Supervision Associate

Please note that the advert will close at 00:01 on Monday 13 January and therefore we advise getting your application in by no later than midnight on Sunday 12 January.

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 the Team

The Online Safety Group’s purpose is to ensure UK citizens have a safer life online by implementing and overseeing the requirements under the Online Safety Act 2023. The Group is responsible for delivering online safety policy, supervising online services, and building technical expertise to meet the regime's aims.

This role sits within Ofcom’s Supervision Team. The Supervision Team provides close, structured engagement with specific services in scope of the online safety regime, alongside an approach to promoting compliance across many thousands of services. Next year, services will complete their first illegal harms and children’s risk assessments after Ofcom publishes the first edition of codes and guidance. This role will consider industry practices in good governance and standards in online safety risk assessments, working closely with other specialist teams in Ofcom and the supervision team to identify improvements.

Purpose of the Role

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

Our associates may also work with a broader range of regulated services that are not formally supervised, working with teams across Ofcom to respond to live and emerging issues where we may need to intervene to help protect people online. Our Associates may additionally focus on identifying and drive improvements in regulated services on risk and governance related issues.

The services we supervise include providers of pornographic content; these roles might occasionally involve exposure to pornographic content. Appropriate wellbeing processes are in place to support colleagues, but if you have concerns about working with these providers, please let us know during the application process.

Content information and safeguarding

Applicants should be aware that whilst these roles should not involve direct exposure to illegal content, they could include working time spent on distressing content, material, and 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.

Your key responsibilities

• Support your team to build and maintain sustainable relationships with relevant online services
• Develop knowledge and expertise in your supervised services and across Ofcom’s online safety programme, keeping across online safety, markets and tech developments
• Understand, assess and, where necessary, support improvements in protections offered to users and other obligations (including risk assessment duties) under the Online Safety Act
• Identify and support 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 meeting notes, agendas, briefings and research reports, for internal use or external publication
• Own and prioritise your workload 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, e.g. 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.

The skills, knowledge and experience you will need for success

Essential

• Evaluating Problems: Ability to identify and solve issues using well-thought-out strategies, considering different angles and potential solutions to resolve concerns.
• Generating Insights: Ability to use evidence-driven methods to gather insights and make well-founded decisions based on thorough analysis.
• Executing Plans: Able to organise tasks and set clear goals, managing resources wisely while monitoring progress.
• Forming Relationships: Able to build and nurture positive relationships with people inside and outside the organisation.
• Harmonising Work: Ability to work effectively with others, create an honest team environment and share valuable information and resources.
• Written drafting skills, focusing on producing clear, concise and understandable documents for internal use or external publication.
• Ability to understand and apply ideas or processes in a practical context (for example, developing an understanding of legislation, policies, guidance or processes and using that knowledge to improve practices).

Desirable

• Keen interest or practical knowledge of emerging online safety regulation in the UK and beyond – and Ofcom’s mission to create a safer life online
• Project or programme delivery experience
• Experience in a complex regulatory, policy, legal or compliance-focused environment
• Experience in the technology, trust and safety, or other online safety sector
• Experience in supervisory activity in another regulated sector

There are no mandatory qualifications. Academic or vocational qualifications may help demonstrate the criteria set out above, but there are no set requirements.

How to apply:

Please send us your CV and a covering letter. The covering letter should be no more than 750 words (or in a format that's more accessible for you) and should explain what has motivated you to apply for this role and what transferable skills you feel you could bring to the role.

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 at resourcing@ofcom.org.uk or call 0330 912 1378.