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Posted 15 June, 2026
BBC

Head of Development, Documentary Unit

BBC
London, GBR, W12 7FA Fixed Term
Salary: £87,200 to £125,400 Annually
Reference: 47305

JOB DETAILS

JOB TITLE: Head of Development, Documentary Unit (Parent Leave Cover)

JOB BAND: E

CONTRACT TYPE: Fixed-term Contract, Full-time, six months initially with a view to extend.

DEPARTMENT: BBC Studios Documentary Unit

LOCATION: London – Television Centre

PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £87,200 - £125,400 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

START DATE: August 2026

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

WE ARE BBC STUDIOS

A globally renowned media company borne of the BBC. We make and distribute the world’s most sought-after TV, audio and digital content.

Our ambition is to be the home of the most powerful, entertaining, and inspiring stories for people all around the world.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

The Documentary Unit is looking for a dynamic Head of Development for parent leave cover to lead an ambitious new era of growth and innovation for the unit. We are looking for a high performing candidate who will drive new opportunities and is experienced in both business leadership and team management, as well as having proven experience in progressing projects from original idea through to commission, navigating key stakeholders both commercially and editorially.

Working closely with the Senior Creative Director, the successful candidate will have a proven ability to build an effective strategy to create growth and to win new business in the market, with proven experience in premium factual idea origination for both the UK and US market. We are looking for a proven ideas generator, strong writer and successful pitcher of ideas, especially in the UK & US streamer market. This should include winning business with streamers such as Netflix, Apple, Disney, Amazon and Nat Geo.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

The Documentary Unit is known for reputational series and singles and produces some of the most awarded and most watched factual titles in television including ‘The Mother of all Cons’, ‘Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story’, ‘Aileen: Queen Of The Serial Killers’, ‘Murder Case: The Digital Detectives’ and ‘Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice’.

We're currently in production & funded development with all the main terrestrial broadcasters as well as key SVODs.

Please bear in mind that we will only consider candidates with previous experience at a very senior level in the documentaries development sphere.


YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:

  • Extremely confident building an ambitious new slate of ideas that successfully map to commissioning needs and will have excellent relationships with the relevant documentary commissioners in order to build and convert ideas into commissioned programmes.
  • You will be confident at providing editorial direction to a team, stimulating creativity and ensuring the team are on track to develop the best content ideas in line with the genre strategy.
  • You will be passionate about documentary in all its forms and be very confident straddling both the terrestrial and streamer market when pitching new ideas.
  • You must have proven success of winning business and have contributed significantly to commissioned programmes, in both the UK and the US.
  • You will be a compelling writer with the ability to convert original ideas to delivery and you will be very experienced at creating sizzles and decks for all broadcasters.
  • You will have experience in working cross-departmentally, line managing a team and ensuring diversity of representation and ideas are maintained, along with both the organisational and leadership tasks associated with a position of this level.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

  • Strong business-winning experience and excellent pre-existing commissioner relationships with a proven ability to forge new commissioner relationships, particularly within the US market.
  • Previous experience developing ambitious and impactful documentary content at a very senior level for the UK and US market.
  • A proven ideas generator, strong writer and successful pitcher of ideas, especially in the UK & US streamer market.
  • Proven success in building and managing a slate of ideas ranging from premium boxset series, reputational singles, returning obs doc series and documentary formats - contributing significantly to their build, pitch and greenlight.
  • Extensive experience of leading and inspiring development and production teams with an ability to demonstrate strong managerial skills and positive behaviours.
  • Effective planning and organising skills with the ability to concentrate on several areas of work at one time, prioritising, delivering consistently to deadlines and reacting positively to changes and conflicting priorities.
  • Responsible for excellent management and recruitment of a diverse team of people, encouraging the flow of ideas and an open culture where the development team’s potential is realised and enabled.
  • Must have proven experience in financial and budget planning/responsibility, along with a demonstrable ability to provide strong sound editorial judgement in a fast-moving environment.

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Recruitment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

We are unable to accept applications via CV and only applications made online will be considered. Please click on the APPLY NOW button to proceed with your application.