England Rugby
Women's Game Director
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Women’s Game Director
Job Details
Job Title: Women’s Game Director
Department: Women’s Game
Reports to: Executive Director of Women’s Game
Direct Reports: Senior Commercial Growth Manager, Women’s Game
Job Level: Lead
Location: Allianz Stadium, with flexibility to work from home
Travel Requirements: Occasional national travel likely required
Employment Type: 12-month FTC (Maternity Cover)
Working Hours: Full Time, 35 hours per week
Application Information
- Submit an anonymised CV (excluding personal details). No cover letter required.
- Closing date for applications: 16th October 2026 at 17:00.
- Successful candidates must be available for a first-round interview on 26th/27th October.
- We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. Apply as soon as possible.
The Role
The RFU is in an exciting and transformational phase for the Women’s & Girls’ game, underpinned by the ambition set out in the Every Rose: Our Time action plan. To support delivery during a period of maternity leave, the RFU is seeking an experienced Women's Game Director (Maternity Cover) to provide senior strategic leadership across the Women’s Game and lead delivery of its key strategic priorities.
Reporting to the Executive Director of Women’s Game, the role will lead the Women’s Game strategic portfolio, ensuring continued delivery and evolution of the Every Rose Action Plan, progression of the long-term Women’s Game business model and effective governance, prioritisation and organisational alignment across the portfolio.
The role will provide direct line management of the Senior Commercial Growth Manager, while working collaboratively with senior leaders across the RFU and external stakeholders to ensure Women’s Game priorities are embedded across the organisation and translated into delivery.
Responsibilities
Role Purpose
To provide strategic leadership and continuity across the Women’s Game during the maternity cover period, maintaining momentum against agreed priorities and ensuring effective decision-making, performance and delivery.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead delivery and continued evolution of the Every Rose Action Plan, ensuring progress against agreed objectives and performance measures.
- Oversee delivery of the 2026/27 Women's Game strategic plan and lead development of the 2027/28 plan, establishing clear priorities and investment requirements.
- Lead the extension and evolution of the long-term Women's Game business model, including strategic oversight of audience and commercial growth, investment priorities and financial performance.
- Own the strategic relationship with Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR), ensuring alignment on shared priorities and opportunities to support the growth of rugby in England.
- Monitor performance across the Women’s Game, using data and insight to identify risks, opportunities and areas requiring intervention.
- Oversee the Women’s Game strategic portfolio, prioritising programmes, resources and investment against agreed strategic objectives.
- Build alignment across RFU functions and create shared ownership of key Women’s Game priorities.
- Lead strategic planning and risk management for major Women's Game priorities and emerging Executive-led projects.
- Act as the key strategic adviser to the Executive Director, providing insight, recommendations and analysis to support Executive and Board decision-making.
- Represent the Women's Game across the organisation and with external stakeholders, building trusted relationships and acting as a recognised ambassador for the Women’s and Girls’ game.
- Lead, develop and empower high-performing teams, creating clarity, accountability and an environment that enables collaboration and delivery.
- Champion the Women's & Girls’ game, acting as an RFU ambassador and role model while promoting the organisation's values and long-term strategic ambitions.
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Qualifications, Skills & Experience
The skills and attributes outlined in this description are not exhaustive and we welcome candidates who can bring different relevant experiences to the role.
Skills and Qualifications
- Significant strategic leadership experience, with a proven track record of delivering change and results in a complex, multi-stakeholder organisation.
- Demonstrated ability to lead and develop high-performing teams and provide effective cross-functional leadership.
- Proven ability to operate credibly at senior and Executive level, providing clear strategic advice, recommendations and constructive challenge to support decision-making.
- Strong commercial and financial acumen, with experience of business planning, investment decisions, financial performance and evaluating return on investment.
- Demonstrated ability to rapidly build trusted relationships and influence without direct authority, aligning stakeholders and functions around shared priorities.
- Significant experience leading complex strategic programmes or portfolios, with accountability for delivery, prioritisation, risk and governance.
- Strong analytical and strategic problem-solving skills, with the ability to use data and insight to navigate ambiguity, identify priorities and make informed decisions.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to navigate complex internal and external relationships and communicate effectively across different audiences.
- Ability to balance competing priorities, respond to emerging issues and maintain momentum in a fast-moving environment.
- Proficiency in using digital tools for planning, reporting and communication (e.g. Microsoft Office suite, Smartsheet or equivalent platforms).
- Committed to embodying the ethos of our culture by using our three core values – Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other – to guide your day-to-day decisions, actions and interactions.
- Committed to actively contributing to and building an inclusive culture through day-to-day behaviours.
Additional Information
- All role holders must maintain an appropriate standard of confidentiality. Any disclosures of confidential information made unlawfully outside the proper course of duty will be treated as a serious disciplinary offence.
- We want you to have every opportunity to demonstrate your skills, ability and potential. If there is anything we could do to support you through your application or to provide the best environment for your interviews, including assistance or adjustment, please reach out to recruitment@rfu.com.
- During your application, we will ask questions about your identity. This information is considered highly confidential and will not be seen by hiring managers. You can find out more about why we ask these questions here [https://www.englandrugby.com/about-the-rfu/working-at-the-rfu/monitoring-explainer].
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About England Rugby
England Rugby or Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the national governing body for rugby in England. We deliver three core activities, and our purpose is to enrich lives, introduce more people to rugby union and develop the sport for future generations.
Our Core Activities
- Rugby: Supporting rugby from grassroots to performance level.
- Commercial: Building partnerships and hosting matches and events.
- Running the Business: Ensuring our organization and people can thrive.
Our Culture
At England Rugby, one of our core objectives is to drive rugby union to better reflect the diversity of society. We are aware that rugby, and sports in general, has not always been as welcoming an environment for everyone as we would like, and we are working hard to make rugby a more inclusive space for all identities.
We believe hiring people from underrepresented groups into positions at all levels is vital to creating spaces and initiatives that better support those identities. We would love to see applications from disabled people, LGBTQIA+ people, people from ethnically diverse communities, people of faith, people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and women and non-binary people.
We know that representation is more than just getting people through the door, it’s about keeping people by responding to structural barriers relating to identities and valuing the insights that different lived experiences bring. We have network groups that provide peer-to-peer support and drive forward change internally. We support colleagues to develop, and each colleague has access to a personal coaching platform that can provide same-day one-to-one coaching. We are pushing ourselves to create a more inclusive culture every day through role modelling our culture and core values; This Rose Means Everyone: Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other.
We know that flexible working is important to our colleagues, so our guiding principles are designed to support everyone to work in the way that suits them, their teams, and the organisation in the best way.
We want you to have every opportunity to demonstrate your skills, ability and potential. If there is anything we could do to support you through your application or to provide the best environment for your interviews, including assistance or adjustment, please reach out to recruitment@rfu.com.
What We Can Offer You
We are proud of the range of benefits we can provide:
- A variety of corporate discounts
- Priority access to purchase match tickets
- 25% discount in Rugby Store and EnglandRugby.com
- 25 days of annual leave
- Your birthday day off
- Free access to the stadium gym
- Life assurance of 4x your basic salary, income protection scheme and Employee Assistance Programme that offers anonymous and confidential, emotional and practical support 24/7
- Pension Scheme; the RFU will double match your individual contribution up to 10% of salary
Ride-to-work scheme, eyecare vouchers, season ticket loans and so much more. If you would like to find out more about our diversity and inclusion work or the culture at England Rugby, please visit our website here: https://www.englandrugby.com/about-rfu/rfu-policies/diversity-and-inclusion/our-approach
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