Salary: Please state your expectations within your application
Contract: Full Time, 42 hours a week
Location: The Nigel Doughty Academy, Nottingham, NG2 7SR
Department: First Team Coaching
Reporting to: Chief Football Officer
Closing Date For Applications: 25th August 2026
About the Role:
We are looking for an experienced and forward-thinking Head of Football Intelligence to lead the club’s Football Intelligence provision across the First Team, Academy and Women’s programme.
Reporting into the football leadership team, the successful candidate will be responsible for the continuous development of the club’s data and insights strategy, ensuring these are integrated into decision-making processes. This role will combine a mix of strategic leadership and hands-on delivery, supporting performance analysis, recruitment, squad planning and other key football projects.
The Perks of the Job:
Opportunity to access tickets for events at The City Ground.
Employee Assistance Programme.
Access to high street and gym discounts.
Discount within our Club shop.
Free on-site parking.
Key Tasks and Responsibilities:
People
Lead, develop and mentor the Football Intelligence team, helping to create a collaborative and forward-thinking culture.
Build and manage strong relationships across the football operation, including recruitment, performance analysis, medical and sports sciences, and football leadership.
Communicate complex data insights to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Support the continuous development of the First Team, Academy and Women’s programme.
Product
Lead the development of key projects including recruitment models, player and squad profiling, recruitment lists, pre- and post-match analysis, benchmarking frameworks, reporting and other decision-support tools.
Deliver data-informed insights and key recommendations to the football leadership team, actively supporting recruitment, squad planning and decision-making.
Oversee and manage the club’s football data ecosystem, ensuring that all pipelines, reports, infrastructure and tools support the club’s long-term strategy and goals.
Process
Working in close collaboration with the senior football leadership team, define and implement a long-term Football Intelligence strategy and vision.
Work with and across all football departments to integrate data-informed insights into existing workflows and decision-making processes.
Where required, manage data budgets, contracts and relationships with external data providers, ensuring scalable and sustainable insights delivery.
What are we looking for:
Essential
Relevant qualification in Data Science, Sports Science, Performance Analysis or equivalent.
Significant experience working within elite football in a football analytics role.
Proven experience translating complex football data into clear, actionable insights for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Strong understanding of recruitment, match analysis and key decision-making processes.
Experience developing decision-support tools including player profiling and reporting.
Strong working knowledge of SQL, Python and/or R.
Experience working with data visualisation platforms and web apps.
Experience leading projects and collaborating across multidisciplinary football departments.
Excellent communication, stakeholder management and presentation skills.
Strong understanding of technical and tactical aspects of football.
Desirable
Previous experience leading or mentoring a data insights team at elite level.
Experience managing the development of football data infrastructure and ETL pipelines.
Experience working with event, tracking and physical performance datasets.
Experience working with football data providers and other external solutions.
Evidence of continued professional development through relevant certifications, research or industry engagement.
Forest For Everyone
We aim to create a culture which embraces and celebrates our differences, enables individuals to feel comfortable, maximise their potential and eliminate discrimination.
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified persons, regardless of age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marital / civil partnership status, pregnancy / maternity leave, race, religion/belief, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic.
Nottingham Forest Football Club is a signatory of the FA’s Football Leadership Diversity Code. We are committed to developing policies to promote equal opportunities and diversity within our workforce. To monitor our progress against these commitments, we Invite all applicants to provide diversity data during the application process.
Disability Confident Committed Employer
We are a Disability Confident Committed employer. We encourage applications from people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. If you need disability-related adjustments to the recruitment process, please indicate this in your application.
If you are likely to meet the definition of being a "disabled person" according to the Equality Act 2010, you may be eligible to apply for an interview via the Disability Confident Scheme - please indicate this in your application form below. The information you share with us about your health or disability will not be used in recruitment selections.
Our Commitment to Safeguarding
As part of the Club’s commitment to safeguarding, the successful applicant may be required to undergo a Disclosure Barring Service (“DBS”) check or an enhanced DBS check. The results of a DBS check will be considered on an individual basis, and the Club will act in a proportionate manner when deciding whether or not to proceed with the appointment.
An FA Enhanced DBS disclosure is required for all relevant new appointments to the Club. Individuals will be asked to declare any convictions, cautions or reprimands, warnings or bind-overs that may have been incurred. The Club reserves the right to carry out risk assessments where content has been disclosed on a DBS disclosure if it feels that it is relevant to the job requirements. Failure to satisfy the Club and the PL's safeguarding requirements may lead to the job offer being withdrawn or, if they have already started employment, summary termination of the employment.
