Market Intelligence Analyst
Ofcom -
Team Overview
Ofcom’s mission is to make communications work for everyone. We regulate broadband and mobile services, postal services, TV and radio, and the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. Our remit will also extend this year when we take on new duties as the online safety regulator.
The Research and Intelligence (R&I) team is responsible for providing a deep understanding of market developments and the outcomes for consumers and citizens in the markets we regulate. We collect the evidence base that underpins Ofcom's role as an evidence-based regulator, ensure that the data we collect is accessible and use it to deliver insight to inform Ofcom’s policy work. The team includes market researchers, industry analysts and data specialists. R&I has been growing as we build the evidence base for the upcoming Online Safety regime, and we are investing in variety of data sources and combining methodological approaches to build an effective picture of online harms and online safety.
Our culture is clear - we live by Ofcom’s 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 and in the R&I team.
Purpose of the Role
The successful candidate will support the R&I team’s work analysing online communication services, working flexibly across R&I online research projects. This will include accessing and analysing data from online user-to-user platforms and search engines to understand harms and safety measures, as well as working with partner organisations to produce robust research. The role will contribute to the team’s work to understand what types of online services UK consumers are using, including what services children are active on.
The work will require data analysis, report drafting and communication skills. As such, the candidate will need to demonstrate an ability to understand, assess and communicate the possible opportunities and limitations of analysing data about a range of online platforms. The successful candidate will need to have existing expertise in accessing and analysing data from a range of sources, which might include APIs, web scraping or third-party commercial datasets such as audience measurement datasets. Experience in measuring a specific type of online service, for example Search engines, gaming sites or messaging services, would be useful but is not a requirement.
The role will involve engagement with partners and stakeholders across the online industry, academia and third-party data providers and experts. The post holder will also work very closely with Ofcom teams working on online safety including policy colleagues, lawyers, technologists and economists.
We are seeking a curious and agile researcher with a good understanding of how to measure and understand the online landscape. The successful candidate will need excellent verbal and written communication skills, experience in using data analysis methods on online datasets and a good understanding of the online industry.
Key responsibilities
Contribute to the analysis of large datasets sourced from online platforms and the associated visualization and communication of research findings. Data analysis might require use of tools such as NLP classifiers, Power BI, Salesforce, Microsoft Excel, Azure Databricks or social listening software.
Support the work of the R&I audience measurement team to map where UK internet users spend their time online and to use this data to help measure the scale and risk of different online services, possibly including how children use online platforms and developing our expertise and data in this area.
Analyse and generate insights from quantitative and qualitative information provided by online services, including transparency reports and information request returns.
Engage with project teams across Ofcom to effectively communicate the findings from research to relevant Online Safety colleagues, with a specific focus on working with policy colleagues who manage relationships with regulated platforms.
Draft reports for internal use and external publication.
Conduct project management tasks, including ensuring the timely delivery of work, organizing meetings with stakeholders and supporting governance processes at Ofcom.
Skills, Knowledge and experience
Essential skills, knowledge and experience:
Existing knowledge of methodologies available for analysing online data.
Proficiency in one or more analytical techniques relevant to online datasets.
Strategic analytical skills – experience of using critical thinking, data analysis and strategic tools to solve problems.
A good knowledge of the online platform sector, including how they measure and report on online harms and online safety measures.
Strong time management and organisational skills to manage and prioritise a range of work, projects, and ad hoc requests.
Curiosity and enthusiasm for analytical work and strategic thinking.
Experience in stakeholder management, with demonstrable ability to build and maintain working relationships with a broad range of people, including colleagues across disciplines, industry stakeholders and external experts.
Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex results and technical issues clearly and concisely in writing and orally to different audiences/stakeholders.
Desirable skills, knowledge and experience:
Experience of using APIs or web scraping to create and query online datasets.
Knowledge of graph/network analysis for online datasets.
Specialist knowledge of a particular type of online service, possibly to include Search services, video-sharing services, gaming services or messaging services.
Recent experience of working in a role related to online platforms, for example working for an online platform or organisation working to understand and improve people’s online experiences.
Experience of analysing online or other audience data with demographic breaks and a range of audience metrics such as reach, time spent and number of platform visits.
