Senior Innovation Developer - IT services - 105921 - Grade 8

Position Details

IT Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £46,735 to £55,755 with potential progression once in post to £62,728

Grade: 8

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 29th July 2025

 

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

Over the next decade, our aspiration is to establish Birmingham in the top 50 of the world's leading universities. That's a pretty big aspiration, and high-quality digital services and infrastructure are crucial to achieving it. In recognition of that, a brand-new Digital Strategy combined with significant investments in technology mean this is an exciting time to join IT Services, ‘making IT happen’ at the University of Birmingham.

We want to attract outstanding, inspirational, and talented people, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. It's our role to ensure that our community has access to accessible, responsive, resilient, and secure systems and support. What we do enables our students, staff, researchers, visitors and partners to confidently and creatively use digital services, technology and data for the benefit of their learning, teaching, research or work. 

The culture of IT Services is one of innovation, collaboration, excellence, and inclusivity, and we apply the principles of customer focus and continuous improvement to everything we do. We have an active People and Culture network, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Women in IT group, bi-annual making IT happen awards recognition programme, and a superb Social Committee which arranges regular activities and events.

Role Summary

This is a key role that will lead IT innovation initiatives as part of the university’s strategic framework and digital strategy. The role will lead the discovery, development and application of creative technical solutions and ideas that help to advance the University, improve efficiency and user experience. The role will lead the development of a range of proof-of-concept projects using emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and automation, and help to deliver activities to support IT innovation such as technology demonstrations, workshops, forums, and seminars. The role will enable and lead on the creation of a network of contacts with innovators and sources of ideas within, and outside, the University and monitor the external environment, ensuring that the University’s approaches are fit-for-purpose and future looking. 

You will be joining the University of Birmingham at the beginning of a digital transformation through an ambitious new initiative to accelerate innovation and automation across Professional Services. As part of a newly formed Technology Innovation team, you will play a pivotal role in delivering AI, Innovation and automation solutions that enhance efficiency, streamline processes, and improve the staff and student experience. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to a high-impact programme aligned with the University’s refreshed Digital Strategy and People and Culture Strategy. With strong institutional backing this initiative offers a dynamic and forward-thinking environment where your expertise will directly shape the future of service delivery at the University of Birmingham.

The ability to quickly learn and lead others to experiment and adopt new development frameworks, tools and technologies will be vital to the success of this role.

Main Duties

• To identify, evaluate and communicate emerging technologies, products, services, and methods in the context of the University’s goals.
• To lead and conduct prototyping, pilot projects and proofs of concept to show and verify the value of emerging technologies to interested parties within the University. 
• To lead and advise on the adoption of innovations and the realisation of benefits by IT Services/University in general. 
• To lead and develop communities that encourage and support innovation amongst university stakeholders.
• Nurture a network of external contacts within Higher Education and beyond to identify emerging trends helping to inform the University regarding digital education developments. 
• To document the outputs of the team’s work and ideas to support knowledge transfer to other teams in IT services and the wider university. 

Miscellaneous duties:

• Promote equality and values diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture. 
• Support the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Essential:

• Educated to Degree level (or equivalent qualifications) plus significant relevant practical experience.
• Strong programming skills with competence in several languages and tools but not limited to Python, SQL, and JavaScript.
• The ability to quickly learn and be comfortable to lead with innovative technologies.
• Experience of developing innovative products and services using modern cloud platforms as Azure (Microsoft) or AWS (Amazon Web Services).
• Knowledge of emerging educational technologies, with a specific focus on the applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence in higher education. 
• Project management skills sufficient to manage small projects and proofs of concept. 
• Strong influencing and communication skills, including presentation skills, and an open approach to collaboration within and across multidisciplinary teams.
• An open-minded, positive approach to problem solving with a demonstrable bias towards action. 
• Authoritative knowledge of the work practices, processes, and procedures relevant to pedagogic and academic issues and process as applied to technology enhanced learning, including broader sector/commercial awareness related to digital education. 
• Detailed knowledge of how Virtual Learning Environments and other associated systems can be used to support teaching and learning. 

Desirable: 

• Post-graduate qualification in Computer Science or similar. 
• Experience of conducting workshops, training sessions, discussion panels. 
• Knowledge of Systems Engineering, Systems Thinking, Innovation Management or Enterprise Architecture. 
• Knowledge of problem-solving techniques such as lateral thinking, brainstorming, mind mapping etc. 
• Knowledge of the Higher Education sector. 
• Experience of working using agile methodologies such as Kanban or Scrum.

Role context

Roles at this level will require in-depth specialist technical/specialist/IT expertise. Role holders may have supervisory responsibility for a technical service or team, where the primary focus will be on planning, overseeing and reviewing the work of the team and/or will operate as individual technical, specialist or IT experts either supporting service delivery or contributing directly to local project implementation or problem solving through the provision of specialist support activity. 

Core competencies/transferable skills

Working at this level you will be able to develop and successfully demonstrate the core competencies/transferable skills outlined in each of the areas shown below. As appropriate for the level, our Birmingham Professionals will take ownership for getting things done. You will be expected to be flexible as required in supporting your department and wider University. 

Planning and organising 

• be responsible for the provision of a technical service through the day-to-day organisation and technical supervision of a work area
• manage the prioritisation, allocation and quality of work, developing the technical capability in the area
• manage a combination of technical and (where required) non-technical staff
• progress several initiatives concurrently and to plan effectively
• contribute to developments of the service and in policies, procedures and plans in own area
• ensure compliance with all legal, health and safety standards as applicable
• lead, if required, on project work

and/or 

• advise on the development and application of specialist techniques/experiments and/or procedures and the analysis and interpretation of results (may run an advanced specialist service)
• act as a recognised source of technical and/or specialist expertise in own area
• generate original ideas and innovative solutions and/or new techniques/experimental designs.

Problem solving and decision making 

• resolve high level problems with specific techniques/applications, or in the implementation of services and technical support
• provide specialist advice and recommendations to support decision–making of others
• respond to changing priorities and differing situations

Organisational understanding 

• understand their own and closely related working areas and how they contribute to the success of the University
• has an understanding of how the University operates; actively seeks to share this knowledge with others
• developing empathy with the academic endeavour.

Relationships and communication

• develop excellent working relationships with customers, proactively anticipating their requirements in order to understand and deliver them.

 

Informal enquiries to Timothy Packwood, email: t.a.packwood@bham.ac.uk 

View our staff values and behaviours here 

 

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.