Safeguarding Manager, Youth Engagement

U.S. Soccer Overview

The U.S. Soccer Federation exists in service to soccer. Our aim is to ignite a national passion for the game. Because we believe that soccer is more than a sport; it is a force for good.

Full-time

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.

• 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 Safe Sport Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies (MAAPP), the Safe Sport 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…