Entering his sixth season with the Saints and 13th in the NFL, Director of Football Administration Khai Harley’s primary focus is salary cap management. He works in conjunction with the player personnel department, making the club’s player acquisitions fit within the structure of the cap. His duties also include contract negotiations, coordinating different areas of football operations and being involved in the administrative functions of running the club.
Harley has a deep background in NFL salary cap administration, Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) regulations, and the research of player contracts. He arrived in New Orleans in 2008 after serving for five years as the Manager of Labor Operations with the NFL Management Council. He was responsible for ensuring personnel transactions and player contracts submitted by each team complied with the CBA and the NFL’s Constitution & Bylaws while also providing advice to club officials during contract negotiations.
On a daily basis, Harley researches contracts and cap statistics from not only the club but from around the league. It is similar to the daily and yearly reconciliation he did for all 32 clubs in his former position, where he calculated cap figures for each team, made adjustments for the following year and analyzed statistical trends related to player signings.
Harley has also been a member of the NFL’s Diversity Council since 2005, which is designed to promote diversity throughout the NFL’s administrative offices, recommend diversity initiatives and implement/oversee approved programs. He started in the League Office in 2002 as a Player Personnel Analyst, working to ensure each team’s compliance with the salary cap, analyzing player contracts and researching the eligibility of college players.
Harley served as an administrative intern with the Philadelphia Eagles from 2001-02 – gathering data used to determine whether players earned performance-based incentives while also handling other administrative duties – and earlier in 2001 served as football operations intern for the Indianapolis Colts.
Prior to entering the NFL, Harley was a financial analyst with Bloomberg, L.P. from 1995-2000, analyzing domestic and international bond markets, studying trends in European markets for clients, training employees and international staff and ensuring debt issuance within Emerging, Latin American, and U.S. Private Placement Markets were in compliance with corporate and SEC guidelines.
Harley graduated with a degree in Accounting from Rutgers University in 1998, twice receiving the National Association of Black Accountants Scholarship Award. He earned a master’s degree in Sports Management from Springfield College in 2001.