Technical Skills

Prior experience is developing strategic roadmaps and other strategy communication tools
Prior expertise in delivering cultural and organisational change initiatives

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

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.
How to apply: https://careers.thefa.com/jobs/vacancy/business-strategy--performance-manager-wnsl0989-wembley-stadium/2803/description/