Director-General

How to Apply Egon Zehnder has been selected by the BBC Board to manage the Director General appointment process. If you would like to apply, please send an up-to-date CV and covering letter to . The letter should be no more than two pages long and should outline why you are interested in the Director General role and the relevant skills and experiences (as outlined in the role specification below) which make you suitable for it. We expect a high number of applications and while we will be able to acknowledge receipt, we will only contact those who have been selected for shortlist and regretfully we will not be able to give individual feedback.

The deadline for applications is midnight on 31st December 2025.

About the BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is the world's leading public service broadcaster and occupies a special place in the cultural life of the UK.

The BBC's mission is defined by Royal Charter to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.

It does this by delivering five public purposes:

• To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them
• To support learning for people of all ages
• To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services
• To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all the United Kingdom's nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom
• To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world

The BBC is independent in all matters concerning the fulfilment of its mission and the promotion of the public purposes. It is funded primarily by the licence fee and seeks to deliver distinctive content that serves all audiences. It does this through:

• A portfolio of television services, including the UK's most popular channel BBC One, the 24-hour News Channel, acclaimed channels for Children and the young audience service BBC Three, as well as national and regional television programmes and services across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales;
• Ten UK wide radio networks, providing the best live music and speech broadcasting in the UK, catering to all audiences;
• Two national radio services in each of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, catering to both English and indigenous language audiences, as well as 39 local radio stations across England and the Channel Islands, all of which provide a unique and local service to listeners;
• Award winning and industry defining digital products including iPlayer, BBC Sounds, apps for News, Sport and Weather, Children's online services, as well as our vast digital archive; and
• Providing trusted and impartial news for audiences across the world, delivered through the BBC World Service on television, radio and online in more than 40 languages.

In addition to this, the BBC's Commercial operations - including the producer and distributor BBC Studios- generate additional revenue for investment in new programming and services for UK audiences.

The BBC has an annual income of c.£5bn, made up of licence fee and commercial revenues. It employs over 20,000 people and has bases across the UK and in 59 countries globally.

Each year the BBC is required to publish an Annual Plan , setting out details of its creative remit for the forthcoming year, and an Annual Report and Accounts , reporting back on performance in the previous year.

The Role The Director-General

The role of BBC Director-General is one of the most important, high profile public posts in the UK. It offers an unmatched opportunity to lead a creative organisation with a remit and a role that is critical in the cultural and political life of the country. It also offers the opportunity to lead and shape a future vision for the organisation at a time of significant change.

The Director General is the Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of the BBC. They are ultimately responsible and accountable to the Board for decisions on the BBC's editorial matters, creative output, public service delivery and the success of its commercial operations.

The BBC is an acclaimed and outstanding commissioner and producer of British content, a standard bearer for trust and impartiality in the coverage of news and current affairs, a creative and financial partner for the UK's creative industries and a loyal friend to local audiences up and down the country, and globally. It is a tech firm and a newsroom. It is a live event producer and a born entertainer. It provides value to all audiences and it is the place where people across the UK come together, whilst also providing room for different voices and debate.

The Director General is the figure who knits these strands together, setting out the creative vision for the organisation, establishing the strategy, balancing public service and commercial pressures and managing the BBC's finances across all its divisions and output.

As the BBC seeks to evolve in a fast changing media landscape, its mission and public purposes remain the same but the way the organisation delivers them must adapt over time. The BBC has always been at the forefront of change in the media industry but today it faces a unique set of challenges in an increasingly global market. New companies have and continue to enter the UK market, changing the traditional broadcasting ecology. A digital native generation is growing up with a very different set of media habits and preferences.

This is therefore a crucial time for the BBC as it faces an increasingly competitive landscape. Its mission to provide a universal service for audiences across the whole of the UK is challenged by new technologies and audience behaviour. At the same time, scrutiny of the corporation - from government, parliaments, regulators and stakeholders - remains intense. The BBC needs to be able to respond confidently to that scrutiny and engage stakeholders with a vision for the future of public service broadcasting. In this context, the BBC will also be participating in a review of its Royal Charter in 2027. The next Director General will therefore be charged with leading and defining the BBC through a hugely critical and transformative period in the Corporation's history.

The Ideal Candidate The Director General has to fulfil a wide variety of functions and deal with an ever changing range of complex, sensitive and strategic issues, often at speed. Consequently the right candidate will need the optimal blend of personal qualities and experiences (whilst recognising that no candidate will be likely to have all of these qualities in equal measure) to set out and articulate a clear vision for what the BBC of the future should be.

PERSONAL QUALITIES Purpose driven with high integrity

• A strong conviction for public service broadcasting and a passion for the BBC's purposes, and a belief in how it delivers its mission to all classes, communities and cultures
• Leads with values, engendering trust amongst colleagues and stakeholders, inspiring the organisation to operate with purpose, honesty and fairness

Demonstrable courage and resilience

• Able to cope with the significant personal and professional pressures of leading a major public organisation and being subject to scrutiny from a wide variety of audiences
• Able to make sound decisions on complex issues at speed, in the best interests of audiences and licence fee payers

Natural curiosity and intellectual agility

• Can process complex information, make strategic decisions, and solve problems effectively with strong analytical and critical thinking skills to help in assessing risks, identifying opportunities
• Challenges assumptions and seeks diverse perspectives, being prepared to ask difficult questions and keep an open mind to new ideas
• Inherent flexibility to adapt to changing conditions to enable decisive action, navigate uncertainty

Exceptional communications skills

• A proven ability to represent a significant organisation with national and international interests
• Clear, consistent and focused in message and action, comfortable with public speaking and able to communicate a compelling strategy to different audiences
• A communication style that is both human and engaging as well as straightforward and confident

Builder of effective teams

• Builds a high performing executive team with the right balance of experiences and perspectives and ensures that their efforts are aligned
• Ensures that the organisation has the right talent required to meet current and future needs by bringing the best talent on board, developing internal capabilities and building a worldclass bench of talent at the BBC
• An advocate for the importance of an inclusive workplace culture and on and off screen diversity which reflects the audiences that the BBC serves

COMPETENCIES AND EXPERIENCE Creative Leadership and Editorial Judgement

• Exposure to an editorial environment, having led a creatively driven organisation
• Evidence of making complex and challenging editorial judgements and creative decisions, and taking ultimate responsibility for them
• Has demonstrated decision making that adheres to the BBC's principles of impartiality and editorial independence

CEO or equivalent leadership experience

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