# Earl Forward

> Earl Forward is a paid, 28-month academy. We select on aptitude, train AI-first engineers, then place them inside football clubs and rights holders six months at a time.

Earl Forward is a programme by Earl (https://earl.partners), the AI partner to elite sports and stadia. It trains AI-first forward deployed engineers and places them inside football clubs and rights holders.

Applications for cohort one are not open yet. Register interest at https://forward.earl.partners/

## What it is

A paid, cohort-based academy on a single 28-month contract:

- **Selection** - a build challenge, not a CV. Applicants spend around 70 hours on a submission and are judged on what they shipped and whether they can explain it. Every applicant gets written feedback and an invitation to resubmit for the next cohort.
- **Months 1 to 4, training** - salaried from the first week, in Earl's London office. Agentic coding as the default, systems thinking, data engineering on the stack clubs actually run, product and UX sense, business analysis. Week 16 is a same-day build-and-present quality gate.
- **Months 5 to 28, placements** - four consecutive six-month placements inside clubs and rights holders. The engineer remains an Earl employee throughout, with an Earl technical lead on call through the first placement.
- **Month 28** - a placement client has first option to hire, for a standard recruitment fee backed by a six-month guarantee. Others stay and grow with Earl.

## Why it exists

The London median total compensation for a forward deployed engineer is about £130,000 (levels.fyi). Football clubs pay data engineers roughly £30,000 to £65,000 (Analytics Sports Jobs, June 2026). No club closes that gap by bidding, so the only route to these people is to train them.

Postings for the role rose more than 800% between January and September 2025 (Financial Times, using LinkedIn data). OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Cloud, Salesforce and Stripe all hire it. No established UK degree, bootcamp or certification trains it.

## For clubs and rights holders

- Six-month blocks, bookable consecutively for continuity
- Off the club's headcount: opex rather than permanent budget, no requisition, no notice period
- Rates reflect that the engineer is building experience, stepping up as they prove out
- An Earl technical lead on call through the first placement
- Everyone on the programme publishes under their own name, so a club can read six months of somebody's work before accepting them
- First option to hire at month 28

Not only clubs: leagues, federations, venues, agencies and sponsors.

## For applicants

- Salaried from the first week, rising through the programme. No fee to the learner, and no exit fee, ever.
- No degree requirement and no CV screen
- Three routes in: career starters locked out of the entry-level market, released academy players, and mid-career changers

## Contact

Email: hello@earl.partners
Parent company: Earl, https://earl.partners