Assistant Editor, Sport (People Lead) – BBC (Salford)

Band: E
Contract type: Continuing
Location: Salford, Media City
Salary: £57,000 – £67,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
Benefits – We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym. You can find out more about working at the BBC by selecting this link to our candidate pack.

If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process please contact the reasonable.adjustments@bbc.co.uk. For any general queries, please contact: bbchr@bbc.co.uk.

Freelancers are eligible to apply for an internal role if they are on a Worker Contract and they have worked continuously for 6 months. If they have worked for less than 6 months continuously or have a break of 3 weeks or more between engagements, they must seek Divisional HR approval to apply for an internal role prior to submitting an application.
If they are unsure which contract they are on, they can speak to their booker or the HR BP, however if it helps – both a PAYE freelance or Modus Gross contract is considered a Worker contract and covered by the Worker terms found here.

Job Introduction

We are looking for a talented leader for BBC Sport’s digital and journalism teams.

This senior role is to co-ordinate the training and development of staff, manage freelance pools and help lead on improving our diversity, equity and inclusion.

From managing the pipeline of entry level staff to helping new starters, developing the skills of more senior colleagues and leading on initiatives to improve our workplace culture, this role is wide-ranging and rewarding.

Reporting to the Executive Editor for BBC Sport digital, you will be responsible for co-ordinating our approach in the digital and journalism teams. These are two busy editorial teams producing content enjoyed by millions of people around the world across TV, radio and online. Our staff are incredibly passionate about our output. We want the person in this role to be as passionate about the careers of the people that make it.

The role is based in Salford and will require a roughly 70-30 split of time spent in the office and working from home.

We want BBC Sport’s output to reflect and understand the audiences we serve – for example, the different geographical regions of the UK and the experience of people from underrepresented groups. We would therefore encourage applications from individuals with skills or experience that can help contribute towards ensuring we maximise the diversity of our coverage and content.

Main Responsibilities

The Assistant Editor (People Lead) will:

Lead and line manage a number of staff.
Draw up strategies and projects for the management of our freelance pools and the training and development of staff.
Help lead on diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives.
Help oversee recruitment of staff, making sure our processes are identifying the best talent and then supporting them when they join.
Lead on the entry level and apprenticeship schemes for people joining BBC Sport
Support BBC Sport’s outreach initiatives, ensuring the broadest possible pool of talent is informed and empowered to apply for roles.
Play a lead role in driving closer collaboration and co-operation on staffing matters across BBC Sport, including representation on the pan-department Staffing Network.
Work with the scheduling team on how staff are deployed onto busy rotas.
Work with Talent, HR teams and other senior stakeholders to ensure work is completed collaboratively and in line with BBC goals.
Take on additional senior projects as part of the management team as required.
Occasionally work variable shift patterns and weekends.

Are you the right candidate?

This is a senior role. The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate strong line management experience and development of staff in a previous role.
Getting things done is, of course, the name of the game – so the ability in this role to project manage and achieve results while working with multiple teams and stakeholders will be essential.
You will be someone who is passionate about seeing people flourish and helping the BBC’s development as a genuinely diverse and inclusive organisation, including meeting specific targets.
You will know the ingredients required to create teams that are successful, inclusive and in which everyone has a voice. You will be able to see the ways to implement initiatives to better develop our work in this area.
This is not a front line editorial role. However, a proven track record in journalism will be important so you understand how to lead and shape our teams to better serve our audiences. There may be occasions when you are asked to be the duty editor for BBC Sport output.

Please note that this is not an entry level role, if you are at entry level you can create email alerts for when Journalism Researcher and Journalism Coordinator roles are advertised.

About the BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual’s unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here.