Research Developer

We're spending more of our time online however, being online has its risks. Ofcom research found a third of people feel the risks of being online have started to outweigh the benefits, while four in five adult internet users have concerns about going online, and most people support tighter rules.

This is why the Government has appointed Ofcom as the regulator for online harms in the UK. We've gained extensive experience in protecting audiences from harm while upholding freedom of expression. An important part of our job will be to make sure online platforms do the same with their systems and processes.

Our responsibilities mean we are increasing our capacity and capability in our online technology team and are looking to recruit talented and diverse specialists in this exciting and growing area.

You will have the unique opportunity to directly impact a world leading regime, as well as have the chance to experiment with leading edge technologies. There has never been a more exciting and meaningful time to join.

We know that you will have varying experience and backgrounds, we are open to all. Please get in touch to find out how to be part of this journey. Ofcom opened a new tech hub in Manchester this year and we are looking to expand the team across our London office and our new Manchester location.

Purpose of the role

You will use your experience to act as a subject matter expert as part of the Online Technology Team. The role requires the successful candidate to be inquisitive with an inherent interest in understanding how technology works. You will supply vital knowledge on the architecture and standards of the Internet; the structure, systems and technologies employed by both large and small-scale online media platforms; and the harms that such platforms can present to consumers.

The role will involve research, evaluation, consultancy, advising, project management and briefing in a variety of written and verbal formats.

You are comfortable at different levels of the tech stack including frontend, APIs, backend, and databases. You have strong technical acumen, hands-on experience, a quick learner able to understand different technologies and assess their benefits and trade-offs.

Reporting to the Director of Online Technology responsibilities for this role include but are not limited to:

• Supporting the online technology team subject matter experts in aspects of software development/standards/architecture.
• Managing and supporting technical team projects to explore in detail aspects of the systems, platforms and standards which are of concern
• Prepare briefing documents and build the knowledge and understanding.
• Ensure a 'joinedup' approach to the technological aspect of our online regulation regime with government departments, industry, industry associations and internal colleagues.
• Supporting practical work within subject matter experts to explore technological capabilities.
• Improve our visibility of the online industry and its underlying data to be in line with best practice worldwide.
• Develop working relationships with universities and other regulatory or government bodies active in online safety where relevant.
• Collaborating with our People and Transformation Team to support and deliver specialist training to colleagues.
• Working with our ICT team to ensure that activities are aligned with Ofcom's ICT Strategy.
• Support Ofcom's Public Policy Team to explore and implement efficient and secure ways for us to share data about online services with government and other policymakers.
• Collaborating with data scientists and domain experts in multi-disciplinary teams.

Your skill Skills, knowledge, and experience can include any combination of:

• Hands-on backend software, microservices, algorithms, APIs and data structures development experience using Python, NodeJS also desirable
• VR/AR/Meta languages etc
• Image/text/audio analysis/forensics
• Software development lifecycle experience Git / CICD / Testing / PRs / Promotion / Environments / Ticketing +Auditing / Security tooling / standards / DevOps
• Experience in Security operations including identity and access management, encryption in transit and at rest, storage, and processing of sensitive personal data
• A practical understanding of the architecture, systems and operation of several online platforms and an understanding of the underlying Internet standards and how they are developed.
• An understanding of motivations for moving towards DevOps and.
• A high-level understanding of AI and machine learning and how it will be relevant to modern processes in the future (i.e., AIOps)
• Experience of working with encryption technologies/techniques
• Understanding of development languages
• Strong database knowledge in SQL and NoSQL databases, preferably PostgreSQL and MongoDB
• Strong experience across a broad range of cloud platform services including compute, storage, analytics, data engineering, load-balancing, monitoring, and alerting, serverless architecture, integration, messaging, and others
• Experience of creating API integrations with 3rd party platforms and services using REST APIs
• Experience in application deployment using Docker containers and scalable architectures using microservices, Kubernetes and Helm also desirable
• Excellent spoken and written English and able to communicate technical subject matter clearly.
• Familiarity with Machine Learning development, algorithmic orchestration, and model serving approaches and methodologies