Policy Manager

at  Ofcom

Closing Date:
19/08/2024
Group:
Online Safety Group
Management Level:
Senior Associate
Job Type:
Fixed Term (Fixed Term)
Job Description:
Please note that this role is a 12 month fixed term contract, with the potential to extend.
The advert will close at 00:01 on Monday 19th August, and therefore we advise getting your application in no later than midnight on Sunday 18th August.
Purpose of the Role
Almost every part of our lives is now online. As well as bringing many benefits, there are also real risks posed online by harmful or illegal activity - from hate speech to bullying and harassment to child sexual abuse, and more. The UK Government has appointed Ofcom as the new regulator for online safety. There has never been a more meaningful time to join Ofcom on our mission to create a safer life online.
Senior Associates in the Online Safety Policy Development teams lead aspects of the development, delivery and management of our programme of policy work and are central to the success of the regime and delivering improved outcomes for users online. This specific role will focus specifically on policy development relating to tackling online child sexual abuse. The role will involve the following:
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Online Harms: providing subject matter expertise and thought leadership on the rapidly evolving online child sexual abuse threat and staying up to date with developments.

• Policy Development: developing and delivering standards for tackling child sexual abuse online, harnessing innovative regulatory approaches to assessing and measuring compliance. This will include developing mitigations specifically focused on deploying existing and emerging technology (including artificial intelligence and machine learning) to detect and disrupt offending.
• Research: developing, planning, commissioning and managing research projects on mitigations to tackle online child sexual abuse, including emerging technologies and broader innovation.
• Stakeholder Engagement: contribute to the development and management of our engagement with a broad range of stakeholders (including industry and the third sector).

You will be part of dynamic multi-disciplinary project teams shaping new policy and regulatory approaches to tackling child sexual abuse in the online space. Senior Associates in the Online Safety Policy Team are responsible for managing policy areas or projects, taking ownership for driving work forward and making sure we deliver against our strategic priorities – to ultimately help Ofcom delver its mission of making the online world safer. This role involves project management, innovative policy thinking, delivering clear communications, leading engagement with our stakeholders, and supporting junior colleagues.
Please note that this role involves working with policy, research and content related to child sexual abuse, which can be potentially sensitive or distressing.
We have a safeguarding policy in place and offer a variety of support to colleagues who deal with distressing content. Our team of seasoned professionals is readily available to provide confidential advice and support to our colleagues whenever required. This role will also require the successful candidate to undergo a psychological screening assessment to ensure that they are safeguarded and supported in this ‘high tier’ role.
Your key responsibilities
This is a policy role focusing specifically on building an extensive understanding of online child sexual abuse and the research and development of mitigations to tackle it. This will involve the following responsibilities:
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Lead and develop policy relating to child sexual abuse, including its delivery, project management and policy approach, considering risks and long-term implications.

• Maintain the team’s child sexual abuse research plan to ensure strategic priorities are met and tasks are clearly scoped and delivered on time.
• Devise and drive work areas, identifying opportunities for collaboration with other teams including through meetings, project planning and management to feed into wider programme and operational management workstreams.
• Drive research and analysis on mitigations to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse; produce and oversee the production of high-quality research reports, for internal use or external publication.
• Keep abreast of the public policy landscape on online regulation, trends, technological developments and innovation.
• Oversee and project manage the workload of junior colleagues and deliver through others across multi-disciplinary teams.
• Support the work of senior colleagues as needed to help ensure we deliver against our priorities.
• Deliver key engagement documents, such as briefing notes, seeking input from a wide range of colleagues.
• Identify, build, and maintain effective relationships with a broad range of internal Ofcom teams, the online industry and third sector stakeholders.
• Ensure clear communication and information sharing at all levels across stakeholder workstreams and maintain close links with other internal teams, including the CEO’s office, Public Policy; Communications, Online Technology, International and research teams.

Skills, knowledge and experience you’ll need for success

Essential:

• Knowledge and/or experience of child sexual abuse and exploitation policy, ideally in respect of the online aspects of child sexual abuse.
• Ability to develop a high-level understanding of a broad range of policy issues
• An understanding of internet policy in the UK and beyond, including the technologies that are transforming the online environment.
• Interest in public policy debate on internet safety regulation and a keen eye for the strategic implications of policy developments

Building Solutions:

• Ability to solve complex problems by analysing and evaluating evidence.
• Ability to work with ambiguity. Agility in adapting to emerging priorities and shifting focus as needed in dynamic team.

Executing Plans:

• Experience of leading and delivering high-quality written outputs.
• Experience of managing/coaching/overseeing work of others, setting direction, delivering against plans and managing governance processes.
• Experience of working within a project environment with multiple internal and external stakeholders, including planning and project management

Articulating Ideas:

• Strong interpersonal communication skills with proven ability to communicate confidently to a variety of audiences.
• Excellent written communication skills. A concise drafting style in order to produce high-quality documents.

Forming Relationships:

• Strong experience in managing internal and external relationships, particularly with key child protection stakeholders, including the ability to critically evaluate the strategic value of engagement opportunities to the organisation.

Desirable:

• Experience of developing robust mitigations or solutions to address online child sexual abuse.
• Understanding of the commercial dynamics of online services and the technology sector
• Understanding of the role of regulation in the technology sector, and the policy issues associated with online safety
• Experience of applying new rules, guidance or policy in regulated sectors
• Experience of assessing companies’ systems, processes, governance and compliance with key regulatory requirements

Applying for the role
We are also welcoming applications from people who wish to undertake this role as a secondment but please state this on your covering letter.
If you are interested in any of the roles, please submit your CV and a covering letter (up to 750 words), stating your role preference(s), explaining your knowledge and/or experience in CSA policy and how you meet the essential criteria for the role. Please let us know if you would like to submit your application in another format.
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, we remain open to reduced hours, part-time arrangements, job shares, and other flexible working options. From day one, we champion flexible work arrangements to accommodate individual needs.
We also warmly welcome applicants who are returning to the workforce after a break – for whatever reason. If you have taken time away and are ready to rejoin, we look forward to reviewing your application.
Our recruitment processes prioritise accessibility and inclusivity. If you need information in an alternative format or have specific preferences, please contact our recruitment team at
resourcing@ofcom.org.uk
or call 0330 912 1378.
As a Disability Confident employer, we offer interviews to disabled applicants who meet essential criteria for advertised roles. Learn more about this scheme here.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/jobs/disability-confident-scheme

Please refer the Job description for details