Ward, 45, is the ownership's preferred candidate to replace Richard Hughes, who officially left Liverpool on 5 September after two and a half years in the role and has since joined former colleague Simon Francis at Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal, The Athletic reports.
An appointment would mark a second spell as Liverpool's sporting director for Ward, who previously held the post during the 2022-23 season.
He first joined Liverpool in 2012 from Manchester City as European scouting manager for Spain and Portugal, later moving into loan pathways and football partnerships before his promotion to assistant sporting director in 2020. He worked alongside Michael Edwards and succeeded him when Edwards departed in 2022, only informing FSG that November of his own intention to leave at the end of that season.
Ward stayed on beyond his official departure date in the summer of 2023 to complete the signing of Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton, having already brought in Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo during his single season in charge.
He returned to the Liverpool ownership group in 2024 as FSG's technical director, shortly after Edwards himself came back, overseeing player development pathways and the academy. Part of his remit had been to prepare for overseeing football operations at a second club that FSG intended to buy, but those multi-club plans have since been shelved.
The timing coincides with wider upheaval at Liverpool. Edwards stepped down as FSG's CEO of football in July, the club confirmed in August that FSG had sold close to a 40% stake to a consortium including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and two more members of the recruitment department, Mark Burchill and Craig McKee, have also left to join Hughes at Al Hilal.