Grassroots Data & Intelligence Manager - 12 month Fixed Term Contract

Organisation: The Football Association
Salary: Competitive
Location: Wembley Stadium
Contract type: Fixed Term (Full time)
Closing date: 12 August 2026
Job Description: The FA's Grassroots Division is looking for a Grassroots Data & Intelligence Manager to transform how we use data, delivering the insights and decision-support tools that help shape decisions and maximise impact across grassroots football.

This role is a 12 month fixed term contract, with the possibility of extension, dependent on further funding.

What will you be doing?

Lead a team of Grassroots Data Analysts, setting standards for technical quality, stakeholder engagement, and professional development.
Own the Grassroots Data & Intelligence roadmap, managing intake, triage, and resource planning to maximise delivery and impact.
Work with Grassroots and County FA stakeholders to define the requirements for Place Profiles, a core enabler of the next phase of Grassroots Football.
Work with stakeholders, including technical teams, to define, prioritise, and integrate relevant external data sources including ONS, health, demographic, and local authority datasets.
Oversee the planning, development, and maintenance of Place Profiles, ensuring outputs are accurate, actionable, user‑friendly, and aligned with best‑practice data storytelling.
Drive adoption of Place Profiles, leading feedback workshops and UAT, and delivering training, demos, and guidance to build capability across the Grassroots Division and County FA network.
Investigate and leverage AI and advanced analytics to enhance insight delivery, proactively identifying, testing, and embedding tools that automate analysis, improve accessibility, and make complex data easier to understand.
Champion data governance and quality, working with technical teams to improve data pipelines, resolve quality issues, and maintain documentation.
Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders, understanding their needs, challenging assumptions, and building a culture of data-driven decision making.
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:

Skills:

Strategic Thinking: Comfortable linking analytical work to organisational goals
Prioritisation & Decision‑Making: Skilled at managing competing demands, making evidence‑based trade‑offs, and communicating priorities confidently
Stakeholder Management: Strong relationship‑builder able to challenge constructively, manage expectations, and adapt communication to senior audiences
Problem‑Solving & Framing: Able to translate ambiguous questions into clear analytical briefs and shape the approach for the team
Technical: Applies advanced Power BI and Excel skills, with strong knowledge of SQL and/or DAX
Experience:

Leading an analytics or insight function, including managing backlogs, pipelines, or portfolios of insight work
Working with cross‑functional technical teams (e.g., data engineering, digital technology) to improve data pipelines and models
Integrating and analysing data from multiple sources and managing complex datasets
With the end-to-end ownership of a dashboard ecosystem
Presenting insights in compelling ways, using storytelling, visualisation best practices, and non‑technical language

Beneficial to have:

Skills:

Familiarity with advanced analytics practices, such as forecasting, segmentation, or geospatial analysis
Familiarity with new and emerging data analytics tools and platforms including AI
Background in sport, participation‑focused organisations, or place‑based insight, especially involving datasets like ONS, Active Lives, or local authority data
Experience:

Developing people through clear guidance, feedback, and career support, building both technical and soft‑skill capability
Influencing senior leaders through compelling insight storytelling and evidence‑based recommendations

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.

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: For further information and to apply please follow the below link: https://careers.thefa.com/jobs/vacancy/grassroots-data--intelligence-manager----12-month-fixed-term-contract-wnsl1111-wembley-stadium/3185/description/

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Grassroots Data & Intelligence Manager - 12 month Fixed Term Contract