Policy Manager - Online Safety
Ofcom -
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
Almost all of us use online services every day of our lives, enjoying the wide array of benefits that the internet has to offer – 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 - from hate speech to bullying and harassment to child sexual abuse – and almost all of us have also experienced harmful content or behaviour online.
The Online Safety Act was passed in October, bringing Ofcom new powers to protect UK citizens from harm online. We have also recently published our first of four major consultations on how services can protect users from illegal content. 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.
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.
We are hiring for two roles in our Policy Development Team, within the Online Safety Group. One of these focuses on online fraud and scams. The other will be a policy generalist role working on the Codes of Practice for illegal content.
Purpose of the Role
Both of these are policy development roles, requiring deep analytical thinking and approaches to complex policy questions. Whilst knowledge and / or experience of fraud is a bonus for the online fraud team, it is not a pre-requisite and we are open to a range of policy / analytical backgrounds.
Your key responsibilities
Key focus areas for these roles include:
- Finalising the policy for our Illegal Harms Statement and setting out what online services can do to mitigate the risk of harm. This will involve drawing upon feedback from stakeholders, identifying evidence gaps and providing sound judgements on our final policy positions.
- Developing innovative regulatory approaches for tackling online fraud and scams. This will include analysis of the causes and impacts of online harm (both fraudulent advertising and future user-generated content). It will also involve working with technology experts to recommend what online services can do to tackle these kinds of harmful content.
The successful candidates will need to intelligently harness individual strengths and support the co-ordination of a diverse set of colleagues from within the broader policy team and other cross functional areas, facilitating cross team working, encouraging practical delivery schedules, unblocking issues, and reporting an honest assessment of progress.
The successful candidate working on online fraud and scams will also need to identify the challenges associated with regulating a rapidly evolving online sector where successive waves of technological innovation offer fraudsters new opportunities to target consumers.
(Aspects of these roles may involve exposure to distressing content. Ofcom is committed to the wellbeing of all our colleagues. Our Thrive@Ofcom wellbeing strategy provides access to resources to support all aspects of wellbeing).
The skills, knowledge and experience you will need for success
- Policy development skills – a proven background in developing policy ideas and approaches.
- Analytical skills – skills in analysing large amounts of feedback and data and drawing sensible conclusions based on them.
- Ability to draw complex ideas into concise, high quality, well-written documents, tailoring content and tone to the target audience.
- Effective at building and maintaining effective working relationships with a range of stakeholders.
- Strong interpersonal and communications skills, with the ability to present complex ideas or data to non-specialist audiences.
- Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to take responsibility for the effective and timely delivery of high quality and complex projects.
- Ofcom values – evidence and appreciation of and a desire to promote Ofcom’s corporate values of excellence, agility, empowerment, collaboration and respect. A commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
- For the online fraud role, it is desirable that the successful candidate has an understanding of the complexities of fraud and / or fraudulent advertising online. If they do not have prior expertise in online fraud, they will need to show a willingness and ability to develop their knowledge in this area, with support from the team.
How to apply
Please submit a covering letter, of no more than one page in length, as part of your application for this role. Please note, you are able to upload multiple documents at the point where you are asked to upload your CV.
