Supervision Associate - Strategy and Operations

Please note this role will close at 00:01 on Wednedsay 24th April and therefore we advise getting your application in no later than midnight on Tuesday 23rd April.

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 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 a Supervision Associate to support Ofcom in regulating online services. This role will focus on our strategy and operation, ensuring the team has the right focus, direction and resources to protect users and deliver on its ambitious plans. As part of our One Ofcom strategy, this role will be based in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast or Cardiff.

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

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:

• Support the team to develop, deliver and manage the overall programme for Online Safety Supervision
• Planning, co-ordinating projects, and supporting the progress of the team’s key objectives, outputs and outcomes with regulated online services
• Support 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
• Support 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
• Build and maintain effective relationships with teams across Ofcom that work with us, supporting and delivering work to ensure they are updated, included and feel heard
• Support the Strategy and Operations Principals and Senior Associates to ensure clear communication and information sharing (with the rest of the Supervision Team, Online Safety Group and across Ofcom), to deliver clear programmatic updates, and to establish ways of working with other teams/organisations
• Support the work of Online Safety Supervision Principals and Directors, taking on ad hoc projects as requested
• Develop and foster online expertise across Ofcom’s online safety programme and keep across online trends and technological developments

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

• 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 (Project management).
• Ability to collate information from a number of sources to provide insightful status reports in a timely way (Project management / Problem-solving & analysis).
• Ability to manage relationships and excellent collaboration skills, including the ability to represent your team and build relationships with a diverse range of internal stakeholders. (Relationship management).
• Interpersonal and communications skills, including an ability to present complicated issues to non-specialist audiences with confidence (Communication - verbal).
• Research and analytical skills, with experience in assessing complex issues and using your judgement to identify problems and develop solutions. (Problem-solving & analysis).
• Ability to present complex ideas and solutions in written and graphical form (Communication - written)

Ofcom has a clear mission: to make communications work for everyone. To be able to deliver on this, we want our organisation to reflect the diversity of background, experience, upbringing and thought that exists across the UK. We aim to recruit from the widest pool of candidates possible – no matter your social background, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or disability.

Where positions are listed as full-time, if you need reduced hours, part time, job shares or any other flexibly working arrangements, please still get in touch. We champion flexible working arrangements from day one of employment and are open to discussing and accommodating various work arrangements to meet your needs.

We strive to ensure all our recruitment information and processes are accessible and inclusive for everyone. If you require information in an alternative format or have specific preferences to support your application process, please contact our recruitment team at resourcing@ofcom.org.uk or call us on 0330 912 1378.

As a Disability Confident employer, we offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for our advertised roles. Learn more about this scheme here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/jobs/disability-confident-scheme