Grounds Person - St George's Park

Organisation: The Football Association
Salary: Competitive
Location: St George's Park, Burton-Upon-Trent
Contract type: Permanent (Full time)
Closing date: 12 May 2026
Job Description: The FA is proud to be recruiting for an exciting opportunity for a Grounds Person at the iconic National Football Centre, St George's Park. This hands‑on role is central to maintaining the world‑class playing surfaces across the site, ensuring they are consistently prepared to the highest standards. Working as part of a dedicated grounds team, you'll be involved in all aspects of pitch care, from mowing (using pedestrian and ride‑on equipment) and line marking, to fertilising, spraying, aeration and tractor operations. You'll also play a key role in pitch preparation, repair and ongoing maintenance to support a wide range of pitch usage throughout the year.

What will you be doing?

Maintain surfaces to agreed standards by adhering to pre-defined maintenance programs developed in conjunction with appointed industry consultants.
Maintain and prepare the pitches to relevant universal playing standards for all codes of sport hosted by SGP as agreed by bodies such as FA, UEFA, IRB, NFL and FIFA.
Maintain training pitches to professional standard in accordance with the Sports turf industry guidelines.
Maintain surfaces to agreed standards by adhering to pre defined maintenance programs developed in conjunction with appointed industry consultants.
Assist in maintaining all pitch equipment in line with manufactures standards to ensure optimum operation at all times.
Work with Pitch Contractors to reinstate pitch as dictated by the event calendar.
Operate all SGP grounds machinery to maintain the pitch to the highest standard.
Support with the overall estate management and maintenance where required.
Execute additional tasks as required in order to meet FA Group's changing priorities.
Consistently work collaboratively with all other members of the team along with other staff members from different departments.
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:

Previous experience working on professional grass sports surfaces.
Pre-start checks on all machinery.
Competent in the use of ride-on machinery, including tractors.
Attaching implements and machines to tractors, including 3-point linkage and PTO.
Good knowledge of the use of machinery.
General knowledge of fertilisers.
General knowledge of health and safety procedures.
Set height of cut on mowers and set cut accordingly.
Comfortable working in a team.
Good communication skills.

Beneficial to have:

Basic knowledge of irrigation.
Knowledge of and working on different types of pitch construction, such as hybrid, reinforced, natural, and artificial.
Knowledge of pitch grow lights.
Identification of turf diseases.
Working on football pitches at an elite level.
Working within a team.
Use of renovation machinery.
Use of tractor-mounted sprayers.
Regrinding of mower units.

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.
Free private medical cover.
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.
How to apply: https://careers.thefa.com/jobs/vacancy/grounds-person---st-georges-park-nfcsgp0537-national-football-centre-st-georges-park/3036/description/