Senior Journalist Team Manager

Job Title: Senior Journalist Team Manager – Horn of Africa On‑Demand Production Hub

Purpose of the Role

BBC World Service is creating a new Horn of Africa Language Services Unit in Nairobi, bringing together BBC Somali, BBC Afaan Oromo, BBC Tigrinya and BBC Amharic under a single editorial leadership structure for the first time. The Horn of Africa On‑Demand Production Hub is a new, dedicated production unit at the heart of the BBC’s ambitious restructuring of its East Africa language services. The Hub exists to do what no individual service team can do alone: produce high‑quality, video‑led journalism with the production values, platform expertise and creative ambition that BBC audiences in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and the diaspora increasingly expect.

Why Join the Team

The Senior Journalist Team Manager is the architect and engine of the Production Hub. Your job is to maximise the reach, quality and impact of journalism that originates with the four service teams, and to build the production infrastructure, skills and workflows that allow the Horn of Africa’s editorial ambitions to be realised at scale. You will lead a small, multi‑skilled team of video journalists and reporters. You will work in close daily partnership with four Assistant Editors, and you will report directly to the News Editor, Horn of Africa. This is a role for someone with a genuine and demonstrable video vision: someone who understands what great digital and video journalism looks like, who can communicate that vision to journalists across four language services, and who has the practical skills, leadership experience and creative drive to make it a reality.

Key Responsibilities and Impact

• Design, build and run the Horn of Africa On‑Demand Production Hub from the ground up, establishing its workflows, capacity, quality standards and ways of working.
• Develop and implement a clear production strategy for the Hub, setting out how it will serve all four language services, what kinds of content it will prioritise, and how it will evolve as the cluster’s digital ambition grows.
• Act as the BBC’s lead production expert for the Horn of Africa region, providing strategic advice to the News Editor and the four Assistant Editors on video production, digital platform strategy and audience development.
• Champion the transition from audio‑first to video‑first production across the HoA unit, working with Assistant Editors to embed video thinking into editorial planning at the service level, not just in the Hub itself.
• Lead the development and production of high‑impact video journalism: investigations, documentaries, long‑form explainers, data‑driven visual stories and social‑first short‑form content to serve the editorial requirements of the four services.
• Develop and produce new video formats specifically designed to reach young women across the Horn of Africa and diaspora communities, working with Assistant Editors to identify the editorial propositions, storytelling approaches and distribution strategies most likely to grow this audience.
• Manage staffing, rotas and deployment of resources to ensure efficient and effective output.

Skills and Experience

Essential Criteria

• Demonstrable video vision: a clear, articulate and practically grounded understanding of what outstanding digital video journalism looks like, backed by a portfolio or track record of video content that has reached and engaged significant audiences.
• Substantial experience in video production and post‑production for journalism, including proficiency with filming, editing, motion graphics and the production workflows required for high‑volume, high‑quality digital output.
• Proven experience of managing a journalism or production team, with the ability to set direction, develop people, manage performance and build a culture of creative excellence and collaborative working.
• Strong understanding of digital platform distribution including YouTube, social media algorithms, WhatsApp, TikTok and BBC digital products, and a track record of using that understanding to grow audiences.
• Experience of leading significant production projects or transitions, such as launching a new format, transforming a linear programme for digital, or building a production operation from scratch.
• A genuine commitment to reaching young female audiences, with practical experience of designing content strategies, commissioning approaches or storytelling formats specifically aimed at this group.
• Fluency in written and spoken in one of our Horn of Africa languages and English.