Relationship Manager

Over the last 22 years, the Foundation has awarded more than 23,000 grants to deliver outstanding grassroots facilities across England worth more than £877 million. This year, the Foundation will be investing more money than ever into facilities across England and is committed to improving the experience of playing football for everyone. 

The Foundation’s goal is to unlock the power of pitches ensuring everyone has a great place to play regardless of gender, race, disability or place.

In this new and exciting position, you will lead the Foundation’s post-award relationship locally and nationally with some of our biggest and most complex capital investments as part of our Hubs Programme. 

A key part of the role will involve working at a strategic level with the Board of Trustees of the National Football Trust – the charity responsible for managing and operating most Hub sites via its dedicated operator, Leisure United.  With Foundation colleagues you will work collaboratively with the Trust and Leisure United to ensure outcomes from our Hub investments are maximised by tackling inequalities amongst our four priority audiences. 

At a local level, you will begin working with each new Hub project during the build-phase, quickly establishing strong relationships with stakeholders to optimise the programme of use and ensure development plans are focussed on benefitting people living with the greatest challenges.  You will play a vital role to broaden the programmes and opportunities offered ‘on and off the pitch’ across the Hubs network by forging relationships with a wide range of agencies to develop new initiatives in areas such as health, education, and community development.  

You will help to establish key performance indicators and be responsible for overseeing measurement to effectively monitor the impact and performance of each Hub and lead the reporting to local and national stakeholders.  You will also guide and support local stakeholders to identify re-investment priorities for Hub surpluses that will have the biggest impact against their Local Football Facility Plan and the National Football Facilities Strategy, overseeing a recommendation process to the National Football Trust Board. 

We’d love to hear from you if you have an excellent understanding of sports development, sustainable sports facility management and financial management. You’ll have experience of providing an advisory or consultative service in sports development, community sports/leisure facilities or a similar voluntary sector organisation, and have gained a strong understanding of their operations, requirements and challenges.

You’ll have excellent stakeholder management skills, with a strong track record of building and maintaining key relationships. You’ll have experience of leading meetings and stakeholder groups, and demonstrated an ability to build consensus and earn confidence in proposals. 

You’ll also have experience of financial and performance monitoring, ideally with experience of using dashboards and other performance management software to track progress and performance.

You don’t need to follow football to apply, but it is expected that you appreciate the power of sport to change lives and have a genuine interest in using your skills and experience to help the Foundation achieve our charitable and strategic objectives.

Most of all we want someone who reflects who we are as an organisation. We refer to our values as our four corners: 

• Fair Players – open and inclusive in our approach
• Star Performers – trusted to deliver
• United Team Player – collaborative and easy to work with
• Passionate Supporters – flexible and willing 

For full details of the role and requirements, please download our recruitment pack below.

The salary band for this role is £37,000 - £44,000 per annum, dependent on relevant skills and experience. 

You will start on 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays (which increases after 2 years), plus additional time off to volunteer. We also offer a generous pension scheme (8% employer contribution), collective bonus scheme, free health care provision, a monthly gym subsidy, interest-free season ticket loan, death in service benefit and access to selected match tickets

We are committed to helping our team members maintain a healthy work-life balance, so offer flexible working around core hours to help achieve that.

We request that all applicants complete our equal opportunities form as part of the application process. This anonymous and confidential form helps the Football Foundation to build up a picture of who is applying to join the organisation, and to monitor progress in this area. The link to complete this is in the application process. 

The Football Foundation is committed to, and values the principles of diversity, equality, and inclusion. We strive to provide an inclusive and supportive working environment where all our team feel respected and supported in fulfilling their potential. We encourage and welcome applications from all, regardless of background and are particularly interested to hear from individuals belonging to under-represented groups including diverse ethnic communities, individuals with a disability and those from the LGBTQI+ community.

Should you need any adjustments to the recruitment process, at either application or interview stage, please contact us at jobs@footballfoundation.org.uk.

To apply, please follow the steps outlined below:

1.    Please send the following to jobs@footballfoundation.org.uk

• CV
• Cover letter - please highlight briefly and clearly how your skills, abilities and experience equip you for the role, together with your reasons for applying. Please also confirm if you are applying for a permanent role, the temporary role, or are happy to be considered for both opportunities.

2.    Complete an anonymous Equal Opportunities form: 

Click here to fill it out. Please only fill out one form when you apply. If you need any help, please let us know.

The closing date for applications is: midday, Monday 14 August 2023.

Interviews are currently scheduled for Thursday 24 August 2023.

Due to the volume of applications received for most roles, the Foundation only contacts candidates if they are shortlisted for interview. If you do not hear from us within two weeks of the closing date, you should assume your application has not been successful.

Please note that you must be eligible to work in the UK to apply.