Systems Engineer - PGAAC

Fixed term (23 Months), full-time

Head of Systems, Premier League

Premier League, Brunel Building, London, W2 1HQ

The Premier League’s IT Department is looking for a Systems Engineer to take ownership of a key platform supporting football academies across the UK.

This role is focused on the continued development, improvement and support of the Premier League’s academy auditing platform that sits within Professional Game Academy Audit Company (PGAAC), used by over 1,000 club staff across boys’ and girls’ football programmes. The preferred candidate will act as the primary technical owner of the system, working closely with stakeholders to understand operational challenges, identify opportunities for improvement, and deliver scalable technical solutions.

In addition to software engineering responsibilities, this role requires a consultative mindset. The preferred candidate will engage directly with academy staff and internal stakeholders to scope requirements, shape enhancements, and help define the platform’s long-term technical direction.

As part of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) — the Professional Game’s national strategy for developing youth footballers in England — professional club Academies are placed into one of four categories (Category 1 to 4). These categories are based on a combination of factors, including investment levels, facilities, staffing, and the quality of provision across key multidisciplinary areas.

To effectively categorise Academies and to support the continual raising of standards in elite player development, an independent standards organisation has been developed, and mandated by the professional game, to monitor safety, compliance and the quality of work being delivered across both the male and female environments. The female talent pathway aims to support the development of more and better home-grown players through two key programmes.

PGAAC oversees a multidisciplinary assessment of Academies across Leadership and Management, Coaching, Performance Support, Education, Player Care, Safeguarding, Pathway and Productivity.

PGAAC is an equal opportunities employer and strives to create an inclusive culture where talent can flourish. We believe in the potential of everyone and open our doors to those who share those values. All appointments will be made based on merit; however, we particularly encourage applications from women, people from minority ethnic communities, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people.

Our hybrid-working model also allows you some variety on your place of work, offering you the chance to work from home on some days each week. Where possible, you will attend the office or site visits in line with our company policy. All staff liaise closely with their line manager to manage their time appropriately and according to their work and team requirements.

The role

Product & System Ownership

• Take full technical ownership of the academy auditing platform, including architecture, development, support and continuous improvement. 
• Act as the primary point of contact for technical decisions relating to the platform. 
• Ensure the long-term maintainability, scalability and reliability of the application. 
• Design, create and maintain the ongoing development backlog for the platform, in collaboration with business and technical stakeholders.

Stakeholder Engagement & Consultancy

• Engage directly with academy staff, operational teams and stakeholders to understand workflows, challenges and opportunities for improvement. 
• Facilitate discussions and workshops to gather requirements and scope new functionality. 
• Translate operational and business requirements into practical technical solutions. 
• Provide guidance and recommendations on process improvements and system enhancements. 
• Assist in the coordination and delivery of User Acceptance Testing for platform releases.

Solution Design & Development

• Design, develop and maintain modern web-based applications and services. 
• Produce pragmatic and scalable technical solutions aligned with business needs. 
• Contribute to application architecture, user experience improvements and technical standards. 
• Accurately estimate and plan development work. 

Front-End & Platform Engineering

• Extensive experience with TypeScript, Angular and RESTful web services. 
• Build responsive, secure and maintainable user interfaces and APIs. 
• Support integrations with internal and third-party systems where required. 

Collaboration

• Work closely with Business Analysts, Infrastructure teams, Security teams and operational stakeholders. 
• Contribute to technical documentation and knowledge sharing within the wider Systems team.

Requirements for the role

• Strong experience developing web applications using TypeScript, Angular and RESTful APIs. 
• Experience owning or leading the development of a business-critical application or platform. 
• Comfortable engaging directly with stakeholders and gathering requirements independently. 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to propose practical technical solutions. 
• Ability to manage work autonomously and prioritise effectively. 
• Experience balancing technical considerations with operational and user needs. 
• Strong understanding of software architecture, application security and development best practices. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. 
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to work effectively under pressure. 
• Experience working in consultancy-style, product ownership or stakeholder-facing technical roles is desired but not required.
• Experience working with NestJS as a back-end is desired but not required.
• Experience conducting workshops, discovery sessions or technical scoping exercises is desired but not required.
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and the Azure platform is desired but not required. 

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recruitment@premierleague.com