Senior Commercial Growth Manager, Women’s Game

Working at the RFU means being part of the ‘bigger picture’ at England Rugby: to be rooted in our purpose, which is to enrich lives, introduce more people to rugby union & develop the sport for future generations. If our purpose resonates with you, and you recognise the value that sport can bring to people’s lives, we’d love to work with you. An opportunity has arisen for a Senior Commercial Growth Manager, Women’s Game to join our Women’s Game team.

Job Title : Senior Commercial Growth Manager, Women’s Game

Department : Women’s Game

Reports to : Strategy Lead, Women’s Game

Direct report(s) : Dotted line to Strategic Projects Manager, Revenue

Salary Banding: c. £68,000 per annum

Job Level : Translate

Location : HQ - This role is contractually based at Allianz Stadium, offering some flexibility to work from home

Employment Type : Fixed Term Contract: 2 years

Working Hours : This is a full-time role, covering 35hrs per week

Application Information:

• Please submit an anonymised CV (i.e. remove personal details). You do not need to submit a cover letter.
• Vacancy closing date: 4th September 2026 at 12:00pm
• Please note that we reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as possible.

The Team:

The central Women's & Girls team is a small, strategic team led by the Executive Director of Women's Game, responsible for driving delivery of the RFU's Women & Girls Action Plan and bringing together strategy, investment and accountability across the game.

The team brings together expertise across strategy and project management, rugby, commercial and fan growth, and stakeholder management. Together, we lead the Women's Game business model, strategic investment, major cross-functional projects, governance and advocacy, while building strong relationships across the game.

We work across the whole organisation, partnering with teams including Rugby Development, Commercial, Marketing, Ticketing, Communications, Venue, Finance and Data & Insights to ensure Women's & Girls priorities are embedded in decision-making and translated into delivery. We also work with a broad range of external stakeholders across the domestic and international game.

We're an ambitious and collaborative team, comfortable working across organisational boundaries, influencing at all levels and bringing people together around shared priorities. Our role is both to drive the Women's & Girls agenda and to ensure it is never an afterthought.

The Role:

The RFU is entering an exciting and transformational phase for the Women & Girls game, underpinned by the ambition set out in the Every Rose: Our Time action plan. To accelerate progress, the RFU is recruiting a Senior Commercial Growth Manager, Women's Game, responsible for shaping the strategic approach to audience growth and identifying opportunities to maximise commercial value and revenue across the Women's Game portfolio, working in partnership with teams across the organisation to deliver against our long-term ambitions.

The Senior Commercial Growth Manager will lead the Women's Game strategic approach to commercial and audience growth, using insight to identify opportunities to attract, engage and retain fans, maximise commercial value and support the ambition of generating £60m revenue by 2030. Working across multiple internal functions, the role will translate Women's Game priorities into clear opportunities and plans, partnering with functional teams to support delivery and drive long-term commercial sustainability.

The role reports to the Strategy Lead, Women's Game and works collaboratively across Marketing, Commercial Partnerships, Communications, Ticketing, Data & Insights and Venue teams to ensure Women's Game priorities are reflected within integrated plans. The role will work closely with the Strategic Projects Manager, Revenue, who will have a dotted-line relationship into the role, to develop an organisation-wide Events Strategy and Ticketing Plan. The Senior Commercial Growth Manager will lead the Women's Game strategic input into this work.

The Senior Commercial Growth Manager will act as the strategic commercial lead for the Women's Game, influencing senior stakeholders across the organisation, identifying opportunities to improve commercial performance and ensuring Women's Game commercial and audience priorities are embedded across relevant strategic programmes.

Role Purpose:

This role provides strategic commercial leadership for the Women's Game, shaping the approach to audience growth, revenue generation and commercial innovation to support delivery of the Every Rose Action Plan and Women's Game business model. Operating at Senior Manager level, the role identifies and develops growth opportunities, influences senior stakeholders and works across functional teams to embed Women's Game priorities and maximise long-term commercial value.

Responsibilities:

Day-to-day responsibilities will include:

• Lead the commercial growth strategy for the Women's Game, shaping the strategic approach to audience acquisition, engagement and retention in line with the Every Rose Action Plan and Women's Game business plan.
• Influence and manage key stakeholder relationships across Marketing, Commercial Partnerships, Communications, Ticketing, Venue, Data & Insights and Finance to ensure Women's Game commercial and audience priorities are embedded across organisational plans and delivery.
• Partner with the Commercial Team to identify and develop innovative commercial opportunities that increase audience growth, commercial value and long-term revenue generation.
• Monitor commercial performance across the Women's Game portfolio, using data and insight to identify opportunities to maximise revenue, audience growth and return on investment.
• Lead the Women's Game strategic input into the organisation-wide Events Strategy and Ticketing Plan, working in partnership with the Strategic Projects Manager, Revenue to ensure the specific audience, pricing, sales and commercial opportunities for the Women's Game are reflected within the wider strategy.
• Lead commercial planning for the Women's Game, working in partnership with the Commercial Team and other relevant functions to translate strategic priorities into coordinated plans and activity.
• Provide strategic reporting, analysis and recommendations to the Strategy Lead, Women's Game, Executive Director, Executive, Board and Council on commercial performance and progress against strategic objectives.
• Represent the Women's Game in key internal and external forums, acting as a strategic commercial advocate and driving collaboration across the organisation.
• Identify commercial risks and opportunities within the Women’s Game, recommending actions that support long-term commercial sustainability and delivery of the Women's Game business model.
• Actively collaborate with colleagues to contribute to the development and delivery of the current strategic, business and operational plans.
• Act as an ambassador for, and promote the best interests of the RFU, including the promotion of our culture and core values – This Rose Means Everyone: Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other.
• Undertake other duties as may be required from time to time as are consistent with the responsibilities of the post and the needs of the organisation.

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.

Essential:

• Proven experience developing and delivering commercial growth strategies within a complex, audience-led environment.
• Demonstrated ability to use audience, commercial and performance data to identify opportunities and inform strategic decision-making.
• Demonstrated experience identifying and progressing growth opportunities across areas such as commercial strategy, ticketing, audience development or partnerships.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, including experience developing business cases, managing investment decisions and evaluating return on investment.
• Experience engaging, influencing and advising senior leaders, providing recommendations that shape commercial decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability to influence without direct authority, aligning multiple functions around shared commercial objectives.
• Outstanding stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across a complex organisation.
• Experience leading complex cross-functional programmes and strategic commercial initiatives, working across multiple functions to achieve shared outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to balance multiple priorities, manage risk and communicate effectively across a range of audiences.
• 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 and building an inclusive culture through the role and day to day behaviours.

Desirable:

• Strong understanding of the women's sport commercial landscape, audience behaviour and fan engagement.
• Experience working within sport, entertainment or another audience-led industry.
• Experience across ticketing, events, fan growth and/or commercial partnerships.

Additional Information:

• All role holders must maintain an appropriate standard of confidentiality. Any disclosures of confidential information (including personal information kept on computer or other media) 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 [email protected].
• 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.

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 are:

• 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 [email protected].

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