Senior Associate, Online Safety Policy Development

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Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Monday 16 March, and therefore we advise getting your application in by no later than midnight on Sunday 15 March.

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 is within the Online Safety Policy Development team, which works at the centre of the Online Safety Group. The Policy Development team lead the development of Ofcom’s online safety policies which establish steps services should take to make users safer online. The team comes from a range of backgrounds. There are policy experts, project management and delivery specialists and those that come from a harms or trust and safety background

This team works closely with cross functional colleagues from other teams in the organisation to use their skills and experience to develop robust policy. These include legal experts, technologists, economists, and research specialists amongst others.

This Policy Manager will work closely with the relevant Policy Principal responsible for work on the Fraudulent Advertising (FA) Code. The successful candidate will initially be part of the FA central team, and will have a varied set of delivery and policy responsibilities, including: working closely with the project PM on the day-to-day management of the project (supporting planning, delivery and risk mitigation), and resolving complex and engaging policy problems.

As a policy manager, you will need to intelligently harness individual strengths and support the co-ordination of a diverse set of colleagues from within the project team and other cross functional areas, facilitating cross team working, encouraging practical delivery schedules, unblocking issues, and reporting an honest assessment of progress. You’ll play a pivotal role, in ensuring our work is delivered to a high standard, in an efficient and timely manner.

In doing this role effectively, you will need to consider how to manage risks and issues, plan resources effectively, as well as managing internal and external stakeholders as needed.

For your work developing policy options and drafting relevant documents, you will need to consider the available evidence and arguments on an issue, develop workable options for improving relevant policy, and communicate your views on proposed solutions effectively to influence change.

You are not expected to have specific online safety or fraud specific knowledge, though this would be an advantage.

Policy Manager roles are varied and will evolve over time in line with team priorities. This role will involve the following key responsibilities:

• Be part (initially) of a central team tasked with progressing the FA Code to consultation.
• Lead the day-to-day management, delivery and development of specific online safety project work.
• Provide proactive support to the project team in coordination and delivery of milestones, ensuring deadlines are met and making honest assessments of progress to identify where intervention is needed.
• Lead regular check-ins with work streams to surface and resolve key issues/ blockers and creating a sense of clarity and common cause that ensures teams understand the plan and the impact if their activity slips.
• Challenge work streams to find opportunities to accelerate progress, deliver early benefits, and mitigate risks.
• Resolving complex policy problems by gathering information, conducting analysis, and distilling findings to identify options for improving policy.
• Drafting clear policy papers, distilling technical information into a coherent and compelling narrative that makes the case for change and provides options or recommendations for decision-makers to consider.
• Engaging with senior colleagues, including directors and the CEO of Ofcom to explain our…