BBC
Assistant Commissioner - Factual
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JOB DETAILS
JOB BAND: D
CONTRACT TYPE: Fixed-term Contract, Full-time / Attachment, Full-time (Parental Leave cover from 30th September 2026 to 30th June 2027)
DEPARTMENT: BBC Children’s and Education
LOCATION: Salford – Hybrid
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £45,000 - £55,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.
PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
The Assistant Commissioner plays a pivotal role in supporting the development, commissioning, production and delivery of high-quality children's factual and factual entertainment content. Working closely with the Commissioning Editor and Commissioning Executives 7+, you will help maintain a strong development pipeline by assessing new ideas with confident editorial judgement, identifying opportunities for growth and innovation, and building productive relationships with suppliers. You will also support programmes from commission through to delivery, ensuring editorial compliance, safeguarding standards and audience needs remain central to all decision-making.
WHY JOIN THE TEAM
This is an exciting opportunity to help shape engaging, impactful content for young audiences across the UK. You'll work alongside experienced commissioning professionals in a fast-paced, creative environment where original ideas, audience insight and editorial excellence drive decision-making. The role offers exposure across the full commissioning lifecycle, providing the opportunity to collaborate with production teams, suppliers and internal stakeholders while influencing the future of children's content across broadcast and digital platforms.
Your Key Responsibilities And Impact
- Support the Commissioning Editor and Commissioning Executives in maintaining a strong development pipeline by assessing new proposals, identifying opportunities and coordinating development activity.
- Act as a key first point of contact for suppliers, managing submissions, providing timely feedback, responding to enquiries and handling rejections with professionalism and sensitivity.
- Build and maintain effective relationships with existing, emerging and prospective suppliers, helping to strengthen the commissioning network.
- Apply a strong understanding of BBC Children's editorial strategy, audience needs and portfolio priorities to support commissioning decisions, diversity objectives and content planning.
- Support commissioned productions from approval through to delivery and launch, acting as a key liaison between production teams, internal stakeholders and digital teams.
- Use audience insight, research and performance data to inform editorial discussions, assess content effectiveness and identify emerging trends and opportunities.
- Review content to ensure compliance with BBC editorial standards, safeguarding requirements and best practice when working with young contributors and audiences.
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Essential Criteria
YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
- Demonstrable understanding of the commissioning process, together with programme-making experience and strong editorial judgement.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.
- Proven organisational skills and the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
- Experience of handling sensitive, confidential or potentially contentious information with discretion and professionalism.
- Ability to work independently, use sound judgement, and confidently apply audience, digital content and commissioning knowledge to support decision-making.
Desirable
- Experience of commissioning content or supporting commissioning activity.
- Understanding of the current children's content landscape and the interests of young audiences.
- Knowledge of the UK and wider international children's production sector.
- Experience of creating, developing or commissioning digital content and extensions.
- Documentary or factual storytelling experience.
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If you can bring some of these skills and experiences, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.
Disclaimer
This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.
Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.
Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Recruitment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.
For any general queries, please contact: bbchr@bbc.co.uk
We are unable to accept applications via CV and only applications made online will be considered. Please click on the APPLY NOW button to proceed with your application.
Redeployment
The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC 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.
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