PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
Join our Research & Learning team to lead impactful research across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. You’ll manage projects, build local research capacity, and deliver insights that shape media content and business development. Ideal candidates have strong social research experience, project management skills, and the ability to communicate complex findings clearly. If you’re proactive, collaborative, and passionate about evidence-driven decision-making, apply now to help us inform global media strategies.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM
Be part of a global mission that shapes media for positive social impact. Beyond research delivery, you’ll influence strategic decisions, foster innovation, and build capacity in diverse contexts. You’ll collaborate with passionate professionals across continents, share knowledge, and create partnerships that drive change. This role offers the chance to see your insights transform content and empower communities, while contributing to organisational growth and global development goals.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT

1. Deliver country-level insights to inform media content, services, and business development decisions, supporting donor engagement through robust research proposals and outputs that position the organisation as a trusted partner in media and development sectors.
2. Manage research projects and budgets, ensuring timely, high-quality outputs within financial constraints.
3. Build capacity of local researchers through training, mentoring, and technical oversight, strengthening research quality and skills in-country, fostering sustainable capacity.
4. Manage and analyse quantitative data across countries to produce insights across BBC Media Action’s themes to support organisational strategy, enabling evidence-based decision-making for content and organisational growth.
5. Communicate complex research clearly to diverse audiences, including non-research staff, donors, and media partners.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:
• Proven achievement in social research across diverse populations and contexts, ideally in media, governance, health, or resilience sectors.
• Strong project management skills, including planning, coordinating multi-disciplinary teams, and delivering research on time and within budget.
• Quantitative and qualitative analytical expertise, with experience evaluating social change projects and using statistical tools like SPSS. Ability to adapt methods to challenging contexts. Able to deliver digital research.
• Excellent communication skills, able to translate complex research into clear, engaging insights for non-technical audiences.
• Ability to manage and develop staff, including mentoring, capacity building, and remote team leadership.

DESIRED BUT NOT REQUIRED:
• Related social science experience e.g. economics, behavioural science, anthropology.
• Familiarity with advanced data visualisation tools or innovative research dissemination methods.
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.

How to apply

The role will be based in one of BBC Media Action’s offices in Africa or Asia. Current BBC Media Action offices are in the following cities, and the role could be based in any of these, subject to the prevailing security situation at the time of appointment: Abuja, Addis Ababa, Dar Es Salaam, Delhi, Dhaka, Freetown, Hargeisa, Jakarta, Juba, Kabul, Kathmandu, Kyiv, London, Lusaka, Nairobi, Phnom Penh, Suva, Tunis, Yangon.

Applications are welcome from anyone with the existing right to work in these countries. BBC Media Action will not sponsor work visas for this engagement under any circumstances (business visas for short-term travel, if required, will be arranged). The successful applicant will be employed and based in their home country, with salary set according to BBC Media Action’s local pay scales in that country.

Apply online at: https://careers.bbc.co.uk/job/Research-Manager/24749-en_GB