CFA Business Optimisation Manager - Finance - 6 to 12 month FTC

The Business Optimisation team, part of the wider Operations division within Grassroots Football, plays a key role in supporting County FAs with their day-to-day organisational needs by identifying opportunities to centralise processes, streamline operations, reduce costs and drive greater consistency. We are now seeking a proactive and commercially minded professional to join the team on a six-month fixed-term contract, with potential extension to twelve months, to support the team with the design and setup of a new centralised Finance function that Counties may choose to adopt. This role will define the scope of the service, shape clear KPIs, understand and manage the financial model, oversee County onboarding and ensure full visibility of performance once the service is live.

The role will explore and deliver opportunities to enhance how financial activities are shared, centralised, digitalised or otherwise optimised to deliver tangible improvements in customer service, efficiency, risk management, simplification and standardisation. You will help create a robust internal controls environment for participating County FAs while ensuring the services delivered are effective, efficient and represent clear value for money.

Please provide a cover letter with your application, outlining your interest in the opportunity and how you meet the criteria. In particular, we would like you to include examples of how you have regionalised/centralised/outsourced to improve standards and reduce risk in a multi-site environment.

What will you be doing?

• Explore and deliver to the County FA (CFA) network BOS & efficiency opportunities for financial services/activities that provide savings, be that in terms of time, effort or cost, whilst driving standards and consistency across the network.
• Ensure that financial risk mitigation is maximised in the design of these services/activities. Where risks are identified, to create risk mitigation plans and good governance around them.
• Ensure thorough consultation and engagement with the CFA network and other stakeholders throughout, including relevant Boards and Committees.
• Update as required the financial operating guidance manual, finance operating standard, Internal Controls Checklist and other necessary guidance and processes in line with the delivery of BOS.
• Build the systems and processes to enable the function to deliver either internally or through delivery partners.
• Promote a culture of financial responsibility, best practice and continuous improvement within the County FAs who are part of a service.
• Support the wider Operating Model evolution to develop modern and efficient CFAs.
• Execute 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: Accountancy qualification. Knowledge of governance and control procedures.
• Experience: Demonstrable success in outsourcing financial processes - either in a management consulting capacity, or as someone helping to transition processes. Finance, commercial and business development skills. Strategic thinking and ability to influence. Developing business models, including shared services. Innovating within business development. Ability to gain buy-in to equality objectives. Experience in managing multiple stakeholders' expectations on timings, costs and pilot stage output. Experience in balancing priorities and evidencing delivery in a multiple stakeholder environment. Experience in working in multi-site environments.
• Technical Skills: Comfortable designing training and development programmes aligned to business needs. Manage and maintain budgets within specific financial parameters. Extensive experience of Excel. High level of numeracy.

Beneficial to have:

• Knowledge: The FA Grassroots Football Strategy.
• Experience: Working within the football ecosystem. Be that at a Club, League or County FA. Experience across multiple finance areas - bookkeeping, commercial finance, Fin Accounts etc. Pricing experience - the ability to understand pricing (and value) based on the scale of counties, onboarding/breakeven requirements/future scaling options. Demonstrable experience of working with non-financially minded leaders.
• Technical Skills: Project management skills. Understanding of data analysis. Competency in XERO is desirable.

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. 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.