Studio Engineer

Location: Westminster, London 

Salary: Competitive 

Reporting to: Head of Video 

The Role

Reform UK is seeking a highly capable Studio Engineer/Technical Producer to take hands-on technical ownership of its new Westminster studio and live-production infrastructure. The role is responsible for making sure the room works reliably, has superb sound and can support ambitious long-form, live, remote and rapid-response output – across both horizontal and vertical formats - every day.

You will own the practical technical quality of cameras, lighting, sound, recording, connectivity, remote contribution, streaming, monitoring and failover. Working closely with the Head of Video and the production team, you will turn editorial requirements into repeatable workflows and diagnose problems calmly when live output or high-profile recordings are under pressure.

What you'll do

• Own day-to-day studio reliability and technical quality
• Take responsibility for the technical readiness of the Westminster studio before every major recording, live programme, interview, address or event.
• Operate and maintain cameras, lenses, lighting, audio, monitoring, recording, teleprompter, remote contributors and related studio systems to a consistently high standard.
• Run pre-flight checks, rehearsals and acceptance processes so issues are found before transmission or recording rather than discovered by the audience.
• Troubleshoot calmly and quickly during live or time-critical output, prioritising safe recovery, continuity and protection of recorded material.

Key Responsibilities

Protect sound, picture and recording standards

Make all aspects of broadcast-quality audio a non-negotiable priority, including microphones, acoustic issues, isolated tracks, mix-minus and backup paths.

Maintain consistent camera matching, exposure, framing, white balance and reliable operation across different set positions.

Create and maintain recallable lighting states for long-form, live, standing, guest and formal-address modes.

Ensure local isolated recording of key cameras and audio remains available even when direction, switching or contribution is handled remotely.

Maintain clean, documented signal paths and monitoring so faults can be identified quickly and footage can be recovered after transmission or network failure.

Own live contribution, connectivity and resilience

Manage primary and backup internet paths, contribution feeds, SRT or equivalent transport, return video, intercom, confidence monitoring and streaming outputs.

Plan and test failover for connectivity, power, recording, audio, remote guests and other critical systems before high-profile live output.

Support remote gallery workflows while ensuring essential local controls and standby output remain available when remote systems fail.

Work with producers on caller/remote-guest setups, mix-minus, latency, playback, captions and other technical and safety/compliance requirements for live formats.

Create safe, repeatable production workflows

Document studio configurations, patching, presets, cable plans, checklists, start-up/shutdown procedures and common fault-recovery steps.

Maintain organised equipment, spares, batteries, storage, cabling and maintenance schedules so the room is ready for fast changeovers.

Support both horizontal and vertical production, ensuring framing guides, clean feeds and recording arrangements protect downstream social edits.

Track recurring faults and recommend practical upgrades, replacements or supplier action based on operational evidence rather than ad hoc preference.

Support producers and maximise studio value

Work collaboratively with producers, editors, presenters and political figures to translate creative requirements into technically safe and efficient setups.

Advise on what the studio can deliver, how long changeovers will take and where production ideas introduce technical or resilience risk.

Help train relevant colleagues – including non-technical staff in the Website and Brand Social teams - in safe day-to-day operation, basic fault reporting and workflows without diluting clear technical ownership.

Performance and Operations:

• Keep firmware, settings, licences, records and maintenance information organised and ensure critical changes are tested before they reach live production.
• Protect access to technical systems, credentials, networks and recordings, following least-privilege and recovery principles appropriate to a political organisation.
• Coordinate external engineers, suppliers or remote production partners when specialist work is required and hold them to clear acceptance standards.
• Report technical risks, recurring failures, capacity constraints and required investment clearly to the Head of Video and relevant operational stakeholders.
• Plan maintenance and upgrades around the editorial calendar so technical work supports rather than unexpectedly disrupts output.
• Understand the confidentiality and scrutiny associated with political production, handling unreleased speeches, recordings, guest information and access appropriately.
• Contribute ideas for making the studio more flexible, faster and easier to operate for non-technical colleagues, and better suited to long-form, live, vertical and national-address workflows.

THE PERSON

We are looking for a hands-on technical operator who is calm under pressure, obsessively reliable and highly competent across modern studio, audio, video and live-production systems.

Essential experience and capabilities

• Substantial practical experience engineering, operating or technically producing professional studio, broadcast, live-streaming or high-end digital video output.
• Strong hands-on competence with professional cameras, lenses, exposure, matching, recording, monitoring and multi-camera studio workflows.
• Excellent audio knowledge, including speech microphones, gain structure, isolated tracks, acoustic problems, mix-minus, monitoring and backup signal paths.
• Strong lighting knowledge, including LED, key/fill/backlight principles, practical fixtures, programmable states and changing daylight/window-control challenges.
• Experience with live contribution and streaming systems, including LiveU, remote guests, return feeds, intercom, resilient connectivity and troubleshooting under pressure.
• Good understanding of local recording, storage, media management, redundancy, failover and recovery for high-profile productions.
• Ability to diagnose faults methodically and remain calm and constructive when a problem occurs during a live or time-critical production.
• Strong organisational habits: documentation, checklists, maintenance, spares, cable management, configuration control and equipment readiness.
• Excellent communication skills with producers, editors, presenters, external engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Comfort working professionally and discreetly inside a political organisation where access, confidentiality, reliability and public scrutiny matter.
• Willingness to work full-time from Reform UK's Westminster HQ and flex around live output, events and urgent production requirements, including evenings and weekends when needed.

Highly desirable

• Experience designing, commissioning or accepting a new studio build or significant technical upgrade.
• Experience with SRT or similar contribution workflows, remote galleries, multi-destination streaming and hybrid local/remote production.
• Experience with teleprompters, green screen, graphics/playback, captions, remote callers or live phone-in workflows.
• Knowledge of broadcast loudness standards, network architecture, power resilience, UPS/failover or related systems engineering.
• Practical shooting, directing or technical-producing experience that helps bridge engineering and editorial requirements.

Why join Reform UK?

This is a rare opportunity to take genuine ownership of a new Westminster production facility and help define how it operates from the outset. The successful candidate will have direct influence over reliability, workflow, standards and the technical platform behind a growing national video operation.