Head of Sport

Job Introduction

BBC Sport is seeking an outstanding Head of Sport to bring together its story-telling across all platforms to the highest editorial standards.

With direct responsibility for a large team of sports journalists, this role will be accountable for delivering agenda-setting stories that enhance the reach, reputation and impact of BBC Sport.

Exceptional leadership, journalistic and influencing skills are essential.

Main Responsibilities

•    Develop, set and lead a high-impact, editorial strategy for story-telling across all of BBC Sport’s audience touchpoints.

•    Lead BBC Sport’s cross-platform team of journalists in a fast-paced, agile and reactive environment.

•    Responsibility for BBC Sport’s news output across BBC Television, BBC Radio (including World Service) and BBC Online.

•    Provide the creative vision to enhance the quality, depth and range of journalistic output.

•    Safeguard and uphold BBC journalistic and editorial standards, pursuing truth with accurate and impartial reporting.

•    Work collaboratively with colleagues across the BBC to ensure a consistent and coherent approach to editorial development.

•    Provide direction to Editors on the development and implementation of business plans and review performance on a regular basis to ensure business goals are met.

•    Lead on team management activities including recruitment, development, training and employee relations activities and processes, in line with agreed standards and practices.

•    Responsible for financial management of designated budgets and proactively identifying and executing solutions to address budgetary pressures.

•    Ensure legal obligations are understood and met within the teams and areas of responsibility.

•    Create an environment which attracts the best journalistic talent and enables them to deliver their best work. Seek out and nurture new diverse staff, on and off air.

•    Represent the BBC at a senior level and take accountability for the implementation and delivery of wider BBC projects.

Are You The Right Candidate?

•    An outstanding editorial leader, with experience of providing professional leadership and acting as a role model to teams and colleagues.

•    A story-telling expert with broad and comprehensive understanding of theories, systems and practices relevant to the area.

•    Adept at managing numerous and diverse senior and executive level stakeholders, often operating under tight timescales and managing competing priorities.

•    A convincing and persuasive communicator, required to engage and influence teams, as well as senior internal stakeholders and external parties.

•    Strong awareness of current markets, trends and issues within the industry and wider media sector, and deep knowledge of the BBC’s output.

•    Thorough understanding of the ways in which journalism may be commissioned, financed and produced.

•    Broad and comprehensive understanding of BBC’s legal, contractual agreements and regulations as they apply to journalism, broadcasting and digital media.

•    Experience in managing significant budgets and understanding key financial drivers.

Package Description

Band: SL

Contract: Permanent continuing

Location: Salford 4+ days a week

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 competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.

About The BBC

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 in the below document:

https://performancemanager.successfactors.eu/S001190811T2/Our\_BBC\_Values.pdf

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 visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/diversity/