Southampton FC is seeking an experienced and strategic leader to join the club as Head of Women's Football. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in the continued growth and development of the Women's and Girls' programme, providing leadership across football operations, performance, technical, academy and support functions.
Reporting into senior club leadership, you will be responsible for delivering the club's Women's Football strategy, ensuring every department is aligned to the club's long term vision while creating an environment that supports sustained success on and off the pitch. This role combines strategic leadership with operational excellence, requiring someone who can lead people, manage budgets, oversee governance and deliver best in class football operations.
Key Responsibilities
As Head of Women's Football, you will:
- Lead the strategic development and implementation of Southampton FC Women's vision, working alongside the Board and Technical Football Lead to deliver the club's long term objectives.
- Provide leadership across the Women's First Team, Girls' Academy, Performance, Technical and Operations departments, ensuring alignment across all areas of the programme.
- Oversee all operational planning and logistics for the Women's First Team, including training, pre-season, domestic competitions and matchday delivery.
- Manage all football administration, including player registrations, contracts, league documentation and regulatory compliance.
- Work closely with the Head Coach to ensure the smooth planning and delivery of all football activities throughout the season.
- Lead financial planning across the Women's programme, managing departmental budgets, professional playing budgets and league funding requirements in partnership with the Finance team.
- Monitor performance against strategic objectives, reporting regularly to senior leadership and representing the Women's programme at Board meetings.
- Build strong working relationships across the club, collaborating with Finance, Commercial, Marketing, Legal and Football Operations to support the continued growth of the programme.
- Support the recruitment, development and retention of high quality staff across the Women's and Girls' pathway.
- Create a high performance culture through effective leadership, mentoring and performance management, ensuring team members are supported in their development and held accountable for delivering excellence.
- Manage relationships with key external stakeholders, including league representatives, facility providers and strategic partners.
- Ensure the programme operates to the highest standards of governance, safeguarding, health and safety, equality, diversity and inclusion, and league compliance.
About You
We're looking for an experienced senior leader who combines strategic thinking with exceptional operational delivery. You'll have a track record of leading multidisciplinary teams within professional football or elite sport and be comfortable operating across both the football and business sides of an organisation.
You will bring:
- Significant leadership experience within professional football or a high performance sporting environment.
- Experience developing and implementing organisational strategy.
- Strong operational management skills across football, people and projects.
- Experience managing budgets, financial reporting and organisational planning.
- The ability to build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, governing bodies and cross functional departments.
- Experience leading, mentoring and developing multidisciplinary teams.
- Excellent organisational, communication and decision making skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast paced environment.
- A collaborative leadership style and a genuine passion for advancing women's football.
The above Job Description is not intended to be exhaustive; the duties and responsibilities may therefore vary over time according to the changing needs of the Club.