Assistant Editor, BBC Swahili

Reporting to the service editor, the Assistant Editor - On the Day is the senior editorial lead for BBC Swahili’s daily news operation.

Job Requisition ID: 48299

Job Closing Date: 15 July 2026

Nairobi, KEN, 0 0100

JOB DETAILS

JOB BAND: E
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time
DEPARTMENT: BBC World Service
LOCATION: Nairobi, Kenya

Local terms and conditions

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

BBC Swahili is one of the BBC World Service’s biggest and fastest growing language services, reaching millions of Swahili speakers across East Africa and beyond. Operating across radio, TV and digital platforms, the service provides independent, impartial journalism to audiences whose access to free and trusted news is often limited by political pressure, media restrictions and disinformation.
BBC Swahili is transforming into a story-led model built around two complementary editorial streams: On the Day and On Demand.
WHY JOIN THE TEAM
Reporting to the service editor, the Assistant Editor – On the Day is the senior editorial lead for BBC Swahili’s daily news operation. You hold full editorial responsibility for all time-sensitive output across digital, visualised radio and TV, ensuring content is accurate, fast, and produced to BBC standards.
You will work in close partnership with the Assistant Editor for the On Demand stream, based in Dar es Salaam, to ensure strong editorial coherence across BBC Swahili’s offer. Together with the Senior News Editor and others, you are part of the core leadership of the service, sharing responsibility for editorial standards, digital growth and team development.
This is a role that demands both editorial authority and digital ambition. It requires someone who can make confident decisions at pace, lead a large and diverse team across complex shift structures, and drive the cross-platform integration that is central to BBC Swahili’s transformation. The role is also critical to growing the service’s reach among younger and female audiences through visualised radio, YouTube streaming and consistent social media output.
YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:
• Lead BBC Swahili’s On the Day stream, creating a culture of editorial rigour, platform agility, personal accountability and continuous improvement.
• Oversee all breaking and daily news output across three shifts (morning, afternoon and night) 24/7, maintaining continuous digital publishing and ensuring timely, accurate delivery across radio, TV and digital platforms.
• Champion a digital-first editorial approach across the team, ensuring stories are commissioned and produced with multi-platform distribution in mind from the outset.
• Support the growth and development of BBC Swahili’s visualised audio output from the Nairobi studio, enabling live streaming on YouTube and the creation of short content assets from interviews for social media.
• Collaborate with the On Demand Assistant Editor to coordinate joint story commissioning and promotion, and to ensure the two streams work as a coherent editorial whole.
• Support the Senior News Editor in implementing BBC Swahili’s growth strategy, with a focus on expanding reach among young (16–24) and female audiences.
• Coach and develop team members, fostering an inclusive and high-performing team culture with a strong commitment to gender diversity.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:
• Significant editorial leadership experience in digital or broadcast news, with a strong track record of managing fast-paced, multi-platform daily output to the highest standards.
• Strong digital-first editorial experience, with demonstrable record of commissioning and delivering content for digital, social media, TV and radio simultaneously.
• Sound, confident editorial judgement under pressure, including the ability to manage compliance and risk in a complex political and media environment.
• Deep understanding of audience analytics tools and the ability to use data to inform commissioning and editorial decision-making.
• Experience of working with visualised or streamed radio or TV output, and an understanding of how to maximise its digital potential.
• Ability to work collaboratively across editorial streams and with other teams, communicating clearly and managing competing priorities effectively. A commitment to improving diversity in the BBC and an understanding of how inclusive leadership strengthens output.
• Fluency in written and spoken Swahili and English, both written and verbal, with the ability to represent the BBC effectively in internal forums.

DESIRABLE:
• Proven ability to shoot, script and edit video stories using tools such as Final Cut Pro (FCPx) and QEdit, with the ability to deliver polished, engaging, audience-focused content which is optimised for digital platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook

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: [email protected]

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.

Information at a Glance

This is your BBC

At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world’s best loved content, and the BBC’s mission to inform, educate and entertain.

Life at BBC

Here you will benefit from:
• Fair pay and flexible benefits specific to your location and contract type.
• Excellent career and professional development.
• Support in your working life.
• A values-based organisation where the way we do things is important as what we do.

You belong

We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual’s unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.

Find out more about diversity, inclusion and belonging in our strategy below.