Job Description

Closing Date: 31/07/2023

Group: Online Safety Group

Management Level: Principal

Job Type: Fixed Term (Fixed Term)

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Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Monday 31st July and therefore we advise getting your application in no later than midnight on Sunday 30th July.

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.

Team Overview

This role sits in the Policy Development team within the Online Safety Group.

Almost all of us use online services every day of our lives, enjoying the wide array of benefits that the internet has to offer \xe2\x80\x93 from the free flow of news and information, opportunities for self-expression and global community, to commercial opportunities for businesses. However, online services also have the power to lead to significant harm to users. Almost all of us have also experienced harmful content or behaviour online.

The Government has appointed Ofcom as the regulator for online harms in the UK. There has never been a more meaningful and exciting time to join Ofcom and help deliver one of the most rewarding programmes in the history of our organisation. 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.

Purpose of the Role

This role will lead our work to develop our illegal content Codes of Practice (\xe2\x80\x98Codes\xe2\x80\x99). The Codes set out measures which services can follow to mitigate harm on their platforms and comply with their safety duties. They cover topic areas including their approach to content moderation, encouraging accessible reporting and complaints, managing user access, and setting out clear terms of service.

The immediate focus of this role will be developing the first iteration of our Codes for our upcoming Illegal Harms consultation and statement. Our consultation, which will be published in Autumn 2023 sets out our approach to implementing the new online safety regime and establishes the first building blocks of our regulation of the online sector. It focuses primarily on addressing the risk of harm from illegal sources (\xe2\x80\x98illegal harm\xe2\x80\x99) across all in-scope services.

The successful candidate will also be responsible for developing our longer-term strategy for refining and expanding the Codes, including how and when we deliver future iterations of the Codes to achieve our wider strategic aims for the Online Safety regime.

The core building blocks of the online safety regime are Ofcom\xe2\x80\x99s guidance documents and Codes of Practice, which together set out how services can comply with their duties under the regime to assess and manage the harm.

You will need to intelligently harness individual strengths and support the co-ordination of a diverse set of colleagues from within the Codes of Practice team and other cross functional areas, facilitating cross team working, encouraging practical delivery schedules, unblocking issues, and reporting an honest assessment of progress. You will also need to demonstrate thought leadership and strong policy problem solving skills, navigating the team through complex policy issues to reach resolution.

As the Codes Project Director, you will be responsible for ensuring our Codes of Practice work is delivered to a high standard, in an efficient and timely manner. In doing this role effectively, you will need to consider how to manage risks and issues, plan resources effectively, as well as managing internal and external stakeholders as needed.

Key responsibilities

Working with the Illegal harms consultation Project PD and PM to develop a coherent strategy for preparing for Statement while the consultation is out, representing codes needs while taking a wider view of overall project needs;

Responsible for developing our longer-term strategy for refining and expanding the Codes, including how and when we deliver future iterations of the Codes to achieve our wider strategic aims for the Online Safety regime;

Overseeing the day-to-day management, delivery, and development of our online safety codes work.

Working with the codes project manager, liaising with relevant workstream leads and ensuring that deliverables are delivered according to the timelines in our project plan;

Overseeing drafting of the codes sections for the Statement, including leading on development of structure of the document and ensuring that leads are in place to draft each of the sections of the document;

Ensuring there is a coherent policy approach and narrative running through codes drafts, supporting leads for constituent deliverables and picking up policy issues that cut across deliverables;

With the codes PM, help foster an environment where colleagues feel safe to call out if they aren\xe2\x80\x99t getting what they need to progress and ensure teams understand the plan and the impact if their activity slips.

Work effectively and collaboratively with the Illegal Harms team and other cross-functional areas.

Skills, Knowledge and experience

The successful candidate can demonstrate:

Programme management and organisational skills \xe2\x80\x93 extensive experience of planning and delivering a complex policy projects. Experience managing challenging and complex policy areas is highly desirable.

Excellent written communication skills \xe2\x80\x93 significant experience overseeing the drafting of large and complex publications. Demonstrable ability to communicate complex concepts in simple and accessible terms and to ensure a clear and coherent narrative flows through long documents with multiple authors.

People Management \xe2\x80\x93 experience of playing a key role in leadership of a multi-disciplinary project team.

Analytical skills \xe2\x80\x93 excellent analytical skills.

Delivery focussed \xe2\x80\x93 significant track record of identifying and resolving material project problems.

Ofcom values \xe2\x80\x93 evidence and appreciation of and a desire to promote Ofcom\xe2\x80\x99s corporate values of excellence, agility, empowerment, collaboration and respect. A commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Competencies

Takes responsibility for delivery to time, quality and cost, setting direction for the scope of the work.

Manages the governance process smoothly at critical points in the project lifecycle.

Manages and resolves risks, reporting or escalating when necessary.

Takes responsibility for bringing together material for high profile/complex documents.

Builds a positive and re-enforcing team dynamic, encouraging and supporting more junior colleagues to achieve their best.

Ensures quality control of written material in terms of content and format, overseeing final edits.

Communicates complex ideas, concepts and arguments in high profile situations and to challenging audiences.

Gets to the heart of complex issues, demonstrating command of detail and of the bigger picture.

Qualifications

No specific qualifications required

Ofcom is a forward-thinking, inclusive employer and recognises the value of diversity to truly \xe2\x80\x9cmake communications work for everyone\xe2\x80\x9d. Here at Ofcom, our vision is to ensure people are part of an environment when they can truly strive and be themselves, therefore we aim to recruit from the widest pool of candidates possible \xe2\x80\x93 irrespective of social background, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or disability. We are an organisation that strives to be truly representative of the whole of the UK and our aim is to be an employer of choice for everyone.

We champion flexible working and so wherever possible we support flexible working patterns including job shares.

As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to interview disabled applicants who meets the minimum selection criteria of the role as outlined in the job specification, if applicants would like to be considered under this scheme. We pride ourselves on ensuring all candidates are treated fairly throughout the application and selection process including making our process as accessible as possible. You can find more information on the scheme here.

Should you require any adjustments to be made, please do contact us directly at or call 0330 912 1378

Ofcom