Academy Auditor - Coaching

This role works across the Premier League, EFL and the FA, auditing organisations and practices across the multidisciplinary areas of development pathways. It sits within an independent standards organisation mandated by the professional game to monitor safety, compliance and the quality of work delivered in male and female elite player development environments. The organisation oversees multidisciplinary assessment of Academies across Leadership and Management, Coaching, Performance Support, Education, Player Care, Safeguarding, Pathway and Productivity.

• Assess the quality of Coaching provision across talent development pathways using the Academy Standards assessment framework.
• Report findings accurately and fairly, 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.
• 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.
• Undertake trend analysis using outcomes from Club audits to inform future learnings.
• Meet tight deadlines.
• Ensure the auditing team maintains an up-to-date knowledge of good practice.

• Experience working, coaching and leading development programmes with young athletes, especially within an academy system or development squads (male or female pathways).
• Experience leading or mentoring other coaches, including designing CPD programmes or overseeing coaching frameworks.
• Sound knowledge of talent identification and pathways.
• Experience 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).
• Experience working within a multidisciplinary environment, collaborating with analysts, sports science, medical, education, player care, safeguarding, etc.
• 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 that affect their safety and wellbeing.
• 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.
• 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.

We are an independent standards organisation mandated by the professional game to monitor safety, compliance and the quality of work delivered across male and female elite player development environments.