Euro 2028 tournament police programme manager

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Euro 28 policing team, to work with the Head of Tournament Police Planning to set the direction and programme approach: defining, agreeing and setting the strategic direction for the programme and initiate appropriate projects to deliver the programme.   

For the role of Programme Manager you will have Degree level education or substantial relevant experience in project management within a policing context and a recognised qualification in programme management methodologies, for example MSP or PRINCE 2.

Some travel across the UK and Ireland may be required to support in person meetings, planning and coordination at all host venues & cities as well as learning opportunities globally for other major events. However, the majority of the work will be carried out from home.

EURO 2028 is the Men’s UEFA European football championships that will be hosted across the UK and Ireland in 2028 and is the biggest sporting event ever jointly hosted across the UK and Ireland. It is anticipated that around three million tournament tickets will be sold, many to fans from across Europe; hundreds of thousands more will travel to the UK and Ireland without tickets to sample the atmosphere in city centres and fan zones; two billion people will view matches through television or online streaming.

The 51 matches will take place over four weeks in June/July 2028 and will be hosted in the cities of London (two stadiums), Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow and Dublin.

The complexity and scale in policing the tournament is huge and the skill of UK and Irish policing will be tested to the maximum and be highly visible on the world stage. The scale of the work over the next four years is such that a newly created dedicated policing team is required to plan for the tournament.

Duties and responsibilities

• to work with the national police lead to set the direction and programme approach: defining, agreeing and setting the strategic direction for the programme and initiate appropriate projects to deliver the programme
• establish the programme delivery framework to ensure robust programme management disciplines such as benefit, budget, risk and issue reporting are in place
• support the national police lead in overseeing the multi-million pound tournament policing budget

The programme manager will be directly responsible for the day-to-day strategic leadership of the constituent projects by managing project manager(s) and associated Programme/Project Teams.

Who we're looking for

• degree level education or substantial relevant experience in programme management
• recognised qualification in programme management methodologies, for example MSP or PRINCE 2
• proven track record of successfully delivering challenging and significant organisational change programme, including evidence of a personal contribution to its success
• evidence of effective leadership through the successful application of interpersonal and communication skills, including performance management
• evidence of managing effective budgeting and resource allocation procedures within a challenging environment with the ability to ensure governance that supports the management of a multi-million pound budget
• proven ability to find ways of resolving or pre-empting issues relating to barriers to change
• evidence of stakeholder management in a complex change environment with effective negotiation skills and diplomacy
• advanced level knowledge and experience of risk/issues management, strategic/project planning, reporting and control tools/techniques for multi-million pound, very high-profile projects
• good knowledge of the policing landscape, and ideally event/public order policing
• ability to deliver high quality reports and presentations to senior stakeholders
• ability to work under significant pressure and deliver on tight deadlines, particularly in the approach to the tournament