Supervision Senior Associate

Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Tuesday 7th May, and therefore we advise getting your application in no later than midnight on Monday 6th May.

How to apply

Please submit a covering letter along with your application of no more than a page, outlining your skills, experience and suitability for the role. You are able to upload a covering letter at the same point as where you upload your CV.

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 Senior 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 on supervision and wider engagement with regulated firms.

Supervision

Our Supervision Senior Associates will lead on 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 services. You will develop supervision strategies for each service and report on progress against them to the wider Online Safety Group. You will be Ofcom's main point of contact for your services, ensuring 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, help Ofcom implement its regulatory roadmap, and take action to address online safety risks. This is a flexible role which will involve managing 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

• Build and maintain strong relationships with relevant online services
• Develop deep expertise in your supervised services and across Ofcom’s online safety and VSP programme, keeping across online safety, markets and tech developments
• Understand, assess and, where necessary, drive improvements in protections offered to users and other obligations under the Online Safety Act
• Identify and drive research, information gathering and analysis about the services you supervise and ensure analysis and outputs are drawn together for the wider team
• Ensure the delivery of clear, concise and focused documents, such as briefings and research reports, for internal use or external publication
• Oversee and manage the workload of junior and cross-functional colleagues as needed to ensure we deliver against our strategic priorities
• Build and maintain effective relationships with teams across Ofcom that work with us, ensuring they are updated, included and feel heard
• Deliver or contribute 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
• Ensure 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

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

• Experience in managing external relationships and excellent collaboration skills, including the ability to engage with senior counterparts and manage sensitive issues and challenging conversations. [Relationship management]
• Project and/or programme management experience and great organisational skills, including experience of planning and delivering a portfolio of work and leading work within a diverse team of different specialisms and internal and external partners. [Planning, Project and Programme Management]
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills, including experience in confidently presenting complicated issues to non-specialist audiences. [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]
• Strong written drafting skills, with a focus on producing clear, concise documents for internal use or external publication. [Communication - written]
• 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 [Knowledge & Expertise]

Desirable

• Keen interest and/or practical knowledge of emerging online safety regulation in the UK and beyond – and Ofcom’s mission to create a safer life online
• Experience in a complex regulatory, policy, legal or compliance-focused environment

At Ofcom we prioritise inclusive and diverse recruitment in order to truly reflect the society we represent.

Where positions are listed as full time, we remain open to reduced hours, part-time arrangements, job shares and other flexible working options from day one of employment.  We warmly welcome applications from candidate returning to work after a break – for whatever reason.

As a disability confident employer, we offer interviews to any disabled applicant who meet essential criteria for advertised roles.  Learn more about the scheme here.

If you need information in an alternative format or have specific preferences, please contact our recruitment team.