Country Research Manager (Digital)

Organization: BBC Media Action

Closing date: 14 Aug 2022

Additional job-specific responsibilities and accountabilities

• Undertake, and support others to design and undertake, research and analysis which will help to understand audiences changing use of digital and online media in developing contexts, to support the development of media and communication products.

• Design, develop and support the implementation of an improved system of data analytics, segmentation, and visualization using existing social media data and other digital data across projects and support and mentor in-country research teams to use such systems.

• Conduct analysis of large and complex quantitative and numerical data sets and communicate insights of such datasets in a simple and intuitive format for all users, supporting interpretation and utilisation of the findings, working in partnership with in-country research teams to deliver such analysis.

• Support the team to design and conduct innovative digital research to inform and understand the impact of digital output.

Knowledge, Skills, Training and Experience

• Strong quantitative research knowledge, skills, and experience.

• Strong digital research experience including conducting research to understand digital media usage; analysing social media analytics alongside primary research; experience in social media analysis (such as social listening/sentiment/network analysis) and reporting on/visualising social media metrics and working with others to interpret them;

• Experience of working with digital analytics to inform content production and development Strong skills in quantitative/digital data mining, analysis, visualization and interpretation. Skills in some or all of the following are a great benefit: statistical modelling tools (e.g. SPSS, R, Python, STATA or any other “Big Data” or digital analysis tools, e.g. Tableau, SocialFlow, CrowdTangle, Brand Watch, Google Analytics).

• Experience of working with AI, machine learning and chatbots.

• Strong experience of supporting others in data analysis.

• Excellent skills in communicating complex data and insights to a range of stakeholders.

Job purpose

• Work with local researchers to deliver a portfolio of research in a number of countries in Africa, Asia, Middle East and Europe to inform media production and donor requirements; to support the broader strategic and business development needs of the organisation.

• Work closely with the in-country RM and local researchers to ensure that all research activities are designed with safeguarding in mind, and that research design documents and tools reflect this.

• Ensure research is relevant to the country office to ensure they develop their output and business development offers.

• Build the capacity of local researchers to be able to design, manage and analyse research more effectively.

• Support the organisation in winning new business by collaborating across department (in country and in UK) and leading on research contributions to project and programme proposals - designing and proposing research that is relevant, and technically and financially sound.

• Represent the research and BBC with external and internal stakeholders, from producers and project managers, research firms, academic institutions, donors and NGOs, to media and government counterparts, including disseminating our findings and investigating new partnerships and funding opportunities.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities

• Deliver insights at the country level to enable decision makers to make better decisions in business development, development of new content and services.

• Understand the needs of the organisation to ensure that all research is tailored and relevant, to deliver simple and valuable insight.

• Manage project research budgets and be responsible for managing deliverables that match project budget; planning and monitoring resource needs and products.

• Support and develop local research team, including coaching, mentoring and/or training to develop their research and management skills and technical skills; providing quality oversight at the agreed level for each project.

• Share responsibility for development of the Research & Learning (R&L) team, by supporting and helping improve our processes and proactively sharing skills and expertise in the team and the organisation.

• Where relevant, manage Research Officer including supporting personal development, motivation and technical support.

• Share responsibility for leading a strategic priority (e.g. digital research) of the R&L team with a senior research manager and in collaboration with research teams based in country offices. This can entail leading the research under a specific thematic area or coordinating capacity and quality assurance processes, among other strategic priorities.

• Communicate complex technical ideas using non-technical language to a wide range of audiences from journalists, production staff and development practitioners.

• Visit country offices and attend conferences and other events that may be outside normal working hours or place of work as required to undertake the role effectively. • Adhere to all relevant BBC safety rules, procedures and guidelines including Safeguarding policy and the staff Code of Conduct.

• Participate in relevant mandatory training on Safeguarding and Respect at Work and implement these within all aspects of work.

• Adhere to the BBC’s policies on diversity and to apply the principles of the policy when carrying out the role.

Knowledge, skills, training and experience

• Evidence of achievement in research.

• Good knowledge of research techniques gained ideally through experience of digital and social research across different populations and contexts and across any of media, governance, health and resilience sectors.

• Experience and understanding of applying (and ideally training others to use) social media analytics and social listening tools (e.g. CrowdTangle, Brand Watch, SocialFlow and web analytics), and using these to provide useful insights to project delivery/production teams.

• Skills and experience in using digital research approaches to monitor and evaluate the impact of social media or digital media interventions.

• Experience with data visualization tools, e.g. Tableau.

• Evidence of strong quantitative analytical skills, particularly working creatively with existing data sources/large data sets including use of SPSS, and qualitative analysis in support of practical outcomes.

• A good understanding of the application and value of different quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques, making sure they are fit for purpose and of value. • Understanding of media and development sector and the research standards required.

• Good project management and admin skills including planning and coordinating research and analysis with multi-discipline teams; undertaking or managing fieldwork and adapting methods to challenging and resource-constrained conditions; record of delivering research findings on time, on budget and to a high standard.

• Experience of budget setting and control.

• The ability to juggle multiple needs and deadlines, and creatively solve problems, through being proactive, forward looking, finding solutions and having a positive attitude.

• Good communication skills, being able to communicate complex research and results to nonresearch people (including those whose first language is not English) in non-technical, creative and engaging ways - and be able to translate theoretical research into practical application

• Ability to manage and motivate staff, including technical research oversight, training and building research capacity, personal development and performance management both in person and remotely

• Good communication and presentation skills, and experience of adapting spoken and written research outputs to present in non-technical language to diverse audiences from grassroots to senior levels, including NGO staff, non-researchers, academics and donors.

• Able to engage confidently with audiences, journalists, local researchers, contractors, senior project staff and donors

• Open to change and keen to seek out new ways of doing things.

• Ability to build and maintain helpful, productive working relationships.

• Connects people, ideas, processes and issues. Effectively shares knowledge, ideas and skills across the organisation.

Key Relationships

External:

• Any external evaluators, academics or evaluation partners working on specific research projects

• Research and development professionals and organisations.

• Peers in the rest of the BBC.

• Research agencies and practitioners, industry data providers

• Social media analysis organisations and companies.

Internal:

• Non-research staff in country offices including country directors and creative, production and finance teams to support the development and use of research in the production of creative outputs (particularly to support production / digital teams to understand and use social media and other digital data to inform their strategies).

• Work with Digital Innovation Lead to build the capacity of the organisation in understanding and using digital (social media) metrics, designing and delivering relevant training and facilitating regular discussions around digital research, to support the organisation’s digital strategy.

• Thematic Advisors, Regional Project Managers, Finance and Communications staff in the UK to ensure research supports wider organisational/programme objectives and is properly resourced and reported.

• Country teams, regional teams, policy and research team.