Position Details

IT Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £33,002 to £35,608 with potential progression once in post to £39,906

Grade: 6

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to 12 months

Closing date: 7^th September 2026

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

The University of Birmingham is a global institution working within a diverse and vibrant City, offering an inspiring education to our students, and undertaking critically important research. We are a place of open, critical thinking, and the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. Professional Services put students at the heart of all they do and enable an exceptional educational experience. They provide outstanding support to our researchers and help the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally. They ensure the University’s resources are used wisely, manage and improve the infrastructure which sits at the heart of the institution, and support decisions to be made quickly and based on sound evidence. Our Birmingham Professional programme operates across the University, supporting colleagues to network and collaborate, offering opportunities to learn and develop, contributing to the delivery of the University’s objectives, and helping everyone to understand the broader context within which we work.

Department overview

The role of IT Services is to ensure that the University of Birmingham community has access to responsive, resilient, secure and accessible systems and support. Our technologies enable 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.

IT Services are building a culture of innovation, collaboration, openness, and inclusivity, and we apply the principles of customer focus and continuous improvement to everything we do. We want to attract outstanding, inspirational, and talented people, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. Our IT Services division has an active People and Culture network and Women in IT group, bi-annual making IT happen awards recognition programme, and Social Committee which arranges regular activities and events for colleagues.

With a new Digital Strategy, this is an exciting opportunity to join the team making IT happen at the University of Birmingham.

Job Summary
This is a one-year secondment opportunity. The Web and Digital team develops and supports digital products used by students, staff, researchers and external audiences across the university.

We are looking for a full-stack developer with a strong interest in user experience to join our multidisciplinary product teams.

You will develop secure, accessible and maintainable digital applications across the front end and back end. You will work closely with UX/UI designers, product owners, developers and users to turn requirements and design concepts into effective digital products. The role combines software engineering with a strong focus on usability, accessibility and user-centred development. You will contribute to UX activities such as prototyping, usability testing and design reviews while developing your technical skills across the full software development lifecycle.

This is a development role rather than a dedicated UX/UI design role. You will work alongside UX specialists and contribute your technical knowledge to the design process.

Strategic Impact & Context

Today’s students and staff expect seamless, consumer-grade digital experiences. Technology is woven into every aspect of higher education, from mobile accessibility to collaborative cloud environments and efficient administrative workflows.

In this role, your work directly influences the university's digital transformation strategy. By building reliable self-service platforms, automated workflows, and robust core applications, you will help us attract top-tier global talent, drive internal efficiencies, and directly boost our National Student Survey (NSS) satisfaction scores.

Main Duties

Software Development

Develop and maintain secure, responsive web applications using modern technologies.
Write clean, tested and maintainable code across front end and back end.
Debug issues, participate in code reviews and follow team development standards.
Contribute to technical design and maintain key technical documentation under senior guidance.

User Experience

Work closely with UX designers and stakeholders to understand user requirements.
Build accessible and responsive user interfaces.
Apply the University's design system and accessibility standards.
Contribute ideas to improve usability and the overall user experience.
Participate in usability testing and user feedback sessions where appropriate.

Testing and Quality

Write unit tests and support integration and user acceptance testing.
Identify and resolve software defects.
Ensure applications meet performance, security, and accessibility requirements.

Deployment and Support

Use GitHub, Azure DevOps, and CI/CD pipelines to deliver software.
Assist with application deployments.
Support production applications by investigating and resolving issues alongside senior developers.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of development and support processes.

Collaboration

Work within an Agile Scrum team.
Participate in sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives, and reviews.
Collaborate with developers, UX designers, product owners, and business stakeholders.
Share knowledge and contribute to team improvements.

Continuous Learning

Keep up to date with modern development technologies and engineering practices.
Learn new frameworks and tools where appropriate.
Develop knowledge of cloud platforms, accessibility, and secure software development.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, and Experience

Essential Criteria

Knowledge and Experience

Around 2 to 4 years of development experience.
Experience developing web applications using modern programming languages and frameworks including HTML, CSS and JavaScript or TypeScript.
Understanding of databases and APIs.
Experience developing responsive web applications.
Awareness of software testing and quality assurance.
Experience using GitHub or modern source control workflows.
Understanding of Agile development practices.
Awareness of secure coding principles and web accessibility.

Skills and Abilities

Strong problem-solving and debugging skills.
Ability to work effectively with UX designers, developers, product owners and other stakeholders.
Interest in creating intuitive user experiences.
Good communication and interpersonal skills.
Ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities.
Ability to work effectively within a collaborative team.
Ability to learn new technologies and development practices quickly.

Qualifications

Degree in computing, software engineering or a related discipline, software engineering bootcamp, or equivalent practical experience. Practical experience developing software through academic projects, personal projects, internships, placements or open-source contributions.

Desirable Skills

Experience with one or more of the following technologies is desirable. We do not expect candidates to have experience across all of them:

Experience with React or Vue, TypeScript, .NET or another modern development framework.
Experience developing or consuming REST APIs.
Experience with SQL databases.
Experience writing automated unit or integration tests.
Experience using Azure DevOps, GitHub or similar development platforms.
Experience with Figma or another design/prototyping tool.
Understanding of WCAG and accessible web development.
Experience working with design systems or reusable UI components.
Experience participating in usability testing or user research.
Experience deploying applications using cloud platforms or CI/CD pipelines.

What We're Looking For

We are looking for someone who is primarily a developer but thinks about the user when writing software.

You do not need to be an experienced UX designer. You should be interested in how people use digital products and willing to work closely with UX specialists to improve the experience. You should be comfortable asking questions such as:

Is this easy for the user to understand?
Does this interface work for different users and devices?
Is the experience accessible?
Does the technical implementation reflect the intended user journey?
What does the user feedback tell us?

You will receive support and mentoring from experienced developers and UX professionals, giving you the opportunity to build depth in both software engineering and user-centred development.

Working Environment

You will work within a multidisciplinary Web and Digital team alongside developers, UX/UI designers, product owners and other digital specialists.

You will contribute to products used by a large and diverse university community, giving you the opportunity to see how software moves from user needs and design through development, testing, deployment and continuous improvement.

The role provides a strong foundation for a career in full-stack development, front-end engineering, software engineering or product development, with particular strength in user-centred digital delivery.

DBS required

The University is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice, therefore all associated pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory DBS clearance prior to appointment.

Informal enquiries to Fawad Bhatti, email: f.bhatti@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

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.