Title: Research Lead in personalisation in the public interest, Responsible Innovation Centre, BBC R&D
The Responsible Innovation Centre (RIC) is a new independent research centre hosted in BBC Research and Development. It is funded by UKRI, a non-governmental public body that directs UK research and innovation funding. RIC delivers research to generate timely evidence and critical insights on the social, editorial and ethical challenges technology raises for public media, people and society. If you enjoy helping to successfully get new initiatives off the ground and have a passion for ensuring technology works for everyone, we want to hear from you.
Job Reference: SF18366
Band: D
Salary: Up to £60,000 pro rata depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
Contract type: 18 months FTC - 0.6 FTE (3 days)
Location: Office Base can be BBC sites - Media City, Salford and London. This is a hybrid role and the successful candidate will balance office working with home working.
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.
Job introduction
As a Responsible Innovation Centre (RIC) Research Lead in personalisation and the public interest you will be responsible for providing in-depth research and knowledge into how to operationalise normative approaches to personalisation aligned with public service media values and goals. This could include, for example, algorithmic personalisation on third party platforms, policy initiatives or approaches to the design, development and governance of personalised media content, products and services.
A research lead in RIC is responsible for leading and conducting research activities in their specialist area. The post holder is required to work with RIC to carry out ground-breaking and academically rigorous research in key challenge areas to help build a desirable and resilient public media future in the face of rapid technological change. Our research seeks to help the BBC - and wider public media - innovate responsibly and contribute to wider technology development, policy and standards. Collaboration with the BBC and RIC's expert partner network is required in order to achieve these goals.
Main responsibilities
* You will be responsible for horizon scanning and providing ongoing examination of developments in technology and society and/or the regulatory environment in order to scope and respond to opportunities, challenges and risks for BBC and wider public service media sector.
* You will be responsible for shaping the design and delivery of core team project work and initiatives in your specialist area through timely, specialist insight and advice.
* You will conduct high quality research to an academic standard to advise the BBC on emerging opportunities and challenges stemming from technology and produce research to inform responsible approaches to technology and innovation.
* You will produce key research briefing papers, industry reports and publish peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters.
* You will apply creative thinking, analysis and good judgement to propose innovative responses to socio-technical problems.
* You will work with wider BBC teams (e.g. technology, strategy and policy) to translate research in ways that are usable.
* You will provide advice and consultancy to help the BBC and its external partners make the best decisions within own field of expertise.
* You will evaluate technology through a social, ethical and editorial lens to assess risks, opportunities and impact.
* You will document research results for the BBC and external stakeholders - working with the RIC Communication & Engagement Lead to take a creative and user-centric approach to presenting and communicating research to maximise engagement and impact.
* You will use persuasion and facilitation skills to gain cooperation of groups across the BBC and externally and identify and advance collaborative projects.
* You will help manage and review work by RIC affiliated researchers and represent RIC at events, conferences and forums in line with the BBC's expectations.
* You will identify and act on opportunities for learning and development and stay at the forefront of relevant research, scientific and technology areas.
* You will be an ambassador for RIC and Responsible Innovation and engage with the wider community of practice at all levels to support the RIC in delivering its goals.
Are you the right candidate?
For this role we are looking for someone with a passion for research aimed at advancing public interest technology who is looking to make positive changes to support good digital futures. We are looking for someone who gets excited at the prospect of interdisciplinary work, wants to advance ways of working across academic and industry and has a strategic research (and research communication) mindset. We are focused on building a small, highly effective and supportive team and on hiring for potential so the main requirement for the position is a passionate, collaborative, people-focused outlook.
Essential
* A PhD in a relevant social science or humanities based subject area (e.g sociology, science and technology studies, social policy, socio-legal studies, social history, media and communication studies) (or demonstrable equivalent research experience).
* Strong experience, knowledge and a proven record in research in normative approaches to personalisation and experience of social science or humanities approaches to understanding technology and society.
* A good understanding of the UK public media context and one or more of the following: Responsible Research and Innovation, data ethics, mission driven innovation, value sensitive design.
* A record of demonstrating capability for original work and of originating and defining new areas of research, an enquiring mind and well-developed analytical and investigative skills, ability to keep up to date with research in field - including emerging trends and developments in relevant technologies.
* Ability to make judgements necessary to choose the best research approach to address a knowledge gap or complex problem.
* Experience of and skills in gathering and analysing data and evidence and reviewing, synthesising research and conducting research under research ethics, data management and safeguarding frameworks.
* Ability to produce excellent peer-reviewed publications, evidence of prior publications, industry reports or policy papers.
* Experience presenting and communication in industry and academic events and contexts.
* Ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team and independently, ability to work to deadlines.
* Ability to summarise and explain complex ideas to non-specialist audiences; experience of presenting ideas in a variety of formats including written papers, reports, blogs and presentations.
* Ability to rapidly acquire new knowledge and skills to engage with new technologies across multiple editorial and social contexts.
* Self-motivated with the initiative to carry out projects according to plan, and the ability to quickly adapt in a fast-changing environment.
* Good written and spoken communication skills, able to promote ideas by logical argument, capable of presenting results in a clear/effective manner.
* Time and resource management skills and ability to lead, motivate and direct others contributing to project work.
* Able to travel in UK and internationally on RIC business as required.
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. #J-18808-Ljbffr