Player Pathway Manager - AWFC in St Albans

We are looking for a Player Pathway Manager to oversee the transition of top players from our AWFC Academy to our Women’s First Team, as well as leading on the strategic growth of AWFC Academy and its emerging talent acquisition strategy. In this exciting role, you’ll collaborate with our Technical Director and increase our capability to successfully integrate top talents from our Academy into the Women’s First Team set up.

Who We Are

We are one of the most famous clubs in world football, with a rich heritage and history of success. Beyond that, we are passionate about our local community and, behind the scenes, we have a wide variety of opportunities and career paths for all. We have a very defined purpose: to act for a winning team, culture and community. We achieve this by ensuring we are courageous in the pursuit of progress, we champion our community and each other, and that we do the right thing (even when no one is looking).

Your day-to-day

• Oversee the delivery of our Academy philosophy - you will take pride in supporting our Academy Manager in strategically assessing the delivery of the AWFC Academy game model, curriculum and technical programme, ensuring consistency across all age groups from U9’s to senior level.
• Input into player contract processes - you’ll collaborate with our Technical Director and our Director of Women’s Football to strategically manage the offering, negotiation and budgeting of first contracts for all young professionals.
• Facilitate player loan arrangements - you will take a strategic approach to the player loan programme, managing all agreements, communication and in-club player support (including visits and live match attendance), and you will be accountable for loan player costs and income as well as ultimately responsible for the youth development budget.
• Drive the creation of individualised programmes - you’ll pioneer outstanding individual programmes for exceptional talents from U14-U21 age groups, across technical aspects, performance, nutrition, psychology and education.
• Support with player transitions - you’ll manage scheduling of the high potential transition players across our Academy and Women’s First Team, as well as loan clubs and international environments, and you will support pitch side individual development plans for this group during Women’s First Team pitch sessions.
• Build an excellent U21’s squad - you will relish the opportunity to build an U21’s squad of the highest potential talent both nationally and internationally; and you will line manage the Academy Manager to continue to develop best-in-class strategies across talent development, acquisition and management from U9’s-U21’s.
• Champion home grown players - you’ll ensure a pipeline of home grown players are available for our Women’s First Team by developing and recruiting talent in all positions to enable internal succession planning.
• Establish vital feedback mechanisms - you will diligently create a simple and effective feedback loop for the relevant colleagues for all top young players who are both on loan and in-club, with statistical data, video footage and physical data to be presented quarterly, and you will put in place relevant performance measures to set goals, monitor results and plan for improvement.

What We Are Looking For

• Background in developing professional players - you’re proud of your proven track record of leading and developing players at either a national or elite club level and you are equipped with an understanding of the FA Women’s and Girl’s Player Pathway.
• Credible expertise - you hold a Sport or Education related degree (or have equivalent experience) and a UEFA A Coaching License.
• Strategic mindset - you are a natural strategic thinker with a high degree of intellect, balanced with practical realism.
• Inspiring leader - you thrive in line managing and mentoring direct reports in a positive and energetic manner.
• Understanding of financial and people planning processes - you have knowledge of player contracts and loan agreements and you are able to confidently oversee costs and budgets.
• Proactive approach - you possess the ability to manage, change and embed new ways of thinking and working and you lean on your clear sense of purpose to drive action and inspire confidence.
• Best-in-class communication skills - you’re an effective communicator at all levels and you can build and uphold impactful relationships with a diverse range of colleagues.
• Proud ambassador for our club - you hold yourself to high standards of personal and professional integrity and you are committed to diversity, equal opportunities and continuous professional development.

Why choose us

At Arsenal, we want everyone to feel a sense of trust and belonging, so we are proud of both our club values and also what we offer to our employees. As one of our Gunners, you will receive:

• An exciting reward and recognition scheme.
• Generous holiday allowance which increases with your length of service.
• Great internal learning and development programmes.
• Priority access to apply for match tickets.
• A competitive health and wellbeing benefits package.
• A leading Employee Assistance Programme.
• Great discounts with some of our Partners.
• An opportunity to play a vital role in delivering our ED&I strategy by joining one of our Employee Networks.

Arsenal for Everyone is our commitment to promoting and embracing equality, diversity and inclusion, so that everyone connected to the club feels like they belong to the same Arsenal family. We believe that diversity of background, skills and experience drives our success on and off the pitch.

We are a Disability Confident Leader. We actively welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. If you need disability-related adjustments to the recruitment process, please indicate this in your application.

Application Closing Date - Wednesday 11th February 2026. Please note: we reserve the right to close the position early if application volumes are particularly high. We encourage you to get your application in sooner rather than later. Updates on the status of your application will be sent via email, please routinely check your spam and junk folders, as occasionally emails sent via the Teamtailor platform will find themselves there. Good luck!