PA – Director of Professional Game Relations & General Counsel - 12 month FTC in Wembley

As PA to the Director of Professional Game Relations and General Counsel, you'll play a trusted and highly visible role, supporting senior leaders, coordinating complex activities and engaging with influential stakeholders across the game. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment and enjoy being the person who helps teams and leaders perform at their very best, we'd love to hear from you.This role is a 12 month fixed term maternity cover contract, and we require someone to be able to start early December 2026.We operate within a hybrid working policy, whereby it is expected that team members be in office two days a week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays), and the remaining can be worked remotely. Flexibility on office days may be required from time to time.

What will you be doing?

• Provide high-level administrative support to the Director of Professional Game Relations and General Counsel. Acting as a central coordination point for departmental activities and administrative operations.
• Act as a trusted point of support to the Directors and their direct reports, providing sound judgement, perspective and proactive support, while serving as a central coordination point across Professional Game Relations, Legal & Governance and Football Operations to facilitate effective decision-making, collaboration and delivery of departmental priorities.
• Managing complex and frequently changing priorities across two directors' portfolios, ensuring competing demands are balanced effectively.
• Monitor and track actions arising from emails, meetings and committee or Board meetings ensure completion and accountability.
• Diary management, travel and hotel bookings, expenses, coordination of meeting papers and agendas, and full operational support.
• Provide business support to the Leadership Heads of Departments across Legal & Governance and Football Operation Divisions.
• Provide full secretariat support to the Football Regulatory Authority, Professional Game Board and other committees as required, including meeting planning, agenda compilation, paper distribution, minute taking, action tracking and maintenance of governance records.
• Build and maintain effective working relationships with clubs, leagues, professional game stakeholders and senior internal colleagues as well as being able to communicate on behalf of the director(s), with their counterparts and other Support Executives within the game.
• Co-lead the planning and delivery of the annual Professional Game stakeholder conference, managing project timelines, delegate communications, registrations, venue and supplier relationships, programme coordination, budget administration and event execution.
• Manage the budgets accordingly with raising Purchase Order Requisitions.
• 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:

• Substantial experience in a PA/EA role at director level.
• Proven ability to manage multiple senior stakeholders and their competing priorities simultaneously.
• Evidence of high-level diary and scheduling management
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy in all areas of work
• Being able to exercise sound judgement and handle highly sensitive and confidential information with high levels of discretion; previous experience working with confidential information.
• Excellent organisational & time management skills
• To be able to communicate to a high level with internal & external stakeholders at all levels
• Team/events co-ordination
• Experience of taking accurate minutes at committee meetings and producing clear, timely and finalised meeting minutes

Technical Skills

• Experience of Microsoft Suite, including Teams.
• Experience of Adobe Acrobat.
• Experience of using board and committee portal systems to compile, manage and publish agenda packs and meeting papers.
• Ability to use own judgement, resourcefulness, and initiative.
• Ability to work as part of an integrated multi-skilled team.
• Excellent verbal communication and written skills
• Excellent team working skills

Beneficial to have:

Knowledge

• Good knowledge and understanding of Men's and Women's football pyramid in both the Professional and Semi-Professional game.
• Knowledge of the wider football stakeholder landscape.
• Understanding of corporate governance principles and committee administration
• Understanding of regulatory and disciplinary processes within football.
• Experience working within a legal, governance or regulated environment.

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.
• Private medical cover funded by The FA.
• 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.

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