Safeguarding Manager, Youth Engagement

UNITED STATES SOCCER FEDERATION 1•Atlanta, GA

About The Position

The Safeguarding Manager, Youth Engagement is U.S. Soccer's subject-matter expert on safeguarding for youth participants of the game. For the purposes of this role, "youth participants" means all under-18 participants, including minor players, minor referees, and other young people who take part in soccer activities, programs, and events. The role leads safeguarding prevention and education across the youth game and provides youth participant expertise across the wider safeguarding team. At its core, this role is about culture and the young people at the heart of the game. Meeting regulatory requirements is essential, but not the finish line. Success is measured by whether young people feel safe, heard, and genuinely valued in soccer, and whether the adults around them build environments where that is the norm. Youth voice and youth agency are not add-ons to this work; they are its purpose. This is a standards-and-enablement role. Rather than personally delivering every program, the Manager sets the frameworks, builds the tools and learning, and equips U.S. Soccer staff, Member Organizations, and partners to create and sustain safe, healthy environments themselves. Given a period of significant growth and major events, priorities will be delivered in phases, sequenced with the Vice President of Safeguarding: foundational standards and education first, then deeper assurance and member capability over time. To succeed, the Manager brings deep expertise in safeguarding and child protection, a strong command of the regulatory landscape governing minor athletes within the Olympic and Paralympic Movement, and a proven ability to translate standards into practical policy, education, and culture across grassroots, community, and elite settings. Above all, the Manager is committed to working directly with youth athletes, championing their voice, agency, and wellbeing at every stage of their participation. The role contributes across U.S. Soccer's safeguarding methodology of prevention, reporting, and response. The Manager designs and embeds the policies, learning, and pathways that prevent harm before it occurs. Working closely with the Reporting and Resolution team, the Manager also helps build clear, trusted reporting systems, ensuring concerns can be raised easily, disclosures are acted on appropriately, and learning flows back into prevention. The Manager supports this function as an expert but does not perform case management; intake, investigation, and adjudication sit with the Reporting and Resolution team and the U.S. Center for SafeSport, in line with federal law and U.S. Soccer policy. The role reports to the Vice President of Safeguarding - Prevention & Education, and works closely with the National Team Safeguarding Manager, providing minor-participant expertise wherever minors or participants at heightened risk are involved (including the youth and disability National Teams). It also partners with the Director of Safeguarding Operations, the Reporting and Resolution team, and other programming members, such as Recreation and Soccer Forward.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Child Protection, Social Work, Education, Public Health, Sport Management, Criminal Justice, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
Minimum of 5 years in safeguarding, child protection, or minor welfare, including hands-on experience designing and implementing prevention measures and delivering policy and education programs at scale, experience with safeguarding in a sporting environment and a strong working knowledge of the U.S. child-protection landscape (U.S. Center for SafeSport and MAAPP requirements; state mandatory-reporting obligations), with a demonstrated track record of building child-centered, youth-voice-led safeguarding culture, not only implementing policy and meeting compliance requirements
Demonstrated experience designing and delivering effective learning and training frameworks (digital, blended, and in-person) for varied audiences including young people, and leveraging digital learning ecosystems (LMS, content delivery, learning analytics), with awareness of online-safety and digital-risk trends affecting young people
Proven ability to lead projects, influence across functions without direct authority, and contribute to strategic decision-making; capable of working in fast-paced and demanding environments
Excellent judgment, the ability to recognize risk and the limits of the role and escalate appropriately, and the highest standards of integrity and confidentiality when handling sensitive matters
Ability to pass a background check and complete SafeSport / safeguarding training; willingness to travel and to work occasional evenings and weekends around camps and events
Language: English required
General knowledge of soccer
Capable of working in fast-paced and demanding environments
Must be able to connect “micro” details to the “macro” vision and mission
Proficient experience with Microsoft Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook)

Nice To Haves

Experience within an NGB, the Olympic & Paralympic Movement, sport, or education, and with inclusive, accessible safeguarding for disabled participants and adults at risk
Spanish proficiency

Responsibilities

Serve as Subject-Matter Expert: Act as a key internal expert on youth athletes and youth participant safeguarding spanning regulation, recognized best practice, and the evidence base for U.S. Soccer. Maintain current expertise in applicable requirements (the U.S. Center for SafeSport Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies (MAAPP), the SafeSport Code, USOPC requirements including evolving background-check and training standards, and applicable state mandatory-reporting law) alongside leading safeguarding frameworks and research, including evidence-based, trauma-informed, and child-centered prevention practice. With the wider Safeguarding team, support the translation of regulatory change and emerging evidence into clear, actionable internal guidance, and contribute to external guidance for Members and partners.
Serve as an Advisor: Provide expert advice and support to the wider Safeguarding Team and U.S. Soccer operations wherever youth or participants at heightened risk are involved, including the youth national teams, the disability National Teams, age-group camps, talent-identification events, and the transition of minor participants into the senior environment.
Contribute Thought Leadership: Stay at the leading edge of youth safeguarding in soccer, building relationships with U.S. Soccer Members, peer NGBs, and child-protection experts, and researching and briefing the organization on emerging best practices and risks to minor participants. Maintain particular focus on the digital environment, including online grooming, harmful contact through social and gaming platforms, sextortion, image-based abuse, and AI-enabled threats, translating insight into refreshed prevention controls and helping to champion a positive, child-centered safeguarding culture.
Develop Policies and Standards: Support the development and maintenance of safeguarding policies, codes of conduct, and operating standards that apply to youth participants, including recreation, community, commercial, and event settings, with practical implementation tools that make them usable for youth, staff, volunteers, contractors, and partners.
Advance Inclusive and Accessible Safeguarding: Ensure safeguarding standards, learning, and reporting routes are inclusive and accessible through addressing the elevated and specific risks faced by disabled participants and other groups at heightened risk across the youth and grassroots game, including disability soccer programs, and equipping programs to make safe participation genuinely accessible to all.
Enable Safe Engagement in Youth Activities: Set and advise on safeguarding standards for any activity that involves or depicts youth participants, including photo and video shoots, public appearances, ambassador and talent engagements, and the use of minors' image and likeness in marketing, merchandise, and collectibles. Define consent, chaperoning, and supervision requirements in partnership with Marketing, Commercial, and Legal, keeping young people's dignity and agency at the center of how they are represented.
Enable Safe Facilities, Events, and Activations: Provide the safeguarding standards, planning, and risk-assessment support that keep minors safe at U.S. Soccer venues, events, and activations whenever they are present or their interests are engaged, including the national training center, visiting youth groups, camps, clinics, tours, and event-day supervision, trusted-adult, and reporting arrangements. Support U.S. Soccer Members in building the same safe practices for their own youth participants.
Build Learning and Education Assets: Lead the development of safeguarding learning content with and for youth participants and the adults who engage with them, using blended digital, virtual, and in-person delivery designed to be age-appropriate, accessible, and effective across a diverse, multilingual community.
Build Member Capacity: Strengthen the safeguarding capacity and capability of Member Organizations through toolkits, train-the-trainer models, and ongoing support, scaling consistent standards across a membership of millions. This includes supporting the Safe Soccer Clearance program from a youth participant perspective, so that the training, screening, and clearance of those working with minors remain appropriate and effective.
Support Recreation and Schools Programming: Act as a safeguarding partner to Soccer in Schools and recreation initiatives, ensuring program models, screening, supervision standards, and reporting pathways are appropriate for school and community delivery.
Embed Safeguarding in Community Engagement: Build safeguarding into Soccer Forward and community and social-impact programming through a child-centered, inclusive, “safeguarding-by-design” approach.
Make Reporting and Response Accessible to Minors and Communities: Work with the Reporting and Resolution team to ensure reporting and response systems are appropriate, accessible, and trusted for youth participants and the communities they come from. Routes for raising concerns should be age-appropriate, low-barrier, culturally and linguistically accessible, and well understood by young people, families, and grassroots organizations, with disclosures recognized and escalated appropriately.
Collaborate Across the Organization: Partner across the Reporting and Resolution team, Legal, Coaching Education, Commercial, Facilities, and Membership to align policy, education, and delivery, and feed learning back into prevention.