A senior member of the Telegraph’s feature team who can deputise for and support the Head of Live Features. This is a role for someone who can generate clever agenda setting news feature ideas from the hard news agenda, cast them brilliantly and pitch them in an effective manner.

This role requires someone with experience of hard news and a flair for inspired feature commissioning; someone who can think digitally first and has a great contacts book of writers who are capable of writing news features with short deadlines. They must also have a deep understanding of the Telegraph audience and ability to commission live news features at short notice with clever angles over a number of platforms.

Our benefits

The nature of our industry means life at the Telegraph Media Group is fast-paced, demanding, and interesting. We also want it to be rewarding for everyone who works here. From dynamic working opportunities, medical cover, and equal parental pay (six months fully paid for mothers and fathers), to life assurance, and season ticket loans, you can choose from a range of flexible benefits, designed to support your lifestyle and help you achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Training and development

With support from your manager and colleagues, you’ll also have access to a variety of training and development opportunities through The Academy. Covering a range of personal and professional skills, our courses enable you to develop an enjoyable and rewarding career.

Our commitment to inclusion

We want you to feel you belong here and welcome candidates from all backgrounds.

We have a number of internal networks that are totally inclusive and open for anyone to join. These include internal inclusion networks covering employees from ethnic minority backgrounds, working families, LGBTQ+, disabilities and long-term conditions, gender, wellbeing, and women in tech.

Your wellbeing is paramount, so we have trained over 100 Mental Health First Aiders in the last two years to help support our employees. We’ve also signed the Tech Talent Charter, and are committed to driving greater inclusion and diversity in tech.

Key responsibilities

• An understanding of what is required from the features desk and what makes a good well thought out live news feature idea which aligns with the Feature Director's vision for what makes a great daily mix for the Telegraph channels. Discuss these ideas for approval by the Head of Live Features
• Someone who is on top of the news agenda and the issues that matter to the Telegraph audience. Proven ability of putting clever spins on hard news stories which can transform them into compelling features.
• An active commissioner who can think digitally first. Once ideas have been discussed, be active and creative with the commissioning process - an ability to think clearly about the right angle, for the right subject and right name for who could author it at short notice
• Someone who has a fantastic contacts book of news feature writers capable of writing in depth insightful live features that display pin sharp analysis of the issues of the day.
• A good display of management skills, someone who can effectively manage change and liaise confidently with other editors, writers and columnists.
• Being able to deputise and run the daily live features list when required, keeping the department informed on progress as well as communicating effectively with the other project stakeholders.
• Active engagement with the subscription strategy of the Telegraph. Essential to have an understanding of the digital strategy and be a proactive participant in thinking digitally first when commissioning.

Key skills

• The ability to deputise for the Head of Live Features and run the live features list when required.
• Ideas: having brilliant ideas which bounce out from the news agenda on a daily basis. The candidate needs to display a deep understanding of the talking points and issues which matter to our readers and come up with clever ways of making them into compelling live news features.
• Contacts: good relationships with high profile writers, publishers and agents to ensure they are able to access the best talent required to bring news features ideas to life.
• A good communicator: to be successful in this role, you will be an effective communicator, able to pitch ideas to the editor in features conferences in a confident and assured manner.
• An ability to liaise effectively with other editors, writers and columnists when changes need to be made.
• Management experience: previous experience working as a senior manager in a team and is a confident leader
• Digital knowledge: experience in presenting and pitching features to a digital audience and understanding the Telegraph’s strategy is essential.
• Supportive: have an ability to manage up as well as down. As a senior member of the team, modelling a positive and helpful attitude towards team members is essential.
• Forward thinking: ability to think ahead how future events could impact on the features desk.

The Telegraph’s goal is to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace and we are committed to building a team that reflects a wide variety of skills, perspectives, and backgrounds.

We are an equal opportunities employer, hiring solely on merit and business need. We encourage applications regardless of sex, gender identity, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, and disability. If you require reasonable adjustments in any recruitment process with us, please make us aware.

For more information on our purpose, beliefs, and people values, please visit our website.