Responsibilities

• Lead the expansion of the Athlete Brand Marketing Programme pilot from 2026/27, including iteration of the delivery model and selection of clubs.
• Lead the development of the long-term future of the programme in collaboration with the Head of Brand Marketing, CMO and our brilliant agency partner - ensuring the programme remains aligned to business strategy.
• Oversee end-to-end execution of the programme, including the management of skills lab sessions in club environments and day-to-day operational planning. Please note you have agency support here, alongside some support from our Marketing Coordinator.
• Own monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the pilot, capturing learnings and translating them into improvements for subsequent seasons.
• Build incredibly strong working relationships with clubs, providing clear guidance, proactive communication and consistent support throughout the season.
• Integrate and manage key stakeholders into the Athlete Brand Marketing Programme, including commercial and broadcast partners, social platforms and representative bodies (e.g. League Managers Association, Professional Football Association), ensuring clear roles, shared objectives and high-quality delivery.
• Lead the relationship, planning and marketing execution with WSL Brand Ambassadors (currently four players on contract), ensuring activity supports league priorities and all contracted appearances are delivered to a high standard.
• Support the evaluation of this part of the programme and provide a recommendation on how it evolves.
• Collaborate with the Head of Brand Marketing on the creation of new brand IP targeted at Gen Alpha, developing marketing plans with licensee partners to support commercialisation.
• Plan and execute non-commercial brand collaborations that introduce WSL Football to new audiences and increase cultural relevance, leveraging player appearances and stories where appropriate.

Requirements

• Proven athlete brand marketing experience - hands-on working with athletes to shape personal brand, content and commercial readiness, with clear examples of impact.
• Brilliant communication skills. Building rapport with players and club staff is a foundational skill required for success.
• Experience designing and scaling programmes - able to iterate a pilot model, select and engage clubs and build a long-term roadmap aligned to business strategy.
• Strong delivery and operations capability - confident planning and running workshops in club environments, managing timelines, logistics and multiple workstreams.
• Excellent club and stakeholder relationship management - able to provide clear guidance and maintain proactive communication across clubs, players and internal teams.
• Proven agency management - able to brief and inspire agencies to deliver the best work of their careers and hit agreed KPIs.
• Experience integrating commercial / broadcast / social platform stakeholders into programmes - setting clear roles, shared objectives and smooth ways of working.
• Strong collaboration and influencing skills - comfortable working with senior stakeholders and representing the programme internally and externally.
• Analytical mindset - able to monitor performance, evaluate pilots, capture learnings and translate insight into improvements season-to-season.
• Budget and resource management - confident tracking of spend, prioritising activity and delivering efficiently within agreed parameters.
• Coaching and management skills to oversee selected workstreams for the Marketing Coordinator.
• Digitally confident and highly organised - strong Microsoft Office skills and practical use of AI-enabled tools to improve productivity.
• Very flexible approach to working hours and travel. This role will involve extensive travel to clubs to deliver the programme.

Preferred

• Strong understanding of women's football and the evolving fan/cultural landscape - able to apply that insight to collaborations that grow relevance with younger audiences.
• Experience working directly with football clubs and / football talent - helpful for running in-club delivery, building trust quickly and supporting ambassador activity.
• Experience collaborating with broadcasters, social platforms or major commercial partners - useful for integrating stakeholders into programmes.
• Exposure to licensing and IP development - able to support creation of new brand IP and work with licensee partners on marketing plans to drive commercialisation.
• Comfortable in a growth-phase organisation - able to help shape new processes, test-and-learn approaches and pragmatic ways of working as programmes scale.