Policy Advisor

Please note that the advert will close at 00:01 on Sunday 8 June and therefore we advise getting your application in no later than midnight on Saturday 7 June.

About Ofcom

Ofcom is the regulator for the communications services that we use and rely on each day. We make sure people get the best from their broadband, home phone and mobile services, as well as keeping an eye on TV and radio. Our culture is clear – we live by our values: Empowerment; Excellence; Collaboration; Agility and Respect. These define how we work to deliver our purpose, now and in the future. The behaviours which support these values set the path for a fully inclusive and innovative culture at Ofcom. We focus not only on what we do, but how we do it. We pride ourselves on being an organisation of people who genuinely care about helping others.

About the team you’ll be part of

The broadcasting sector is changing rapidly. Technological advances and new services have led to a greater range of choice for audiences. They can now decide what to watch, read, listen to or interact with in more ways than ever before. The role of Ofcom’s Content Policy team is to ensure that the UK’s broadcast and media industries continue to serve the interests of everyone in the UK. This includes assessing whether the UK’s public service broadcasters (the BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C) provide a wide range of programmes, and that the programmes they provide are of a high quality; ensuring viewers benefit from competitive and creative services; and supporting the UK’s creative industries. In the last year we reviewed the UK’s local media sector which is essential to social cohesion and local democracy, we have refreshed the requirements for what the BBC must do for audiences, and we have started to implement the Media Act, which is the first fundamental update to the UK’s legal framework for the media sector in over 20 years.

The purpose and scope of the role

Associates in our team contribute to a wide range of content policy projects; from reports on the performance of public service media, through influencing improvements in the diversity of the broadcasting industry, to one off projects looking at the impact on competition of a new BBC service.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Policy development: Helping to identify policy questions, contributing to scoping the analysis needed to answer them, and working with colleagues to develop solutions.
• Project management: Supporting colleagues with drawing up project plans, organising meetings, liaising with different teams in Ofcom.
• Drafting: Contributing to the production of written documents and materials for both internal and external audiences.
• Stakeholder management: Supporting the management of relationships with businesses, public bodies and other stakeholders.

The skills, knowledge and experience you’ll need for success

Our colleagues come from a variety of different academic and career backgrounds and have developed their skills in many different roles and sectors. The core skills for the role are:

• Essential

• Evaluating Problems: an ability to think innovatively about problems and to contribute to a structured approach of developing effective solutions.
• Generating Insights: able to collate information and support the analysis of it to draw evidence based conclusions.
• Articulating Ideas: an ability to communicate with people internally and externally both verbally and in writing.
• Forming Relationships: building and maintaining working relationships with a broad range of people across the organisation.
• Executing Plans: some experience of supporting planning and delivery of projects to time, budget and with effective/impactful results, demonstrating ability to prioritise competing demands on their time effectively.

• Sector knowledge: a broad understanding of Ofcom’s role and of the broadcasting and media sector.
• Data analysis skills: some experience of undertaking data analysis.
• Economic knowledge: an understanding of economic concepts and analysis.

Qualifications

You do not require any specific academic qualifications for this role, but we will be looking for evidence of the skills and knowledge outlined above.

How to apply:

Please send us your CV and a covering letter. The covering letter should be no more than two pages and should explain what has motivated you to apply for this role and what you think you would bring to it.

At Ofcom we prioritise inclusive and diverse recruitment in order to truly reflect the society we represent. Where positions are listed as full time, we remain open to reduced hours, part-time arrangements, job shares and other flexible working options from day one of employment. We warmly welcome applications from candidates returning to work after a break – for whatever reason. As a disability confident employer, we offer interviews to any disabled applicant who meet essential criteria for advertised roles.

If you need information in an alternative format or have specific preferences, please contact our recruitment team at resourcing@ofcom.org.uk or call 0330 912 1378.