Strategy and Innovation Manager

Permanent | Full-Time (37.5 hours per week)

Location: St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, B9 4RL | Hybrid: 3 days in office

Birmingham City Football Club is on the rise.

With an incredible history dating back to 1875, Birmingham City Football Club is entering an exciting period of accelerated growth and modernisation. The Club is playing a central role in a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help transform England's second city through the Sports Quarter project.

With significant investment across our football, commercial and community operations, we are rebuilding the Club for long-term success, both on and off the pitch. Our journey is focused on strengthening our structures, elevating our performance environments, growing our teams, and investing in the people, processes and culture that will define the next chapter of Birmingham City FC.

About the Role

Are you a strategic thinker with a passion for innovation, transformation, and driving business performance? As Strategy and Innovation Manager, you will support the development and delivery of organisational strategy while identifying opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and continuous improvement. Working across multiple business functions, you will lead strategic projects, facilitate planning and innovation activities, and provide insights that help drive growth, customer value, and operational excellence.

You will collaborate with executive stakeholders and operational teams to translate business objectives into measurable outcomes, ensuring strategic priorities are delivered effectively.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the development, implementation, and monitoring of organisational strategy.
• Conduct market, competitor, customer, and industry analysis to identify opportunities and emerging trends.
• Develop business cases, strategic recommendations, and options papers for senior leadership.
• Lead innovation and transformation initiatives from concept through to implementation.
• Manage cross-functional projects, ensuring delivery against objectives, budgets, and timelines.
• Facilitate strategic planning workshops and innovation sessions.
• Analyse business performance data and provide actionable insights.
• Develop dashboards, reports, and presentations for executive and board-level audiences.
• Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders and act as a trusted strategic advisor.

About You

We're looking for someone who can think strategically while also delivering practical results. You will have:

• Experience in strategy, innovation, transformation, business improvement, or project management roles.
• A proven track record of leading cross-functional projects.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Experience developing business cases and strategic recommendations.
• The ability to engage, influence, and build relationships with senior stakeholders.
• Experience using analytics and reporting tools such as Power BI, Google Analytics, or Excel.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and organisational skills.
• The ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Desirable - experience working within the sport industry.

The Benefits of Being Blues

At Birmingham City Football Club, we put people at the heart of everything we do. When you join the Club, you become part of the Blues family — and that comes with a range of benefits designed to support you both inside and outside of work, including:

· Matchday Tickets

· Blues Store Discount

· Life Assurance

· Volunteering Day

· Pension Scheme

· Eye Care Voucher

· Cycle to Work Scheme

· Help@Hand

Safeguarding

Birmingham City Football Club is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk. The safety and wellbeing of all individuals within our care is paramount, and all staff are expected to share and uphold this commitment.

All successful applicants will be subject to appropriate pre-employment checks, including an Enhanced DBS check, and will be required to complete safeguarding training as part of the recruitment and induction process.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Birmingham City FC is proud to be an Equal Opportunities and Disability Confident employer.

We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are committed to ensuring a fair and inclusive recruitment process. Candidates are assessed solely on merit, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, or caring responsibilities.

We value diversity and actively encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds. If you require any adjustments to support you during the recruitment or interview process, please let us know when applying.