Full Fact, the UK’s independent fact-checking organisation, is recruiting a politics editor. This is an exciting opportunity to take on a brand-new role leading our political fact-checking team, at a crucial time for UK politics as we prepare for the next general election.

You’ll shape and develop fact-checking that already gets thousands of media pick-ups each year, reaches millions of readers directly, and is also distributed by Facebook, Google, Instagram and YouTube.

You’ll use your journalism skills to help make public debate more trustworthy. Our fact-checking has led to an inquiry from the House of Commons Procedure Committee, questions to the Prime Minister, interventions from regulators and much more.

This is a job for someone who wants to both grow an audience and make a difference, working with the support of our Editor and Full Fact’s wider team including communications, policy and artificial intelligence specialists.

If you are interested in applying but not sure you have all the skills, please do apply. We are open both to supporting learning on the job and to rearranging tasks within the team to suit the skillsets of the best applicant.

Job Definition

Your job is to keep politicians and other political actors in the UK honest. You’ll lead a team of three politics fact checkers to cover all aspects of UK politics and a wide range of topics, such as the economy, crime and education.

You’ll need to work fast, and make quick, confident and smart decisions on breaking news stories as we seek to fact-check the fast-paced political news cycle. You’ll also need to prioritise ruthlessly, ensuring we focus our limited resources on the stories where we can really make a difference.

You’ll organise our political monitoring, commission and edit fact checks to tight deadlines, and work with colleagues from across Full Fact to ensure we identify and tackle underlying solvable problems. You will also lead our live fact-checking of PMQs and other big political events.

We’re ideally looking for candidates with significant experience as a political editor or journalist, but prior fact-checking experience isn’t necessary. We do want someone with a good knowledge of UK politics and ideally one or more key policy areas as well.

You will need to be able to quickly master and explain tricky, nuanced topics in clear, concise copy – and must have an eye for a story. You’ll also need to be able to manage, motivate and mentor a small team of dedicated journalists.

Outcomes:

• Leading and improving Full Fact’s politics fact checking
• Building and developing an effective politics team within editorial (with line management responsibility for three fact checkers)
• Commissioning, editing and signing off fact checks to a high standard, hitting tight deadlines and agreed publication targets
• Ensuring we monitor a balanced range of sources, including politicians, the mainstream media and social media.
• Leading our live fact checking of PMQs and other big political events
• Work with colleagues to win change as well as readers by prompting scrutiny from parliament, other media, regulators etc.
• Prepare for the next general election, helping develop the editorial products we will offer, and ensuring we have the skills and materials in place to deliver quick, effective and agenda-setting fact checks ahead of and throughout the campaign
• Growing our audience as we look to expand our reach
• Representing Full Fact externally and, if you want to, in the media, as required

What We Are Looking For From You

Political impartiality and sensitivity: You are committed to the political neutrality of our work and have a good understanding of impartiality (please see the rules on our website).

Understanding of public debate in the UK and sensitivity to the political context we work in.

• Strong research, writing and editing skills
• Good understanding of UK politics and/or key policy topics, with experience working in political journalism preferred
• Strong editorial judgement, with the ability to take a nuanced, fair-minded and even-handed approach across a wide range of topics
• An ability to translate this into all of the work produced by the editorial team through writing and reviewing
• An ability to understand and get to grips with new topics rapidly
• Understanding of digital channels, audiences and formats
• Understanding of the value of open, inclusive, and diverse teams and proven ability to build a team where people feel empowered and valued

How To Apply

Upload your CV and cover letter using the link below by 10am on 12 January 2023.

We prefer to sift applications anonymously. Please use your initials rather than your name and leave identifying details such as email addresses off your CV and covering letter.

Please note that to keep our recruitment process open and fair, we will not negotiate salaries outside the advertised range.

Before applying, please read the requirements we place on staff to protect Full Fact’s independence and non-partisanship

We want to see you at your best to understand your strengths and the contribution you could make at Full Fact with strong support, including for your learning and development. We also want to make sure that we use your time well during this process and don’t ask for more from you than we need to. We will make any reasonable adjustments we need to make to this process to help ensure you can perform at your best. For more information about this before applying, please contact jobs@fullfact.org.

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