Careers

About Us

Sported is a charity that delivers funding, resources, and expert volunteer support to grassroots groups that use sport and physical activity to make a positive difference to people and communities. Our network of 5000 groups reached over one million people across the UK in 2025-26. Through free support, resources and funding, we help trusted local leaders lower the barriers participation, building stronger, fairer communities and improving health and wellbeing, and opportunities for all.

We are now looking for a Network Services and Data Manager to join us on a full-time, permanent basis, working 37.5 hours per week.

About The Role

Are you an insight-driven leader with experience of service design and development, CRM systems and data management? Do you enjoy turning evidence into action, building effective processes, and helping organisations maximise their impact? Then join Sported as our Network Services and Data Manager and play a key role in developing and evolving the services, activities, and support we provide to grassroots groups across the UK.

This role is a fantastic opportunity for a strategic and insight-driven professional with expertise in service design, CRM systems, and data management to join Sported's mission of supporting grassroots groups to create lasting change in their communities. Here you will have the opportunity to provide leadership to a function with significant potential for growth and development. You'll be instrumental in embedding best practice across service design, establishing robust processes, enhancing data capability, and creating a culture of evidence-based decision-making. The successful candidate will drive continuous improvement, helping to establish a high-performing, strategically focused function that maximises impact across the organisation.

The Opportunity

This is more than a data role You'll lead the development of Sported's services, CRM systems, and data strategy, ensuring our decisions, processes, and offer to grassroots groups are driven by insight and evidence. Working closely with colleagues across the organisation, you'll champion innovation, improve how we use data, and help create exceptional experiences for the grassroots groups we serve. If you're excited by the opportunity to shape strategy, lead change and maximise social impact, we'd love to hear from you.

About You

• An excellent communicator, able to build positive working relationships with the wider team.
• An effective influencer, able to drive change and embed new ways of working across the organisation.
• A self-starter, able to work independently and under your own initiative.
• A curious mind, able to ask questions and pursue answers.
• A critical thinker, able to assess existing approaches and imagine new ways of working.
• A passion for making a difference to marginalised communities and people. 

Further Information

Why Join us?

• A supportive, friendly, engaged team, with a great people first culture
• A salary of £39,393 - £45,020 (dependent on experience)
• 25 days' holiday per annum plus Bank Holidays
• Two additional wellbeing days per year
• Two paid volunteer days each year
• Up to five days' paid study leave for self-funded training
• Flexible working arrangements
• A confidential counselling service
• Pension scheme
• Cycle to Work scheme

How to apply

If you wish to apply, please provide an up to date CV, together with a cover letter detailing how you meet the criteria shown in the person specification. You can use experiences gained from work, volunteering and life experiences. We will not consider applications without these two documents. We also ask you to complete an equal opportunities monitoring form, this is not compulsory but we use the anonymous data to help us improve our recruitment practices and ensure our approach reaches a diverse audience. Please note this is a UK wide home based role please remove the Scotland location from the listing. 

The closing date for this role is Midnight on 20th August.

Sported is an equal opportunities employer, and we warmly welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, LGBTQ+ and disabled communities, as well as people with lived experience of tackling inequalities, because we value the insight and strength that diverse voices bring to creating meaningful change. We want you to feel comfortable and supported throughout the recruitment process. If there is anything we can do to help make the process more accessible for you, please let us know. We want every candidate to have the best opportunity to showcase their skills. That's why we use a anonymous recruitment process and provide interview questions in advance, supporting a fair, transparent and inclusive selection process.

Apply for role

Closing date: 20th August 2026