Senior Journalist, News Content (BBC Northern Ireland) - EXTEND (17374)

Package Description

Extend: EX2324 

Job Reference: 17374

Band: D

Salary: £39,800 - £47,126 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights. 

Contract type:  1 x Permanent role – 17.5 hours per week and 1 x Permanent role - 14 hours per week.

Location: Office Base is Belfast

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. 

Job Introduction

This role is advertised as part of our BBC Extend programme for disabled people. To apply for this role you should identify as deaf, disabled or neurodivergent and must meet either: the definition of disability in the Equality Act (2010), or the definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) if applying in Northern Ireland. You’re broadly defined as disabled under both acts if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative or adverse effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. This definition includes both apparent and non-apparent conditions and impairments, and medical conditions such as Cancer, HIV or Multiple Sclerosis.   

We are committed to making the process of applying for this role as accessible as possible. If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the application process, or have any questions about our Extend programme, please contact the BBC Extend team via the shared mailbox. 

The BBC are fully committed to providing workplace adjustments to help eliminate barriers in the workplace that disabled people face. To do this, we have our own dedicated BBC Access and Disability Service that provides assessments and support throughout employment with us. If you are successful in applying for this role and require workplace adjustments, we will work with you to get your adjustments in place.  

If you’d like more information on BBC Extend, please visit the BBC Extend webpage. 

BBC News NI is transforming its news operation to make it future fit in a rapidly changing and diversifying news media climate, with digital at its heart. We’re looking for Senior Journalists who can be part of this change and help drive content with a digital focus. The successful candidates will be an experienced journalist with high production skills, a reputation for creative thinking and a thorough grasp of the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and journalism law. We have a number of part-time continuing positions in News Content.

Main Responsibilities

Senior Journalists need to be creative thinkers who can lead journalists in their area to deliver the best possible output for our audiences. Senior Journalists will be required to

• Lead daily production meetings in their output area and then assign tasks to Journalists, Reporters and Researchers.   


• Commission output for their production area and deploy resources in a cost-effective way.  


• Motivate teams to think creatively and respond quickly to breaking news.  


• Contribute to the production of original journalism.   


• Provide forward planning and production support.   


• Deal with complex legal and editorial issues.  


• Influence BBC News NI’s news agenda, advise output editors and News Content colleagues on the importance of particular issues.  


• Work mostly at base but on location as required.  


• Support junior staff members to help them grow and develop in their role.   


• Support the management team through a period of change in the newsroom.  

Are you the right candidate?

You will need:

• Extensive editorial experience, a strong news judgement as well as comprehensive experience of operating calmly under pressure.


• Experience in managing people, good interpersonal and communication skills and a keenness to collaborate.   


• To be resilient and highly-motivated self-starter.  


• An understanding of how audiences operate in the digital space.    


• A sound knowledge of politics, current affairs and ongoing issues in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and further afield.


• The ability to write clear and concise copy to run across all outlets.

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.