Chief Business Officer – Women’s Soccer

Chief Business Officer – Women’s Soccer

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

GENERAL

Whitecaps FC is proud to be one of the first two founding teams for a new professional women’s league in Canada, which will be launched in the year 2025. The Club has a strong history of supporting the women’s game, from the grassroots level to our Girls Elite Program, and now the final step into a domestic women’s professional team is coming to fruition.

The Chief Business Officer (CBO) - Women's Soccer will be responsible for helping to define, execute and oversee all business and revenue-generating operations for this new Vancouver Whitecaps’ professional women’s team, while ensuring alignment with the Club’s broader vision and goals.

Reporting to the Governance Board of Vancouver Whitecaps FC, the CBO – Women’s Soccer will partner with the program’s General Manager, Stephanie Labbé to form the Executive Leadership Committee for the Women’s Soccer program, responsible for designing and building a highly competitive team with a financially sound business model.  The individual that assumes this role will be responsible for the sourcing and growth of revenues and building, motivating and leading a cohesive, high-performing team of diverse employees.  The new CBO – Women’s Program will need to be a collaborative, dynamic representative of the club, elevating the Whitecaps brand by liaising with a wide range of local, regional and national business partners and sponsors, as well as local community members.

Recognizing the club’s goal to foster and develop the strongest Canadian talent, both on and off the pitch, the successful CBO of the Women’s Soccer will fully utilize the opportunity provided by the vibrant community of Vancouver, British Columbia, and the rest of Canada. 

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES AND PRIORITIES

LEADERSHIP & GOVERNANCE

• Oversight of all business operations of the Women’s Soccer program, setting a standard of accountability within the team to develop achievable yet aspirational goals with structured plans for success.
• Support the development, execution and monitoring of the program’s business plan, ensuring effective delivery of services and efficient administration in support of the organization’s objectives.
• Work as a collaborative partner, developing and maintaining healthy and productive working relationships with the club’s executive team, GM, employees, membership, partners and government agencies. 
• Assist with maintaining, fostering and developing all partnerships (internal and external) of the organization. 
• Conduct business with high communication, accountability and transparency. 

OPERATIONS, FINANCE & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

• Manage P&L, establish and regularly assess the continuous improvement of all internal business processes, systems, tools and technology to meet the demands of a growing organization. 
• Work with the Club’s Governance Board and the GM, Women’s Soccer to develop budgets that support the business plan; Maintain ongoing monitoring of execution against strategic plans, initiating innovative and timely measures to address shortfalls as needed.
• Ensure that the organization is operating with a sound financial plan and with processes, disciplines, and timely reporting that will support the stability, sustainability and future growth of the women’s program. 
• Lead the HR function including recruitment, contracts, retention and evaluations, developing role descriptions that clearly define the duties and accountability for each position and ensuring the organization is appropriately staffed with resources in place to fulfill organizational initiatives. 
• Implement and reinforce best operational practices and ensure that they are being effectively utilized. 
• Have oversight of the relationships with all external suppliers including legal, auditing, financial planning and accounting. 
• Work with the Club’s legal department to develop and manage all contracts and agreements and on procedural matters relating to governance and compliance with legal/reporting requirements. 
• Ensure the organization adheres to all obligations to industry regulations and standards. 
• Manage special projects as required from development to delivery and ongoing
• Prepare monthly and annual reports as required.

REVENUE GENERATION

• Assist in sourcing and supporting all sponsorship, championships, events, programs and marketing initiatives. 
• Oversight of the funding / grant identification and application process.

COMMUNITY

• Work closely with the Community & Social Impact team to create meaningful connections between the team and the local community.  Design and implement programs and initiatives that support organization-wide business objectives.

LEADERSHIP & ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

• Build and support the development of the employees into a best-in-class team and help to elevate and sustain the Club’s culture
• Support development and leadership of the commercial team’s culture, building a collaborative environment with a highly motivated workforce.
• Help support employee engagement and the internal brand within the program and the Club.
• Actively support the club’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.
• Play an active role with the GM in developing and communicating the program’s vision.
• Support the Club’s senior leadership team where necessary, on strategic and operational needs, including but not limited to:
• People & Culture, Safesport activities
• Finance and budgeting
• Cohesion across sporting and business
• Legal issues
• Public relations, community events and media duties

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

In addition to bringing a commitment to Vancouver Whitecaps FC vision and values, the ideal candidate will have a broad base of leadership experience, with direct knowledge of high-performance sport, and degrees of demonstrated experience as follows:

• 8-10 years’ experience at a senior leadership level, with a proven track record of driving revenue and improving results in a sustainable manner, showing competence financially, commercially and operationally
• Results driven and detail oriented, able to develop and implement action plans with initiative and sound problem-solving and decision-making skills
• P&L responsibility, develop and manage a budget, with forecasting experience
• Experience in, or understanding of, the Vancouver or Canadian market
• Proven hands-on, approachable mentor, with the ability to build highly engaged teams, and continuously develop others through coaching & development
• The ability to build and maintain strong corporate and other business relationships in order to consistently maximize growth, meet/exceed targets.
• Exceptional verbal and writtencommunication skills including public speakingto small and large groups at all levels of an organization
• Strong understanding of industry trends to better position the Club for business opportunities
• Post-secondary degree in Business or other relevant disciplines

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS

Reports to:

• Governance Board, Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Relates to:

• General Manager, Women’s Soccer
• External partners, sponsors and supporters

Vancouver Whitecaps FC believes that diversity and inclusion is critical to our success, and we seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.This includes but is not limitedto people of colour, Indigenous people, persons with disabilities, and persons of any sexual orientation or gender identity.Should you require any accommodation throughout the recruitment process, please do not hesitate to contact our People & Culture department.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.No recruiters or agencies, please.