Senior Journalist

Joining the Belfast newsroom offers the chance to operate and grow in a busy and fast-paced news environment.

Job Requisition ID: 28942

Job Closing Date: 1st December 2025

Belfast, GBR, BT2 8HQ

JOB DETAILS

JOB BAND: D
CONTRACT TYPE: 2 x Permanent, Full-time & 1 x Permanent, Part-time (14 hours)
DEPARTMENT: BBC News Northern Ireland
LOCATION: Belfast – Hybrid
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: Up to £53,100 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

BBC News Northern Ireland provides breaking news, analysis, features and debate plus coverage on topical issues across all platforms for local audiences and beyond. We are transforming its news operation to make it future fit in a rapidly changing and diversifying news media climate, with audience needs coming first and with digital at its heart.

We have an opportunity for a full time and a part time (14 hours per week) permanent Senior Journalist to work on daily news programming on TV and Radio.

Senior Journalists in BBC News NI have high levels of production skills, a reputation for creative thinking and a thorough grasp of the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and journalism law.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM:

Joining the Belfast newsroom offers the chance to operate and grow in a busy and fast-paced news environment. Your work will help inform public understanding, drive important conversations across platforms, and make a real impact. It’s a dynamic environment where your voice matters and your decisions will really shape the content we offer to our audiences.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:

Lead daily production meetings in their output area and then assign tasks to Journalists, Reporters and Researchers.
Commission output for their production area and deploy resources in a cost-effective way, provide forward planning and production support.
Motivate teams to think creatively and respond quickly to breaking news and support junior staff members to help them grow and develop in their role.
Contribute to the production of original journalism.
Deal with complex legal and editorial issues.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

Possess strong news judgement, strong decision making skills and experience of operating calmly under pressure.
Be a creative story teller and have a passion for and experience of producing original journalism that sets the news agenda and gets people talking.
Be a resilient self-starter with an in-depth knowledge of politics, cultural life as well as domestic and foreign news.
Having an understanding and experience of the changing media landscape, with digital storytelling at the forefront.
Have the ability to write clear, concise copy that can run across all outlets.

DESIRED BUT NOT REQUIRED:

Experience in managing people, good interpersonal and communication skills and a keenness to collaborate.
A track record in delivering original journalism.
Have knowledge of our audience needs and output, demonstrating a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Have experience use audience insight tools to look at and measure engagement.
Have an understanding of how audiences operate in a digital space.

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.