Group: Economics and Analytics Group
Management Level: Senior Associate
Job Type: Permanent
Job Description:
Please note that this role will close on Friday 31st March at 00:01 and therefore we advise getting your application in no later than midnight on Thursday 30th March.
Ofcom exists to make communications work for everyone. We regulate services that people rely on and enjoy using – TV, radio, telecoms, postal services and spectrum allocations – and we are now expanding as the new regulator to keep people safe online. Economists play a key role in all these areas.
Are you interested in using cutting-edge economics to tackle a wide range of policy questions? Are you passionate about making a positive difference to society? Do you enjoy working with a friendly and diverse team? If so, we would like to hear from you.
We have exciting roles for competition and regulatory economists, as well as for microeconomists with policy appraisal experience, to be based in Edinburgh, London or Manchester.
The Economics and Analytics Group
Ofcom’s Economics and Analytics Group is one of the largest competition and regulatory economics and finance teams in the UK. With more than 80 colleagues, we provide the analysis that underpins everything Ofcom does.
Our work goes beyond regulating traditional telecoms companies and broadcasters. Ofcom economists and analysts apply insights from theory and empirical research to tackle a range of challenging questions, often involving dynamic markets like the online sector.
For example, we play a key role in recent projects including the Market Study in Cloud Services, Media Plurality and Online News, preparation of Online Safety regulation, and many more. We also regularly publish discussion papers to further the economics debate related to the communications sectors.
What will be your responsibilities?
As an Ofcom economist, you will work with our friendly team, receive coaching from senior colleagues and develop your analytical skills across different projects and sectors. We strive to match your interest with our needs.
Your main responsibilities will be to:
- Provide high-quality economic analysis on a variety of projects, identify the key economic issues and consider different points of view.
- Gather and assess data and other evidence to support analysis in a robust way.
- Produce clear, well-reasoned drafts of documents, including for publication.
- Communicate economic issues clearly in internal meetings and in our engagement with stakeholders.
- Collaborate with senior colleagues and multi-disciplinary teams of economists, policy professionals, lawyers, market researchers and technologists.
What are the roles available?
- Competition/regulation role: You’ll have experience of applying competition or regulatory economics. We welcome candidates with an academic or professional background in applied microeconomics, industrial organisation, economics of digital markets, competition economics, regulatory economics, behavioural economic or auction design.
- Policy evaluation role: You’ll have experience of applying microeconomics in policy design and appraisal (e.g. cost-benefit analysis of policy interventions) and in assessing policy outcomes to inform supervision, enforcement and policy iterations. This role is likely to be focused on forthcoming online safety regulation but can also involve assessing impact of policies in other sectors regulated by Ofcom.
What skills, knowledge and experience do you have?
The ideal candidate should have:
- A strong grounding in applied microeconomics, typically through training in industrial organisation, public economics, behavioural economics, cost-benefit analysis, econometrics and/or financial economics.
- Experience in applying economic concepts to real world and often unfamiliar situations, typically through working at a consultancy, regulator, competition or consumer authority or government department, academic institution or a regulated company.
- Ability to interpret complex information in a meaningful way, with good attention to detail and ideally also good quantitative skills.
- Strong communication skills, both orally and in writing.
- Ability to collaborate effectively with multi-disciplinary teams.
- A degree in economics. Postgraduate qualification is desirable but not essential.
Please apply with a CV and a short cover letter to show your interest in working for Ofcom and state for which role(s) you are interested in applying.
Ofcom is a forward-thinking, inclusive employer and recognises the value of diversity to truly “make communications work for everyone”. Here at Ofcom, our vision is to ensure people are part of an environment when they can truly strive and be themselves, therefore we aim to recruit from the widest pool of candidates possible – irrespective of social background, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or disability. We are an organisation that strives to be truly representative of the whole of the UK and our aim is to be an employer of choice for everyone.
We champion flexible working and so wherever possible we support flexible working patterns including job shares.
As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to interview disabled applicants who meets the minimum selection criteria of the role as outlined in the job specification, if applicants would like to be considered under this scheme. We pride ourselves on ensuring all candidates are treated fairly throughout the application and selection process including making our process as accessible as possible. You can find more information on the scheme here. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/jobs/disability-confident-scheme
Should you require any adjustments to be made, please do contact us directly at resourcing@ofcom.org.uk or call 0330 912 1378
Closing Date: 31/03/2023
