Head of IT and Broadcast Engineering Southern Hub

Please apply via our careers website - https://www.newscareers.co.uk/vacancies/3599/head-of-it-and-broadcast-engineering-southern-hub.html

Head of IT and Broadcast Engineering Southern Hub

The Team: Cork’s 96FM & C103 is one of Ireland’s biggest and most successful local radio businesses. Operating from Broadcasting House in the city, Cork’s 96FM is the home to Lorraine & Ross in the Morning and the annual Cork’s 96FM Giving for Living Radiothon.   Playing Cork’s Greatest Hits, C103 is home to the multi-award-winning Cork Today with Patricia Messinger.   Both brands attract almost a quarter of a million adult listeners across Cork City and County each week.

Your Role: As the Head of IT and Broadcast Engineering for the Southern Hub, you will be responsible for overseeing all technical aspects of our broadcasting operations across Cork’s 96FM, C103 and Limerick’s Live 95FM.   Leading a small team managing our IT infrastructure including the networking at the heart of our Audio-over-IP studios and ensuring the smooth operation of our transmission network.   This is a hands on role maintaining and enhancing the technical quality and reliability of our broadcast and supporting systems as well as supporting the overall strategic goals of the business.

Day to day you will:

• Oversee the management and maintenance of all IT, broadcast and audio systems, including servers, networks, and broadcast equipment.
• Lead and support a small team of IT and broadcast engineers, providing guidance, training, and development opportunities.
• Ensure the reliability and quality of all broadcast transmissions, troubleshooting and resolving any technical issues promptly.
• Recommend, design and implement upgrades to continuously improve our IT and broadcast systems.
• Handle a wide range of technical tasks related to maintaining broadcast infrastructure with a focus on IP Networks including switch configuration, routing and firewall changes.
• Manage relationships with external vendors and service providers to ensure the best quality and value for technical services and equipment.
• Ensure compliance with all relevant regulations and standards, including health and safety requirements.
• Work with the Group Station Director and Finance Business Partner to manage budgets for the IT and broadcast engineering department as well as preparing annual CapEx requirements.
• Collaborate with other departments to support their technical needs and contribute to overall organisational success.

What we are looking for from you:

• Qualification in Information Technology, Broadcast Engineering, or a related field is desirable but not essential.
• Experience in IT and/or broadcast engineering.
• Strong technical knowledge of broadcast systems, IT infrastructure, and network management.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work well under pressure.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.
• A proactive, flexible and innovative approach to work.
• A can-do attitude and desire to work to produce and maintain a robust & resilient systems to support our 24/7 broadcast operation.

We are Wireless: We create great audio and digital products. Our live radio and podcasts, along with our web and social pages, play a massive part in our listeners lives. We engage, we inform and we entertain with our market leading products. In Ireland we own or represent stations in all main urban centres, and we create award winning solutions for our commercial partners. We are also part of the wider News Broadcasting group with radio stations like Virgin Radio, talkSPORT, Times Radio and talkRADIO which are redefining speech broadcasting on digital audio platforms, connected TV and beyond.

Life at News
At News UK & Ireland some of us work flexibly, in many different ways. We encourage you to talk to us about the flexibility you need. We can’t promise to offer exactly what you want, but we do promise not to judge you for asking.

We champion diversity and inclusion, we strive to maximise and encourage every individual’s potential and ensure everyone feels valued. We support this through our Diversity Board, D&I  strategy & training, creating more diverse content and our intern and apprenticeship programmes.  We also have 8 employee-led networks; Cultural Diversity, News is Out, GenZ, Sustainability Champions, News for Parents, Women in Tech, News UK Christian Fellowship and we are awaiting the launch of our Women’s Steering Group.

In addition we also offer:

• 25 days holiday per year;
• Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks.
• Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access.

We want to ensure that everyone we meet has the opportunity to perform to their best when interviewing, so feel free to let us know, at any stage, whether you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, and we will do our best to accommodate.