Online Safety Strategy Associate

Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Monday 21 July and therefore we advise getting your application in by no later than midnight on Sunday 20 July.

If you would like the job description in Welsh, please reach out to [email protected].

Due to the summer break, interviews for this role will take place in August.

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 the technical expertise to ensure the aims of the regime are met.

The Strategy Delivery Team lies at the heart of the Online Safety Group. The team supports and enables the rest of the Group to deliver successfully. We do this by setting our Online Safety strategy and setting clear goals and timelines for the Online Safety regime. We help teams stay on track – including by managing timelines, budget, resources, corporate reporting and governance for the Online Safety Programme. The Strategy Delivery Team is also responsible for other cross-cutting operational activities, such as leading a triage function, managing stakeholder engagement, and ensuring operational readiness.

Purpose of the Role

The Strategy Advisor will support and contribute to projects across the Strategy Delivery team. They will use project management, problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills to help ensure all our strategy and delivery work stays on track. Working with colleagues across the Online Safety Group and wider Ofcom, you’ll help ensure our ambitions for the Online Safety regime are focused in the right areas and stay on track. Our roles are diverse and appropriate for problem solvers, innovative thinkers, skilled project managers and/or people with a regulatory background. But we welcome applicants from a variety of backgrounds

Your key responsibilities

This role is varied and will evolve over time in line with team priorities, allowing you to gain a broad range of opportunities and expertise to further your career at Ofcom. This could include: working across teams to refresh our priorities for the regime; contributing to operational projects for the successful implementation of the new regime (such as ICT and/or process mapping); working in our triage function; helping with our stakeholder engagement approach; supporting our risk and governance processes; and more.

Key responsibilities may include:

• Helping to develop cross-team workplans for projects across the programme, in collaboration with teams across Ofcom - to ensure we deliver our big goals.
• Supporting aspects of project management across the Online Safety programme.
• Supporting engagement with external stakeholders and developing stakeholder engagement strategies and materials.
• Contributing to the delivery of external publications, to ensure a consistent narrative across all of Ofcom’s OS documents.
• Working with Ofcom’s teams to bring together budget proposals for running the OS regime, alongside helping to keep in-year spending on track (working closely with Finance).
• Analysing new and emerging harms as part of the OS triage function and developing recommendations on what we do next – communicating to colleagues at all levels.
• Supporting development of core operational processes to ensure the effective and efficient running of our OS operations.

We will allocate work based on business need, skillset, and interest.

The skills, knowledge and experience you will need for success

We welcome people with a keen interest or practical knowledge of Online Safety regulation and our mission to create a safer life online for people in the UK. We are specifically looking for people with the ability to:

• Evaluate Problems: Identify and solve issues by using well-thought-out strategies. Consider different angles and potential solutions to resolve concerns.
• Generate Insights: Use evidence-driven methods to gather insights, and make well-founded decisions based on thorough analysis.
• Trailblaze Ideas: Bring fresh perspectives through creative and original ideas that improve processes, policies, or services.
• Execute Plans: Organise tasks and set clear goals, while keeping an eye on process. Ability to organise work effectively.
• Articulate Ideas: Express your ideas, thoughts, and information in a clear and concise manner, ensuring messages are understood by everyone. Strong written drafting and Powerpoint skills.
• Form Relationships: Build and nurture positive and effective relationships with people inside and outside the organisation, sharing resources, and creating an honest team environment.
• Embrace Change: Remain flexible in the face of change, anticipating and adjusting to shifts.

Within your application, please demonstrate your experience of at least one of the following:

• Managing complex budget planning processes
• Managing projects
• Expertise in operational process mapping

Inclusivity Statement

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 adjustments, information in an alternative format, or prefer to apply in a different way, please contact us at [email protected] or call 0330 912 1378.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we offer interviews to disabled applicants who meet essential criteria for advertised roles. Learn more about this scheme here. https://careers.ofcom.org.uk/careers/how-we-hire/