A newly created and high-impact Product Manager opportunity has arisen at The Football Association, for which we are searching for a high agency individual.  

The FA and PGMOL are partnering to create a digital product for referee operations across the professional and semi-professional game that will sit at the heart of how football operates in England. If you aspire to have a significant impact at scale within professional sport, this could well be the opportunity for you. 

As a Product Manager at the FA, you are accountable for ensuring our digital products are valuable to users and viable for the organisation. You will work in close partnership with designers, engineers and architects to solve the right problems in the right way. You will set direction, create clarity and bring people with you. 

Your focus will be on digital products that enable the governance and smooth running of professional and semi-professional refereeing. The impact of your work will be visible every weekend across England. 

This role is based at Wembley Stadium, with regular travel to engage key external stakeholders across the UK. 

At The FA, we empower our product teams to solve complex problems in ways our users love and that work for our organisation. You will have the autonomy to lead, the support to grow and the opportunity to shape products that matter. 

What will you be doing? 

• Work in a product trio to deeply understand our diverse users. Translate their needs, motivations and pain points into the most impactful problems to solve. 

• Apply evidentially driven validation techniques to ensure the team is solving the right problems. 

• Own the product vision, strategy and roadmap, ensuring it addresses user needs, wants and pain points, whilst ensuring alignment with organisational strategy. 

• Define and lead Objectives and Key Results, maintaining a clear focus on delivering customer value and tangible impact. 

• Communicate insight, direction and progress clearly and confidently to stakeholders across the organisation. 

• Partner with designers and engineers to test hypotheses, validate assumptions and iterate towards high-quality solutions. 

• Work closely with architects to ensure solutions align with architectural standards and deliver data quality, reliability and scalability. 

• Balance innovation with operational excellence, including technical debt management, security and codebase health. 

• Champion continuous discovery and continuous delivery practices within the team. 

• Provide clear strategic context and direction alongside the Delivery Manager so every team member can contribute at their best. 

• Influence stakeholders at all levels using evidence, insight and strong product thinking. 

• Contribute to the ongoing development of The FA's product management discipline. 

• Promote a culture of collaboration, inclusivity and continuous improvement. 

Who you are:

• A high agency individual with a strong track record of delivering meaningful digital outcomes within a continuous discovery and delivery environment. 

• Comfortable owning product vision, strategy, roadmap and OKRs from definition through to delivery. 

• Experienced working as an individual contributor within cross-functional teams. 

• A confident communicator who can engage and influence senior stakeholders internally and externally. 

• Highly empathetic with the ability to inspire and align diverse teams around a clear purpose. 

• Data literate, with a strong understanding of both quantitative and qualitative analysis. 

• Experienced in managing financial budgets and balancing commercial considerations with user value. 

• Ideally experienced within the sports industry. 

• Degree qualified in computer science, business management or a related discipline. 

• Experience in engineering development roles and exposure to AI-enabled product development would be advantageous. 

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 which offers 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.