Job Introduction

The BBC is an international multimedia broadcaster on radio, TV, online and social networks with a weekly global audience of 320 million.

BBC Swahili Service operates a digital first strategy, publishing content online and on social media platforms, this alongside producing radio news and current affairs programmes in Swahili. The service’s focus is to produce world-class digital content that makes sense of news and events for our local and global audiences.

Role Responsibility

We are looking for a senior multimedia journalist who will be editorially in charge of our Swahili Flagship program, Amka na BBC to ensure distinctive coverage of stories that appeal to our Swahili audience.

The role holder will lead a team of journalists in producing the daily (Weekday) dawn program, commissioning and signing off the program. In order to do that you will need to have strong writing and  editing skills in Kiswahili and also be able to reversion English text into Kiswahili.

You will oversee the development of BBC Swahili radio program to offer original and distinctive journalism.

In this highly visible role you’ll be contributing your vision for the program with various key stakeholders.

As the senior member of the Swahili editorial team, you will help the service to build authentic connections between the BBC and its audience.

Other duties include:

• As the senior journalist champion you will liaise between the service, the BBC Africa hub and the wider BBC and communicate the BBC radio vision and industry developments to the department.

• You will be reporting to Editor, Swahili service and Assistant Editor and will be expected to cultivate relationships with the BBC Africa planning teams and BBC World Service teams to ensure that BBC Swahili content is effectively disseminated inside as well as outside the BBC

• You will be expected to lead a production team based in multiple locations across East Africa to produce a daily 30 minute program (two editions) and on occasion will be called upon to deliver and produce the evening, an hour-long show, Dira ya Dunia.

• You will be responsible for originating and producing stories (creatively) which may include scripting, recording, editing and outputting /signing off programs.

• Commission and select relevant materials ensuring they meet expectations of our audiences and adhere to the BBC’s editorial guidelines.

• Deliver journalism of the highest standard and within the required timeframe using available resources.

• As required, to allocate work to a team and check progress; ensure the professional contribution of staff and the quality of output.

• As the senior journalist in the service, you will be the main point of reference for identifying training needs for your team and the department. You’ll be working to develop transferable skills environment in the department.

• To act as a facilitator of change, clearly communicating and distributing best practices between teams.

Are you the right candidate?

For the Senior Journalist role you will need to be versatile with proven journalistic and high quality radio production skills.  You will have experience in interviewing with excellent editing skills, energy, creativity, flexibility and an in-depth understanding of the news, politics, culture and social issues relevant to our Swahili audience.

You will need to be fluent in Kiswahili. As Senior Journalist you will need to be able to broadcast, write and reversion English text into Kiswahili. You should also have proven production skills to curate high quality programs to meet BBC editorial standards.P

Package Description

Band: Local Recruit
Contract type: Continuing
Location: Dar es Salaam

Any offer of employment with the BBC is conditional upon you having the right to work in Dar es Salaam​

About the BBC

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual’s unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.