Career Opportunities at BBC - 21 Positions

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Role Responsibility

A career at the BBC offers you an opportunity to tell stories that can change lives. The aim of BBC Africa is to showcase the diverse ideas and aspirations from across the continent in an impartial fair way.

To be succesfull in post you will need to be able to operate the studio lighting desk and to be able to rig and set lamps in the studios to production requirements.

You will have the ability to fine set luminaires and knowledge of plotting and implementation of a studio lighting rig and be able to operate camera controls (CCU) to ensure high quality matched camera outputs in terms of exposure, black level and colour.

You will be highly conversant in Rigging, de-rigging, testing, lining up and operation of studio equipment, including cameras, their mountings (cameras, lightweight cameras and motorised camera mountings); monitors; lighting consoles; as well as any associated cabling.

A full break down of your duties can be found in the Job Description below.

The Ideal Candidate

• Demonstrable experience working in a live broadcast environment
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Demonstrable abilities in one technical role
• Excellent IT skills and the ability to acquire technical skills and to operate technical equipment is essential.
• A good knowledge of English including complete comprehension of written and spoken English and the ability to communicate effectively. Ability to speak and write Swahili is desirable.
• A good knowledge and commitment to providing output of technical high quality.
• Able to understand operational, journalistic and production requirements.
• Good interpersonal skills to establish harmonious working relationships with a variety of personalities, able to communicate effectively with others and keep them informed on progress and to clarify production requirements.
• Able to demonstrate editorial awareness and an understanding of BBC News priorities and objectives.
• The ability to work fast, accurately and under pressure to tight deadlines.
• A demonstrable appreciation of BBC Domestic and World Service output and a commitment to BBC values.
• A demonstrable commitment to the BBC Global News multimedia ambition.

Package Description

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Grade: Local terms and conditions

Reports To: Africa TV Programmes Editor

Hours: Variable shift pattern which may include weekend and night working.

All candidates must have a valid Right to Work in Kenya to allow for permanent and continued service when making an application.

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Job description

Role Responsibility

We now have an exciting new opportunity with the Technical Operations team in Nairobi as Floor Manager.

The successful candidate will act as the Director’s representative on the studio floor co-ordinating programme presenters, contributors and staff so that discipline is maintained and all safety regulations are strictly observed during rehearsal, recordings and transmission.

You will need to ensure that contributors, artists and guests are made-up and ready on the set when required, including providing presenters with microphones and talkback boxes as required.

The Ideal Candidate

• Ideally you will be able to speak Fluent English and Swahili for this position.
• A background in live Broadcasting is essential, as is an awareness of BBC policy on Health and Safety and Security which forms a crucial part of this role.
• To be successful in this role it is essential that you have good interpersonal skills to establish harmonious working relationships with a variety of personalities and have the ability to communicate effectively with others and keep them informed on progress and to clarify production requirements.

Package Description

Grade: Local terms and conditions

Reports To: Africa TV Programmes Editor

Hours: Variable shift pattern which may include weekend and night working.

All candidates must have a valid Right to Work ahead making an application for this position.

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Job description

Role Responsibility

Join BBC Africa service for an exciting new opportunity at News Director within our Production Operations team. Your duties will involve the direction of BBC Africa programmes to the highest standards complying with BBC guidelines and standards. You will be involved with co-ordination of planning and production.

The successful candidate will have a hands role, getting involved with a number of tasks such as; direct live and pre-recorded programmes, production planning, check and amendrunning orders and programme schedules when required.

A full break down of the duties can be found in the job descriptionbelow.

The Ideal Candidate

• The successful candidate will be familiar with different technical systems, including production systems and show a willingness to learn to operate new technology when required.
• Therefore it is essential that you have excellent IT skills and a familiarity with broadcast technology. You will demonstrate a broad knowledge of national, international news & current affairs. Additionally you will require good interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively.
• Fluency in both English and Swahili is desirable but not essential.

Package Description

Grade: Local terms and conditions

Reports To:Africa TV Programmes Editor

Hours: Rota pattern which may include weekend and night working

All candidates must have a valid Right to Work in Kenya before applying for the position.

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Job description

Role Responsibility

We now have a exciting new opportunity with the Technical Operations team in Nairobi for two Vision Mixers.

Your duties will include source switching, mixing, keying/effects with or without directors instructions, on both live and pre-recorded programmes creating timelines, macros and e-mems. Operation and setting up of the on-board DVE and operation of associated outboard equipment for example external DVE`s.

The Ideal Candidate

• Ideally you will be able to speak Fluent English and Swahili for this position.
• A background in live Broadcasting is essential, as is a good knowledge and commitment to providing output of technical high quality.
• You should be able to understand operational, journalistic and production requirements. Have good interpersonal skills to establish harmonious working relationships with a variety of personalities and have the ability to communicate effectively with others and keep them informed on progress and to clarify production requirements.

Package Description

Grade: Local terms and conditions

Reports To: Africa TV Programmes Editor

Hours: Variable shift pattern which may include weekend and night working.

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You’ll be expected to lead and inspire the new multi-disciplinary digital team in Nairobi made up of news journalists, designers, software developers and social media specialists.

This team will be working with journalists working across 12 African language services (English, Amharic , Tigrinya, Afaan Oromo, Swahili, Somali, French, Great Lakes , Pidgin, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa) to create content new forms of digital storytelling and journalism that reaches 111 million people in Africa with particular focus on underserved audiences – such as young and female.

Role Responsibility

• To work with the digital editor to fully scope the editorial portfolio for the team
• To be the on ground team lead working to briefs from the Digital Editor with the mandate to inspire and ensure the team is meeting our editorial standards
• To pitch in and contribute and create digital content
• Working with the Digital Editor you will be receiving and approving commissions from daily news teams, planning, TV, deployments and editors
• To work in partnership with editorial colleagues to deliver outstanding, distinctive, multi-platform, interactive and social media content by providing the ways to realise editorial ambitions within operational constraints.
• To manage innovation and change, and to drive continuous improvement throughout production.
• Where necessary you will need to; to recruit, train and develop staff new to the platform and ensuring a constant flow of new talent and ideas.
• Work with the Digital Editor to pilot a series of innovative digital content ideas leading to a long-term impact on the content and services we offer to audiences

The Ideal Candidate

• Clear evidence of storytelling on digital platforms
• Strong digital skills, an excellent understanding of the social media environment,
• Proven track record of innovation with the ability to lead teams and deliver to deadline
• To commission digital content and give clear instructions to members of the team as well as producers and reporters.
• Experience of converting teams and organizations to embrace and implement new digital work practices
• Proven editorial judgment and flair, able to make sound decisions quickly.

Package Description

• Continuing (permanent) contract
• Role based in Nairobi, Kenya

Local terms and conditions apply

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Role Responsibility

• Your main duty in this role will be to support the Africa TV Programmes Editor in the delivery of day-to-day technical production activity for Production Operations, including operational capabilities and production consultancy.
• You will working closely with Production teams to realise editorial requirements, enabling editorial teams are able to fulfill their programmes.
• You will also be liaising with Technical Operations Support to ensure that our studios technical production facilities continue to provide the correct level of functionality and resilience, occasionally managing third party vendor relations.

The Ideal Candidate

Fluency in English is essential and Swahili would be desirable for this position.

You will have the ability to simplify complex problems, think strategically and explore and evaluate situations in a systematic manner. You will have the have the ability to communicate effectively and be willing to take the initiative to create frameworks for problem solving and be able to inspire and lead others when doing so.

Package Description

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Grade: Local terms and conditions

Reports To: Africa TV Programmes Editor

Hours: Rota pattern which may include weekend and night working

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Role Responsibility

Join a new African digital innovation team of multitalented journalists with the mandate to innovate and influence the next generation of African women.

As a Women Affairs Journalist You Will

• Generate, research, produce and edit multi-media journalistic pieces aimed at BBC Africa’s female audience.
• Suggest ideas about new ways of engaging the female audience; and to put these ideas into practice.
• Identify compelling digital and TV content and translate into a form suitable for our multiple platforms
• Think of creative video/digital treatments for some content
• Present or report live across digital platforms, TV and radio by providing up to date with the news agenda in the region and understand how it’s playing out in social spaces.
• Participate in short- and long-term planning, offer new ideas and to suggest new angles on existing stories and to put forward stories not yet covered.
• Produce and develop women’s blogging network within the Africa
• Work across platforms (online, social media, TV etc.) and ensure that the female agenda is covered across all of the Service’s output, in a relevant and engaging manner, in adherence to the BBC’s editorial guidelines

The Ideal Candidate

• A successful record in working in an online and social media production environment including demonstrable experience and enthusiasm for social media and interactivity
• Demonstrates an excellent knowledge of developments in social media and related areas.
• Excellent style and ability to adapt output to different platforms. Ability to engage audience
• A clear understanding of the needs and profile of the female audience and the ability to translate these into imaginative and compelling content solutions, specifically with reference to social media.
• Comprehensive knowledge of writing and editing content for publication to high editorial standards.
• Understanding of the women’s agenda in the target region and in the world.
• Evidence of sound editorial and community judgement as well as an understanding of the power of online communities.

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Role Responsibility

Day-to-day responsibilities

• Contribute design expertise to project teams made up of journalists, product managers and developers.
• Communicate conceptual ideas and design decisions to project teams.
• Collaborate with design colleagues to produce sketched concepts, user journeys, wireframes and navigational prototypes that reflect user needs.
• Provide designs across multiple screens for projects that deliver coherent user experiences.
• Ensure accurate data representation and accessible design solutions.
• Deliver maps, charts, information graphics and branding to support daily output.
• Develop the visual design and user experience and refine towards a polished design, taking into consideration typography, iconography, layout and brand identity.
• Prioritise your own workload under guidance of other designers.
• Deliver information graphics and user experiences that can be easily re-worked to accommodate multiple languages.

The Ideal Candidate

• You’ve got a track record of outstanding Infographics and UX work across various different screens, be they mobile, connected TV, tablet or desktop and you’ve got the portfolio to prove it.
• You might tend towards data visualisation, information graphics and mapping, or layout, colour and typography. Either way you will have skills you can use to create the ideal user experience. Maybe you have even got something special up your sleeve, like you’re an amazing prototype builder, responsive design expert or 3D animator.
• You will have a keen interest in news and current affairs, a firm grasp on how design can make a story comprehensible, compelling and relevant. You will also be able to pitch your work to people from all sorts of backgrounds.
• You’re comfortable applying your skills to whatever situation arises, be it a new device or an unfamiliar design package. You’ve got a great degree in design or the equivalent on-the-job experience.

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Job description

Job Introduction

The BBC World Service is embarking on an exciting journey with unprecedented investment in digital content for Africa and your role will be critical to us in meeting our ambitions. The BBC will be launching a new digital innovation hub in Nairobi with the ambition to develop digital journalism in Africa. Your role as Interactive Journalist will play a key role in helping our content reach underserved audiences – such as younger, more female and more diverse demographics in Africa.

BBC Africa aims to make, explain and connect African and global stories by providing a unique insight into the main stories of the day in original formats. The African service digital offer consists of websites, mobile sites and Social Media with all services providing multimedia content in text, video, interactive and audio for radio, online, TV, mobile and social media platforms.

The successful candidate will work as part of the new Visual Journalism team within the Africa Hub to generate fresh and original global stories.

Role Responsibility

• To enhance and explain major news stories. To research, write, co-ordinate, manage and deliver to tight deadlines the production of high quality added value digital content including: information graphics, maps, graphical interactives, multimedia explainers, data journalism, data visualisation and other bespoke-format web content
• To generate ideas for data-driven stories and for how they might be developed and visualised for a variety of platforms
• To collaborate with reporters, editors, and the fellow team's designer and developer to bring those stories to publication
• To participate and contribute to the wider Visual Journalism community, with the Central BBC News Visual Journalism team and the other VJ Languages teams
• To make the most of data and visual journalism tools and workflows to create content of high editorial and technical standard
• To be aware of relevant advances in web technology and how they can enhance the team’s output
• Support fellow Africa Hub journalists to make the most of the available tools, to improve commissioning and workflows.
• To represent the Africa Hub within the BBC Visual Journalism community

The Ideal Candidate

• Journalism
  • Journalism experience –either online / radio / TV – ability to spot a story and make sound editorial judgements
  • Ability to write in outstanding English as well as at least one of the key Africa Hub’s languages well enough to write stories / backgrounders as required
  • Be able to write /create content for social media – awareness of different platforms – and what is relevant for each region
• Data
  • Numerate – ability to understand spreadsheets and create them in Excel and Google Drive for stories / data sharing
  • Knowledge of data sources and FOI procedure, if relevant, as it pertains to your region
• Production
  • Be able to use basic design software (like Photoshop) to make composite images as well as create and update and create basic templates for static content for social media – whichever platforms are most relevant
  • Good visual awareness and web production experience

Package Description

Continuing (permanent) contract

Role based in Nairobi, Kenya

Local terms and conditions apply

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Role Responsibility

• To work as part of the editorial/production team in Nairobi for the BBC Africa Digital Innovation Hub
• The journalist is expected to have strong writing skills and proven understanding of African news, current affairs, social media and it’s advantageous if the candidate boasts a thematic specialism.
• The journalist will be expected to originate, prepare and publish pages of multi-media news, background, analysis, features and video.
• A key part of the job will be to work closely with colleagues from BBC Africa, who work in English and other languages, to ensure the best of their radio, TV, online and social content is made available to the African hub and wider BBC and make sure that content conforms to BBC editorial standards.
• To produce and commission short-form and long-form digital content
• To gather content for digital platforms from the field
• Contribute to the BBC News website’s Africa desk. The journalist will build on our existing African coverage, including the Africa Live page
• To create digital video, write for our website and other social platforms and promote our content in an engaging format with the audience.

The Ideal Candidate

• Proven text journalism writing and editing skills, using outstanding English
• Broad knowledge of and interest in African affairs
• Ability to produce clean news stories, under the tightest of deadlines
• Ability to produce original, richly-illustrated features which demonstrate a deep understanding of the issue
• Ability to work within a team, and provide leadership to less experienced colleagues
• Good understanding of social media and user generated content, and of different digital platforms and devices
• Comprehensive knowledge of the BBC’s editorial policy and practice and of the law relating to broadcast and interactive journalism
• Proven commitment to equality and diversity and the maintenance of health and safety standards

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Role Responsibility

Some of the main responsibilities of this role are as follows -

• Develop effective software that meets given specifications
• Write appropriate tests using automated test driven techniques for ensure code quality
• Integrate the software with monitoring and support tools
• Support system integration in its operating environment
• Write and review technical documentation
• Help to troubleshoot and resolve issues throughout the product life cycle
• Participate in the team's agile planning and delivery process
• Effectively participate in the teams software development methodologies, such as pairing, code and documentation reviewing and continuous delivery
• Learn new technologies and keep abreast of existing technologies

The Ideal Candidate

To be successful in this role you will have experience in the below –

• Demonstrable experience writing and maintaining robust production software
• Competence in one or more mainstream development languages and frameworks
• Competence with one or more mainstream development and deployment tool chains (IDE, SCCS, CI)
• Experience of database design and use in software applications
• Knowledge of the web architecture and key technologies (HTTP, DNS, distributed design)
• Competence test driven development
• Competence in developing for operational concerns (monitoring integration, performance testing, security considerations)
• Experience of project working and professional software development processes, including agile

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Job description

Role Responsibility

The Growth Editor, working on a Regional level at Languages, is vital to the work of the wider editorial teams and Languages overall digital strategy. The successful candidate will improve the way we listen to our audiences, taking analytics several steps deeper to understand the driving forces behind our content’s performance.

The role is responsible for the delivery of the following innovations to drive data-led workflows across our digital output:

• Deep Dives: produce forensic, retrospective investigations into the performance of sections against key metrics including reach, engagement, on-and-offsite social activity and efforts to engage women. The conversion of complex data into user-friendly visuals and recommendations on changes to editorial, workflow and optimization, backed up with consultancy to support the transition. These snapshots are a cornerstone of the digital strategy for World Service.
• Growth experiments: develop robust methodology for measuring the impact of growth experiments to drive on-and-offsite performance, known as lean analytics and growth hacking.
• Segmentation of data to drive a culture of actionable metrics: work with historical reporting tools including ComScore and Chartbeat Report Builder to develop a set of signals to alert journalists to how well their stories are performing against the average. This is the biggest incentive we have to drive performance on a daily basis, including driving SEO.
• Change management: communicating the results of this work in best practice forums to stakeholders and journalists, make recommendations to Regional digital editors/news editors (where appropriate).

The Ideal Candidate

• You will be able to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of latest trends in digital consumption, publishing best practice, online analytics and real-time data tools
• A strong track record in contributing to and/or formulating editorial strategies to deliver audience growth
  An excellent understanding of the different tools needed to analyse audience and visualise the data. These include: tools used to monitor and understand audience behaviours, such as ComScore and Chartbeat; social media data tools, such as SocialFlow, CrowdTangle, Dataminr, Spredfast and Social Bakers; statistical analysis and modelling, such as Excel and OpenRefine; visualisation, including Plotly and Tableau and presentation: PowerPoint, Google Slides and Prezi
• A curiosity about audience behaviour and the analytical mind needed to interpret data to inform content decisions
• Ability to work collaboratively with different departments and disciplines to deliver shared audience objectives
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team of technical specialists, web analysts and audience insight experts
  Speaks and writes outstanding clear and concise English

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We are looking for a creative and versatile journalist to join our team of talented media professionals in Nairobi.

Role Responsibility

As a Broadcast journalist you will create bespoke optimized content including social media posts, reports, compilations, interviews, discussions, 'explainers', features video, photos, infographics and other editorial content for social media networks and on all BBC language TV and websites.

Duties Include

• Re-version BBC material with a mobile audience in mind.
• To create multimedia content for publication on social media and the BBC Africa mobile audiences and on Africa TV , as appropriate and to the required specification whilst maintaining professional journalistic standards of accuracy, impartiality and adhering to the BBC's Editorial guidelines.
• Research, storyboard and produce stories.
• To originate innovative formats for BBC Africa social media posts best suited for each social network, including Facebook, Twitter, Chat Apps, Instagram and others as required, test and optimize these formats using social analytics and then champion the use of successful formats across the team.
• Shooting and editing complete news and feature packages
• Create headlines and video teasers to promote our stories and reach to as wide an audience as possible.
• Contribute ideas and angles to meetings on how to cover the main news of the day.
• To show visual creativity in the use of pictures and graphics to illustrate and explain fast-moving events and complex stories.

The Ideal Candidate

• Experience of video production, editing and storytelling.
• Experience of using video editing software similar to Q-edit or FCPX.
• In depth understanding of digital and social platforms - the BBC’s and others - and the different ways audiences are consuming news in Africa
• A strong journalistic track record with knowledge of Africa and African affairs.
  Experience in social-first content production and audience engagement.
• Wide and up to date familiarity with the area/s to which the hub broadcasts including an in-depth understanding of the area/s history, politics, social issues and culture as well as the changing needs of the audience.
• Proven editorial judgment and flair, able to make sound decisions quickly.