Compliance & Audit Manager

The Football Association; Wembley; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working model

Private medical cover

Contributory pension

25 days annual leave

Job summary

The Football Association (The FA) is seeking a collaborative Compliance & Audit Manager to drive standards, controls, and assurance across the County FA network in England. You will develop robust governance and audit frameworks, partner with County FAs and partners, and lead continuous improvement of compliance across grassroots football.

You will work within a hybrid model, travel as needed, and support the embedding of new standards while overseeing delivery, risk assessment and education

Qualifications

• Project management experience including planning, budgeting and risk management.
• Experience creating and implementing effective compliance frameworks.
• Experience managing internal assessment processes and external independent assessors.
• Establishing quality control and assurance systems and processes.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement and manage a robust compliance and audit framework across multiple functions.
• Lead development and embedding of compliance and audit frameworks across the network.
• Oversee delivery and assurance of standards, monitoring outcomes and improvements.
• Conduct regular compliance risk assessments and investigate potential violations.
• Coordinate with procurement to recruit independent assessors as required.

Skills

Project management

Compliance frameworks

Stakeholder management

Governance

Quality Assurance

Data analysis

Power BI

Excel

Tools

Power BI

Excel

Smartsheet

Job description

At The FA, our County Football Associations are at the heart of delivering football across England. We're looking for a collaborative and forward-thinking Compliance & Audit Manager to help ensure that key standards, controls and services are implemented effectively across the County FA network. In this influential role, you'll work in partnership with County FAs, colleagues and delivery partners to evaluate compliance, identify risks and opportunities for improvement, and shape the future of our audit and assurance framework. Most importantly, you'll foster a culture built on trust, continuous improvement and shared accountability, ensuring our approach reflects both our organisational values and the strength of the partnership between The FA and County FAs.

This is a role with genuine long-term impact. During the initial phase, you'll lead the development and embedding of compliance and audit frameworks across three key operational areas, establishing a robust and proportionate approach that reflects the needs of both The FA and County FAs. As these frameworks mature, you'll move into a delivery and assurance phase, overseeing their implementation, evaluating outcomes and ensuring standards are applied consistently across the network. Looking further ahead, you'll use the insights, trends and learnings gathered over time to drive continuous improvement, helping to evolve existing standards, introduce new approaches and raise the bar for operational excellence across grassroots football.

Please note that whilst the role is contractually Wembley based, regular travel will be required. Currently, we are working within a hybrid working model whereby the expectation is to work from either your contractual location or travelling to CFAs for part of the week, and as and when required by the needs of the role. 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.

What will you be doing?

• Design, implement and manage a robust compliance and audit control framework across multiple functions including but not exclusively:
  • Progress the Games Governance strategic pillar Standards: Governance, Finance, Safeguarding, Customer Service and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
  • Business Optimisation: Safeguarding administration, Discipline, Finance, Referee administration, Marketing & Communication, Business Services.
  • County FA Partnership Funding Agreement.
• Work with The FA Procurement team to recruit independent assessors where required and appointed manage supplier(s).
• Design, implement and manage Quality Assurance processes to ensure internal and external compliance assessment processes are being executed consistently, fairly and effectively.
• Ensure mandated requirements are being met, with effective oversight and interventions as required.
• Create methods to demonstrate the impact of implementing Standards, Business Optimisation and the County FA Partnership Funding Agreement.
• Adapt to a changing environment and to horizon scan to ensure readiness for and development of new standards.
• Contribute to the review and development of existing Standards and project manage the development and implementation of new Standards where required.
• Ensure high‑quality training and education programmes are in place to assist County FAs to meet their Progress the Games Governance requirements.
• Conduct regular compliance risks assessments across defined programmes and services.
• Investigate reports of contract violations or unethical behaviour.
• Execute 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:

Knowledge

• Project management including planning, budgeting, and risk management

Experience

• Creating and implementing successful compliance frameworks.
• Experience of successfully managing internal assessment processes.
• Experience of successfully managing external independent assessors.
• Establishing Quality Control and Assurance systems and processes.
• Finance, commercial and business development skills.
• Innovating within business development.
• Strategic thinking and ability to influence.
• Ability to gain buy in to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion objectives.
• Experience at managing multiple stakeholders' expectations on timings, costs and pilot stage output.
• Experience at balancing priorities and evidencing delivery in a multiple stakeholder environment.

Technical Skills

• Project management skills / qualification.
• Extensive experience of applied use of the Microsoft Office suite including Excel, Word and PowerPoint; Smartsheet (or equivalent); and Power BI (or equivalent data visualisation tool(s)).
• High level of numeracy.

Beneficial to have:

Knowledge

• The FA Grassroots Football Strategy.

Experience

• Working within the football ecosystem. Be that at a Club, League or County FA.
• Developing business models.
• Knowledge of Corporate Governance.

Technical Skills

• Understanding of data analysis.

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.