Senior Software Engineer, World Service

Glasgow, GBR, G511DA | London, GBR, W1A 1AA | Newcastle-upon-Tyne, GBR, NE991RN | Salford, GBR, M50 2QH

JOB DETAILS

• JOB BAND: D
• CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent
• DEPARTMENT: Product Group – World Service Discovery
• LOCATION: Any BBC Office – Hybrid
• PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £60,000 – £64,000 (depending on relevant skills, knowledge, and experience).

The BBC World Service serves audiences across the globe with impartial news and information in 41 languages (and growing), reaching 1.5 billion people each year. Our engineering teams ensure those audiences can access trusted journalism wherever they are, on any device or connection. As a Senior Software Engineer within the World Service Discovery team, you’ll play a key role in designing, delivering, and operating highly scalable multilingual platforms that underpin our global news products. You’ll shape technical direction, mentor colleagues, and ensure our systems remain performant, resilient, and accessible to all. You’ll bring deep technical expertise, leadership in modern engineering practices, and a curiosity for how technology can enable storytelling at global scale.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

Join a team that combines technical excellence with social purpose, building products that connect millions to impartial news and information every day. You’ll work with experienced engineers and editors across BBC Product Group, exploring new technologies, influencing architecture decisions, and helping evolve the digital experience for audiences worldwide.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT

• Lead the design, development, and operation of BBC World Service digital products, ensuring scalability, security, and accessibility across all supported languages and platforms.
• Write, review, and maintain high-quality code (React, Next.js, TypeScript, Node.js, CSS, HTML, etc.) aligned with BBC engineering standards and modern delivery practices.
• Participate in and guide technical planning, architecture reviews, and security assessments across cross-disciplinary teams.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, and Editorial partners to deliver features that meet global audience needs, balancing innovation with reliability.
• Champion test automation, CI/CD, and observability to ensure robust, maintainable systems.
• Mentor engineers, contribute to shared learning, and promote inclusive, supportive team culture.
• Shape and contribute to the technical roadmap for World Service Discovery, influencing standards and direction across the wider engineering group.
• Proactively identify and resolve performance, accessibility, or operational risks before they impact users.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

• HTML and CSS proficiency for multilingual environments, with strong knowledge of internationalization preferred (e.g., right-to-left layouts, non-Latin scripts, and localisation patterns).
• Experience developing and deploying large-scale distributed systems in enterprise or public-facing environments, covering testing, experimentation, and release.
• Strong background in cloud engineering (AWS or similar), including infrastructure automation and observability tooling.
• Demonstrable experience implementing secure development practices, managing access controls, and ensuring compliance with privacy and data-protection standards.
• Track record of influencing technical direction, mentoring other engineers, and collaborating in agile, cross-functional teams.
• Passion for accessibility and inclusive design, ideally with experience testing using assistive technologies or meeting recognised accessibility guidelines.
• Excellent people and communication skills, this role requires a high EQ.

DESIRED BUT NOT REQUIRED:

• Experience with BBC platforms, publishing systems, or similar large-scale media environments.
• Familiarity with experimentation and personalisation tools (e.g., Optimizely, A/B frameworks).
• Experience with performance optimisation and operational monitoring for high-traffic applications.
• Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (e.g., AWS CDK).
• Degree in Software Engineering / Computer Science or equivalent professional experience.

If you bring expertise in modern software engineering and want to use it to make a global impact we’d love to hear from you.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

Information at a Glance

This is your BBC At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world’s best loved content, and the BBC’s mission to inform, educate and entertain.

Find out more about the BBC Life at BBC Here you will benefit from:

• Fair pay and flexible benefits including a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym.
• Excellent career and professional development.
• Support in your working life, including flexible working which you can discuss with us at any point during the application, selection or offer.
• A values-based organisation where the way we do things is important as what we do. Benefits may vary if you are joining on an FTC basis.

Learn more about life at the BBC and our values in our candidate pack.

Candidate pack

You belong We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential. We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity. We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. Find out more about diversity, inclusion and belonging in our strategy below.