Supervision Associate

Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Wednesday 10th April and therefore we advise getting your application by no later than midnight on Tuesday 9th April.

About Ofcom and Online Safety

Online services are integral to our daily lives: they have unlocked new ways to learn, create, collaborate, and communicate. However, they have also exposed users to new forms of harm including online scams, child sexual exploitation and abuse, and hate speech, as well as content harmful to children, such as pornography.

Ofcom has recently been given wide-ranging new powers by the Online Safety Act 2023. Our role is to hold online services to account for the steps they take to protect users from harm and ensure a safer life online.

We are recruiting up to 16 Supervision Associates to support Ofcom in regulating online services. These roles will be on the frontline of supervision, directly engaging with services to understand, assess and, where necessary, drive improvements to the measures that they take to protect users and meet their obligations. Our team is also working on an ambitious programme to provide new forms of support to help regulated services meet their online safety duties, especially small and medium-sized businesses.

As part of our One Ofcom strategy, we are aiming to recruit the majority of these roles in Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast or Cardiff. We also welcome applicants to our London office.

About the Team

Ofcom’s Online Safety Group works to ensure UK citizens have a safer life online. The Group’s role is to lead work across Ofcom to implement the new regulatory framework for online safety, alongside the ongoing regulation of video sharing platforms.

The Supervision Team sits within the Online Safety Group and our role is to manage Ofcom’s relationships with regulated services. Our Team provides close, structured engagement with the most impactful services in scope of the online safety regime and promotes compliance among the many thousands of services covered by the new rules. We lead and deliver our supervision strategy in collaboration and coordination with other specialist teams in Ofcom.

Purpose of the role

We are currently recruiting for different roles across up to 16 vacancies in roles focused on supervision, wider engagement with regulated firms, and promoting compliance.

We welcome applicants to express their preferred area when they apply, and we will consider candidates across all roles.

Service Supervision

Our Supervision Associates will support our engagement with some of the online services people use every day. You will be directly supervising key tech firms: building strong relationships so we can understand their protections for users and, where necessary, encourage them to do better. As you grow into the role, we’ll support you to build your knowledge of online safety measures and the services you supervise, so that you can become an expert in protecting users from harmful and illegal content.

You will be working as part of a team to supervise a portfolio of key online services. You will help develop supervision strategies for each service and help report on progress against them to the wider Online Safety Group. You may be Ofcom's main point of contact for some services, working as part of a team to ensure that all of Ofcom’s engagement and request for information meet Ofcom’s strategic aims while balancing proportionality.

Some roles will involve working with a wider range of regulated services who are not formally supervised, so Ofcom can respond to the needs of stakeholders. This is a flexible role which will involve supporting our engagement with a variety of different services to help them implement their new duties, and working with teams across Ofcom to respond to live and emerging issues where we may need to intervene to help protect people online.

Key responsibilities:

• Supporting your team to build and maintain strong relationships with relevant online services
• Developing knowledge and expertise in your supervised services and across Ofcom’s online safety programme, keeping across online safety, markets and tech developments
• Understanding, assessing and, where necessary, supporting improvements in protections offered to users and other obligations under the Online Safety Act
• Identifying and supporting research, information gathering and analysis about the services you supervise and ensure analysis and outputs are drawn together for the wider team
• Ensuring the delivery of clear, concise and focused documents, such as meeting notes, and agendas, briefings and research reports, for internal use or external publication
• Building and maintaining effective relationships with teams across Ofcom that work with us, ensuring they are updated, included and feel heard
• Delivering or contributing to initiatives across the Supervision Team to support our strategy as a whole, eg international or cross-regulatory engagement, or developing expertise in specific markets
• Ensuring clear communication and information sharing at all levels with the rest of the Online Safety Group and deliver clear updates on the services you supervise when requested

Promoting Compliance

The Promoting Compliance programme is responsible for providing new forms of support to help regulated services meet their online safety duties, especially small and medium-sized businesses. We are increasing our understanding of their needs and the barriers they face; designing tools to support change and compliance across industry; and will target interventions in the areas of greatest risk. Our focus is helping online services navigate new regulations, with the ultimate aim of reducing harm online.

We are recruiting new Supervision Associates to support delivery of a portfolio of projects for the Promoting Compliance programme. This could involve a mix of overarching programme management, and hands-on delivery of new projects. It may include designing digital tools and services, running sector campaigns, or managing communications and engagement activities. This is a role with a lot of scope to shape and set up a key element of Ofcom’s Supervision strategy for online services.

Key responsibilities:

• Owning key projects and tasks within the Promoting Compliance programme, for example supporting new guidance tools, research into industry segments, targeted campaigns or bespoke industry engagement initiatives
• Delivering and helping shape our plans, taking responsibility for your work areas and deadlines, and working flexibility and prioritising accordingly
• Undertaking analysis of the challenges facing regulated services and develop new ideas and potential solutions to achieve our goals
• Ensuring the delivery of clear, concise and focused documents, such as meeting notes and agendas, briefings and research reports, for internal use or external publication
• Developing and foster online expertise across Ofcom’s online safety programme and keep across online trends and technological developments

Strategy and Operations

The Strategy and Operations team within Supervision makes sure we deliver against Ofcom's overall strategy for online safety. We help set a clear strategy across diverse portfolios of regulated services. We track and report our progress against a complex work programme. We also support the development of new capabilities, key relationships, use of technology systems, and automated processes across our supervisory work so we can have the maximum impact.

As a Supervision Associate in this team, your key responsibilities include:

• Planning, co-ordinating projects, and supporting the progress of the team’s key objectives, outputs and outcomes with regulated online services
• Supporting the delivery and day-to-day running of programme management processes and tools across our cross-functional programme, including working with data and tech teams to improve our systems
• Supporting the effective delivery of our governance and organisational reporting processes, gathering input from colleagues as appropriate, for example providing progress and update reports to senior management and supporting the evaluation of progress against team goals
• Building and maintaining effective relationships with teams across Ofcom that work with us, supporting and delivering work to ensure they are updated, included and feel heard

Content information and safeguarding

Applicants should be aware that whilst these roles should not involve directly exposure to illegal content, it could potentially involve working time spent on distressing content and material and/or themes. Ofcom is committed to safeguarding our colleagues who undertake this type of work and offers a range of tailored support options, including training, annual psychological assessments for those regularly doing this work and 24-hour access to counselling services.

Skills, knowledge and experience

Essential

• Ability to manage relationships and excellent collaboration skills, including the ability to represent your organisation and build relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders.
• Great organisational skills, including experience of planning and prioritising a varied workload and ability to work in a team environment focused on outputs and outcomes
• Interpersonal and communications skills, including an ability to present complicated issues to non-specialist audiences with confidence
• Research and analytical skills, with experience in assessing complex issues and using your judgement to identify problems and develop solutions.
• Written drafting skills, with a focus on producing clear, concise documents for internal use or external publication.
• Ability to understand and apply complex ideas or processes in a practical context, for example developing understanding of legislation, policies, guidance or processes and using that knowledge to advise others or improve practices.