Head of Football Intelligence & Innovation | The FA in Burton upon Trent

As Head of Football Intelligence and Innovation, you will foster collaboration across departments, harnessing the full breadth of expertise within the organisation and lead a holistic approach to football intelligence and innovation. This will include embedding AI, data, insight, and human innovation across the technical and learning departments, driving a culture of evidence-based decision-making, grounded in well-articulated performance questions, and pioneering new approaches to high performance. The role will play a critical part in supporting national teams, enhancing coach education, and advancing our understanding of What It Takes To Win (WITTW). The role will be focused on finding appropriate solutions which help create Winning England Teams and Elite Qualified English Coaches.

Acting as a connector and ‘rate accelerator', you will help all think beyond the day-to-day, giving permission to explore bolder ideas without either chasing trends or threatening existing work. While the successful candidate will be AI fluent, they will bring multidisciplinary experience, knowing that their role is not to lead the way in emerging technologies but rather to lead their adoption in football, bringing a strong lens and understanding of the market and knowing what is relevant for their context, and why, to provide England teams and the home developed football workforce with a lasting competitive advantage.

What will you be doing?

• Strategic Leadership and Vision: Brings together our current departments and expertise across men's, women's, para and FA Learning, working closely with coaches and performance staff on critical performance questions, environment design at camps and day to day practice. First and foremost a connector, will define innovation in this context as ‘new and useful answers to critical performance questions' and enforce a problem-first approach. Lead an innovation operating model including data, advanced analytics and AI in line with our core priorities, acting as an accelerator to our strategic priorities. Establish clear priorities and frameworks to guide innovation across all technical functions. A visible leader and trusted advisor to the Chief Football Officer and wider leadership team, shaping how the FA leverages innovation, data and AI as a long-term advantage. Experienced in cultural change, will be able to drive an environment of psychological safety, curiosity, collaboration and experimentation across technical staff. Assess current capability, resources and lead a high performing direct and/or matrix team structure with expertise in data science, innovation and performance analysis. Will know what the FA knows, and what it doesn't, and bring the network, knowledge and understanding to lean on external experts as required, particularly within AI.
• AI & Advanced Analytics and Innovation: Champion the integration of AI, machine learning and predictive modelling across the technical and learning ecosystem, focusing on those that will make the difference against our core priorities, as opposed to ‘shiny one-offs'. Ensure industry-leading AI is at the heart of scouting, opposition analysis, injury prediction, training load optimisation, human development and decision-support systems through a combination of internal build and external commissions as appropriate. Identify, evaluate and implement emerging technologies that enhance football performance, player development, and coaching effectiveness. Build an innovation operating system where all innovation starts from critical performance questions and which collects and retains our intellectual property via a knowledge management strategy which includes the soft, tactical and conversational IP. Help lead a phased innovation capability build at St George's Park's innovation centre, ensuring the physical design reflects the actual training and decision workflows. Hold clear accountability for data, AI and decision tools, bringing real hands-on build and deployment experience but understanding where to commit resource internally and where to outsource. Work closely with coaches and practitioners to frame problems, shape environments that encourage experimentation, and ensure AI augments human judgement rather than replacing it. Create a Gen AI framework that combines technical guardrails with a focus on capturing, structuring and surfacing tactical coaching and performance knowledge through LLM-based tools.
• Performance & Coaching Support: Lead the development of deep, actionable insight in answer to critical performance questions to support national coaches in team selection, tactical planning, and performance review. Deliver clear, accessible and intuitive insights that help drive considered outcomes across coaching and performance staff. Develop tools, case studies and frameworks that coaches can use across all levels of the game and all teams.
• Coach Education & Capability Building: Collaborate with the Coach Development team to embed insightful questions, data fluency and innovation thinking into education programmes. Support the creation of forward-looking learning modules, incorporating real-world insight and AI applications into coaching theory and practice.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Partnerships: Liaise with Technology and Data teams to ensure strong data governance and infrastructure to support all new innovation and technology solutions, including AI. Instigate, validate and oversee strategic partnerships with technology companies, academic institutions, AI researchers and elite sporting bodies to augment internal insight, capability and delivery. Bring and continue to build a strong knowledge of the technologies and innovation available externally, as well as an ability to horizon-scan. Use this to distinguish between internal performance innovation and externally sourced solutions, curating strategic partnerships with tech companies, academic institutions and elite sporting bodies to remain at the forefront of innovation. Undertake any other such tasks that may be reasonably determined by the Chief Football Officer to be within the scope of the role.

What are we looking for?

• Essential for the role: Senior-level experience in a data, AI or innovation role within elite sport or a high-performance environment. Work across complex FA Departments at SGP, gain credibility and buy-in and prioritise what needs to get done. External stakeholder buy-in, understanding and credibility. Proven track record in applying data and insight to influence decision-making and drive performance improvement. Deep knowledge of AI tools and their applications in sport or related industries. Experience building and leading cross-functional teams including leadership, budget and contract management. Familiarity with performance frameworks such as WITTW or similar high-performance models.
• Beneficial to have: Direct experience working with coaches, performance staff or elite athletes. Background in AI/ML research, sport science or performance technology. Experience developing or delivering education and learning content.

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 in 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, encouraging 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’ days leave, volunteering days as well as 25 days annual leave (based on a full-time, permanent contract).
• A hybrid working model offering greater flexibility.

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.