Senior News Editor Job BBC

Media Jobs, BBC World Service Jobs.

Purpose of the Role

As Senior News Editor, East Africa, you will lead and oversee the BBC’s East Africa language services, serving audiences across the region through BBC News Swahili, BBC News Somali, BBC News Afaan Oromo, BBC News Amharic, BBC News Tigrinya, and BBC News Great Lakes.

You will have overall accountability for editorial direction, operational performance, and audience growth across digital, social, and linear platforms, exercising significant autonomy and strategic influence in a complex and fast moving news environment.

You will play a key role in leading digital transformation, championing innovation in formats, platforms, and ways of working to grow reach and relevance with younger and underserved audiences.

Why join the team

This is a senior leadership role at the heart of the BBC’s journalism in East Africa. You will shape the editorial vision and operational strategy for multiple services, working closely with senior colleagues across the Africa region to ensure a distinctive, impactful, and joined up offer for audiences on the continent — and to drive sustainable audience growth.

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Your Key Responsibilities And Impact

• Provide editorial leadership across all East African language services, ensuring consistently high quality journalism across platforms.
• Line manage language service editors and senior teams, fostering strong editorial standards, creativity, and collaboration.
• Take responsibility for complex editorial decision making, including issues involving geopolitical sensitivity, legal considerations, and operational risk.
• Set and deliver a clear editorial strategy for commissioning, newsgathering, and production in partnership with senior leaders across Africa.
• Lead engagement with partnerships, launches, and major regional and strategic projects.
• Manage and influence a wide range of senior and executive stakeholders, often under tight deadlines and competing priorities.
• Drive effective production, distribution, and rollout strategies to maximise reach, relevance, and impact for audiences.

Skills & Experience

• Substantial experience of journalism and production, as well as proven editorial judgement and substantial experience of managing editorial and operational staff and facilities in a daily news environment.
• Expert knowledge of our audience’s needs, current market trends and challenges, and deep knowledge of editorial output processes across the whole of the BBC, as well as that of competitors.
• Experience of solving complex editorial and legal challenges, managing significant budgets and understanding key financial drivers.
• Experience of managing staff across locations, having nurtured talent and be internally and/or externally recognized as a promoter of diversity and inclusion
• In addition to full proficiency in English, a working knowledge of one or more of the relevant languages that the BBC operates in across Africa.

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How to Apply

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