Enforcement and Illicit Finance Senior Manager in Manchester

Overview

The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has been established to protect and promote the sustainability of English football, for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve.

The IFR will help improve the financial sustainability of clubs, ensure resilience across the leagues, and safeguard the heritage of English football. It will operate a licensing regime; set corporate governance standards and monitor, protect, and promote financial resilience. It will also enforce compliance with requirements on financial regulation, club ownership and directors, fan engagement, and heritage protection.

The IFR also has powers to prohibit clubs from joining competitions that are not fair or meritocratic, or that threaten the heritage or sustainability of English football.

Responsibilities

The Enforcement and Illicit Finance Senior Manager will work with the Head of Department to oversee enforcement activity including developing the enforcement strategy, portfolio, policies and procedures. They will oversee investigations and lead on high‑profile case work, and play a leading role in establishing the IFR anti‑illicit finance strategy in collaboration with IFR supervisors and a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.

The Senior Manager will collaborate closely with data, policy, legal and supervision teams to ensure the enforcement portfolio is effective and coherent, and will support the IFR’s board in taking robust regulatory decisions.

Essential Requirements

• Proven experience in overseeing regulatory, civil or criminal enforcement investigations.
• Experience or knowledge of illicit finance / financial crime supervision frameworks.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate to a wide range of technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Sound judgement and ability to reach evidence‑based decisions, balancing a range of considerations and complex sources of information to ensure legally defensible outcomes.
• Strong delivery capability, successfully delivering at pace in a complex and high‑risk project / programme environment.
• Ability to provide strong direction and persuasive future vision for the function, setting it up for future success.
• A collaborative approach and ability to think creatively about new and emerging challenges.

Desirable Skills

• Understanding of the football industry, including financial regulation and familiarity with the English football pyramid.
• Expertise in financial crime supervision / policy.

Terms and Conditions of Employment

Outstanding applicants will join a Non‑Departmental Public Body and be employed as a Public Servant. Existing Civil Servants or DCMS employees will lose access to Civil Service benefits, including the Civil Service pension.

The terms and conditions of employment include:

• Pension 12% – Employee contribution 5%, employer contribution 7%.
• Flexible Benefit 8% – Employees can choose to invest 8% of their base salary into their pension or take it as cash (post‑tax).
• Reward – Performance‑based reward programme.
• 31.5 days annual leave.
• Flexible and hybrid working – 40% office attendance.
• Occupational sick pay.
• 9 months paid maternity leave and generous paternity and adoption leave.
• Bespoke L&D programme to help you achieve your personal CPD, including paid membership fees.
• Cycle‑to‑work scheme and other benefits.