The Premier League

Top-tier English football league organizer

Academy Auditor - Coaching

Regulatory Compliance & EthicsPosted on Nov 13

Full-timeUnited KingdomNo salary listed

About the Job

Requirements

Experience working, coaching, and leading development programs with young athletes, especially within academy systems or development squads across male or female pathways.
Experience leading or mentoring other coaches, including designing continuing professional development programmes or overseeing coaching frameworks.
Sound knowledge of talent identification and pathways.
Experience navigating complex and highly pressurised working environments and cultures, and establishing effective working relationships with diverse stakeholders, including sporting directors, senior decision makers, and first-team managers and coaches.
Experience working in a multidisciplinary environment and collaborating with analysts, sports science, medical, education, player care, and safeguarding professionals.
Previous experience reviewing, assessing, and developing recommendations for multidisciplinary development programmes at a strategic level.
Prior leadership and management experience.
Experience working with children and adults at risk and/or knowledge and understanding of issues affecting their safety and wellbeing.
High practical and theoretical understanding of coaching and talent development demands in elite-level sport, including age-appropriate coaching principles, long-term player development models, talent identification, and progression mapping.
Understanding of context and cultural differences between clubs of different sizes and philosophies.
Understanding and comfort with quantitative and qualitative assessment.
Interviewing skills and observational analysis.
Ability to use a consultative approach and a range of techniques to gain understanding, connect, and build trust.
Analytical ability to identify areas for improvement, perform root-cause analysis, and convert findings into required actions.
Ability to make sound judgements based on evidence gathered during audit activity.
Ability to see both the big picture and enabling detail.
Clear and concise verbal communication skills.
Ability to present findings and communicate them to club staff in a developmental way.
Ability to defend a point of view in a composed and confident way.
Ability to present written information in a structured and balanced way appropriate to the reader.
Strong time management and organisational skills.
High-level emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills, including seeking and acting on feedback.
Ability to build trust through humility, consistent behaviour, and putting others’ needs first.
Ability to listen to others’ perspectives and understand why individuals and groups act as they do.

Responsibilities

Use the Academy Standards assessment framework to assess the quality of coaching provision across talent development pathways.
Accurately and fairly report findings, identifying quality, risk, and areas for development.
Manage the end-to-end auditing and quality assurance process, ensuring it runs smoothly for the club and auditing team.
Ensure consistent assessments regardless of the auditor or club.
Deliver annual club visits to ensure adherence to Safe to Operate and Compliance guidelines, Youth Development Rules, and FA Criteria.
Support development of a suitable Academy standards framework and auditing practices.
Use outcomes from club audits to undertake trend analysis and inform future learning.
Meet tight deadlines.
Ensure the auditing team maintains up-to-date knowledge of good practice.

This is an exciting opportunity to work across the Premier League, EFL, and the FA. The Coaching Auditor will be responsible for auditing organisations and practices across the multidisciplinary areas of development pathways.

As part of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) — the Professional Game’s national strategy for developing youth footballers in England — professional club Academies are placed into one of four categories (Category 1 to 4). These categories are based on a combination of factors, including investment levels, facilities, staffing, and the quality of provision across key multidisciplinary areas.

The female talent pathway aims to support the development of more and better home-grown players through two key programmes: Emerging Talent Centres and the Women’s Professional Game Academies.

To effectively categorise Academies and to support the continual raising of standards in elite player development, an independent standards organisation has been developed, mandated by the professional game, to monitor safety, compliance and the quality of work being delivered across both the male and female environments.

The independent standards organisation oversees a multidisciplinary assessment of Academies across Leadership and Management, Coaching, Performance Support, Education, Player Care, Safeguarding, Pathway and Productivity.

Review and Evaluation of Coaching and multidisciplinary programmes:

Using the Academy Standards assessment framework, assess the quality of Coaching provision across talent development pathways
Accurately and fairly report findings, identifying quality, risk and development areas.
Manage the end-to-end auditing/quality assurance process, ensuring the operation runs as smoothly as possible for the club and auditing team
Ensure a consistent assessment is given, no matter the auditor or club.

General Responsibilities:

Deliver annual Club visits to ensure adherence with Safe to Operate and Compliance guidelines and the Youth Development Rules and FA Criteria
Support the development of a suitable Academy standards framework and auditing practices
Using outcomes from Club audits to undertake trend analysis to inform future learnings
Meet tight deadlines
Ensure the auditing team maintains an up-to-date knowledge of good practice

Experience:

Experience working, coaching and leading development programs with young athletes, especially within an academy system or development squads (male or female pathways)
Leading or mentoring other coaches, including designing CPD programmes or overseeing coaching frameworks
Sound knowledge of talent identification and pathways
Experience in navigating complex and highly pressurised working environments and cultures, establishing effective working relationships across a diverse range of stakeholders (sporting directors, senior decision makers, first team managers/coaches)
Working within a multidisciplinary environment, collaborating with analysts, sports science, medical, education, player care, safeguarding, etc
Previous experience in reviewing, assessing and developing recommendations for multidisciplinary development programs at a strategic level
Prior leadership and management experience
Experience working with children and adults at risk and/or knowledge and understanding of issues that affect their safety and wellbeing

Knowledge

High practical and theoretical understanding of coach and talent development demands in elite level sport (age-appropriate coaching principles, long-term player development models, talent ID and progression mapping)
Understanding and appreciation of context and cultural differences between clubs of different sizes and philosophies
Understanding and comfort in Quantitative and Qualitative assessment

Skills and Abilities:

Interviewing skills and observational analysis
Effective relationship builder
A consultative approach with a range of techniques to gain understanding, connect and build trust
Analytical ability to identify areas for improvement, perform root-cause analysis and convert findings into required actions
Ability to make sound judgements based on evidence gathered during audit activity
Ability to see both the big picture and enabling detail
Clear and concise verbal communication skills
Ability to present findings and communicate them to Club staff in a developmental way
Can defend a point of view in a composed and confident way
Ability to present written information in a structured and balanced way appropriate to the needs of the reader
Strong time management and organisational skills
A team player who understands values and collaboration
High-level emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills who seek and act on feedback
Builds trust by showing humility, behaving consistently and putting the needs of others first
Listens to others’ perspectives and understands why people (individuals/groups) do what they do

About the Company

The Premier League

Top-tier English football league organizer

The Premier League runs the top level of English football, organizing a competition where member clubs play to determine the champion. It coordinates match schedules, broadcasting, marketing, community programs, youth development, safeguarding, and the business operations that support professional football. Fans access games through broadcasters, and the league provides a globally accessible season of matches, including fixtures, results, and digital/broadcast content. It differentiates itself by its wide international reach, large-scale operations across sport, media, digital, finance, and governance, and its commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, with a goal to grow the appeal of English football, support clubs and communities, and engage fans everywhere.

Company size: 501-1,000
Company stage: Not listed
Total funding: Not listed
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Founded: 1992

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