Political Editor

BBC South is looking to appoint a new Political Editor. The successful candidate will be passionate about making political stories accessible for all audiences across the South.

Job Requisition ID: 30183

Job Closing Date: 12th October 2025

Southampton, GBR, S014 7PW

JOB DETAILS

JOB BAND: E
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time
DEPARTMENT: BBC South
LOCATION: Southampton
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £65,000 – £85,000 per annum 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

Are you passionate about politics and have experience of delivering news content for audiences across online, TV, radio and social? Are you a Correspondent or Senior Reporter looking for the next step in your career? Are you full of ideas and creative treatments? Do you want to work on political stories with an ambitious, creative team? If so, then this could be the role is for you. BBC South is looking to appoint a new Political Editor. The successful candidate will be passionate about making political stories accessible for all audiences across the South. You’ll ensure that our stories are working for audiences across all our platforms and you’ll develop a string of contacts in Westminster and across Southern England.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM
You’ll join a creative, driven team who are passionate about serving audiences. You’ll be part of a team delivering for audiences across Hampshire, Dorset, The Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and surrounding areas. Your work be showcased across the BBC News website, TV, social media and radio. BBC South’s stories are read and viewed by people across our region but we’re determined that our journalism travels as far as possible and sets the agenda – and you’ll play a key role in this. As BBC South’s Political Editor you’ll also present and play a key role in our Politics South programme.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:

Leading political coverage across the South.
Interviewing key figures and holding power to account.
Informing the public and giving analysis and context on political stories.
Experience of reporting and presenting.
Working across online, TV, radio and social media.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

Experience of writing stories and broadcast media across TV and radio.
Journalism background with evidence of editorial and legal judgement.
Experience of reporting and presenting TV programmes.
Experience of self-shooting and editing stories for TV and radio.
Evidence of being a team player and collaborating across the BBC.

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, 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.

For any general queries, please contact: [email protected]

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.