JOB DESCRIPTION

Employment status and working hours

Fixed term for up to seven months, full time.

Full time hours at the University are 35 per week with the standard working pattern Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00.

Organisation structure

Education and Students, Digital Learning and Media Services Team. 

Your line manager will be Sandra Scalzavara, Digital Learning Manager.

Place of work flexibility

You will normally spend your total working time at home*, which must be within the UK. You may, on occasions, be expected to attend the Horizons, Reading office to attend meetings or training events. *Working from home is only possible if your environment is suitable.

High level summary of job role

The Digital Learning and Media Services Team performs a critical function within the University of the Built Environment, leading the design and development of high-quality digital teaching, learning and assessment resources for our students. You will be essential in the development of our online modules, working collaboratively with academics and subject experts to create interactive materials and co-designed activities to support our students via technology-enhanced learning.

As a Lead Learning Designer, you will make an active contribution towards the student learning journey, supporting the development of our pedagogical approaches, learning design models, and methodologies that underpin our educational provision. Where appropriate, you will also support our institutional evaluation and research of online learning, as well as other digital projects to further the University’s strategic vision to be the Centre of Excellence for Built Environment Education.

Specific job role accountabilities and responsibilities

• Manage curriculum and/or module development workstreams, including all aspects of the design and development process. Co-ordinate the work and deliverables of other learning designers, academics, and subject experts and commission the production of media assets.

• Ensure that teaching, learning, and assessment resources, developed as part of the curricula and/or modules, are designed and developed to reflect the University’s educational framework and implement the defined quality standards.

• Provide hands-on expertise at a senior level in the design, development, and delivery of all aspects of online learning, teaching, and assessment. Your expertise may focus on any of the following:

- Active learning design
- Assessment and feedback
- Online pedagogies and approaches
- Online presence
- Learning technologies and web development
- Project management
- Digital resource design and production

• Coach and mentor team members to enhance their online educational skills.

• Work collaboratively with colleagues across relevant teams to regularly review and update the University’s module design guidelines, quality standards, module development toolkit, and Learning Design Centre.

• Influence and contribute to research and evaluation relating to online education, and keep abreast of current trends and technologies in online pedagogy.

• Contribute towards the piloting and review of technologies to support effective and innovative teaching and assessment practice.

• Play an active role in the design and delivery of module design workshops and staff development programmes, including preparing and delivering high-quality oral presentations, workshops, and written communications for both academic and non-academic audiences.

• Develop the team’s profile in the wider digital education sector including special interest groups and conferences.

Other important features of the job role

Line management responsibilities: None.

Budget responsibility: None.

In this role, you will liaise with the following: Lead Learning Designers, Learning Designers, Media Producers, Quality Control, Academic team, Learning Technologists, Student Services, Academic Operations, Head of Library Services, Director of Digital Learning and Engagement, Head of Digital Learning and Media Services, researchers and other internal stakeholders.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

E = Essential person requirement; D = Desirable person requirement

How the person requirement will be assessed:

A = Application; I = Interview; T = Test or other assessment

Please be aware that as part of onboarding processes, we will seek original documentary evidence of the relevant academic and/or professional qualifications which you include within your job application. This is all part of our comprehensive pre-employment screening which also includes checking your identity, right to work, criminal record history (basic disclosure), and three years employment history.

Qualifications and training

A degree-level qualification or equivalent experience (E, A).

A postgraduate qualification in a relevant discipline or a qualification/accreditation in teaching or learning technologies, e.g. PGCert in teaching and learning, HEA fellow, CMALT (D, A).

Previous experience

A proven track record of effective project management including planning and allocating work, leading meetings, prioritising tasks, and reporting progress (E, A, I).

Designing active learning, either fully online or blended (E, A, I).

Implementing curriculum in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and using other educational technologies to build learning activities and support teaching and assessment (E, A, I).

A track record of providing advice on how to utilise technology to provide high-quality student experience (E, A, I).

Designing research tools to evaluate the student experience, such as student focus groups and questionnaires (D, A, I).

Experience that has led to publication and/or presentation outputs in the sector (D, A).

Skills, knowledge, and aptitudes

Knowledge and application of current digital education theories and approaches, for teaching, learning, and assessment design (E, A, I, T).

Ability to communicate advances in the implementation of learning theories and learning design in an online and/or blended education setting (E, A, I).

Project management skills; ability to manage competing priorities in a highly pressurised environment with minimum supervision in a calm manner (E, A, I).

Ability to evaluate the student digital learning experience (E, A, I).

An understanding of online systems such as VLEs, LMS, e-Portfolios, online assessment tools, and Articulate 360 (E, A, I).

Strong communication and relationship-building skills; the ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and convey complex issues to others, particularly in the use of learning technology to develop and deliver online learning (E, I).

Problem-solving skills with the ability to analyse issues and offer proactive, informed solutions (E, I).

Digital skills confidence: We use MS Office, which includes Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and several other systems/technologies (E, I).

Ability to use learning analytics and log data in the evaluation of educational interventions (E, A, I).

A working knowledge of HTML5 (E) and CSS (D, A, I).

Ability to advise academic teams and contribute to defining requirements for new or replacement learning technologies from a student perspective (D, A, I).

Knowledge of the ABC learning design process (D, A, I).

Other requirements or special requirements

Alignment to the University’s core values of Passion, Integrity, Excellence and Support; all employees are expected to demonstrate our values at work (E, I).

Commitment to delivering positive outcomes for our students; we want our students to be successful (E, I).

You must be prepared to undertake mandatory online training should you be appointed including Data Protection, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, Prevent, and EDI (E, I).

PAY AND BENEFITS

Salary: Salary up to £41,413 per annum.

Holiday: 26 days paid holiday (rising to 28 with service) plus paid bank/public holidays plus up to five paid closure days (typically between Christmas and New Year); all per holiday year Full Time Equivalent. Our holiday year runs from 1 August to 31 July. We also have a holiday buy and sell scheme in place. Sometimes the University does not need to close for five days per year and any balance (for example one day), can be used as a paid Wellbeing Day to take time out for your own physical or mental health.

Pension and life assurance: Pensions auto-enrolment to the People’s Pension which is a default salary sacrifice scheme. You may opt out of salary sacrifice but remain in the scheme, or you may choose to opt out altogether. We provide life assurance (death in service) cover as standard to all employees.

Family-friendly policies: Policies in place for all types of family-friendly statutory leave with enhanced pay available from day one of employment for some leave types. Access to Tax-Free Childcare (Government scheme).

Wellbeing: Full access to the Employee Assistance Programme as well as the Thrive Mental Wellbeing app. Several employees are trained Mental Health First Aiders and can support staff. We have a wellbeing policy and we focus on five pillars of wellbeing.

Sustainable travel: Cycle to Work and Electric Vehicle salary sacrifice schemes.

Parking: We have locked sheds for bicycles. For cars, for Horizons based roles, we may in the future be able to offer parking on site however you must not assume this will be possible. Every now and then we may have a spare parking space become available and you can ask to join the waiting list. The University is keen wherever possible, to encourage staff to commute as sustainably as possible.

Other health related benefits: Employer-funded Health Cash Plan (Simplyhealth) and voluntary dental insurance (Unum).

Other valuable benefits:

• Charity giving options available including one voluntary paid day, per annum.

• You will have access to Microsoft Office 365 applications for personal use.

• You will have access to range of lifestyle discounts and everyday savings.

• We offer learning platforms including LinkedIn learning.

On the Join the team page of our website, you will find the full list of employee benefits.

APPLICATIONS - THINGS TO CONSIDER

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Sandra Scalzavara on 0118 921 4681 or email S.Scalzavara@ube.ac.uk. For any other enquiries please contact HR on 0118 467 2454 / 2433 or email recruitment@ube.ac.uk

Did one of our employees recommend you? If you apply on the recommendation of an existing employee, please make sure to mention their name within your application.

We're passionate about sustainability and we have a five-year strategic plan: We expect job seekers to be curious about who we are and what we do. We point you towards a couple of resources about who we are and sustainability.

Closing date and next steps

We will receive applications until the advert closes on Thursday 12 February 2026 at 17:00. We will not consider late applications. Our ATS does not screen applications, we humans do. Applications may be reviewed prior to the closing date and occasionally, you may be invited to interview ahead of the closing date.

Interview details

Initial interviews are scheduled from 16 February 2026 and dates for interview will be advised to you later in the process. We'll ask you to tell us about any dates you cannot make, up to 4 weeks from the closing date; this helps us to plan interviews should you be shortlisted, prior to contacting you.

Interviews are normally carried out over Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Depending on the job role and place of work, your interview may be at our Reading or London office. Please be prepared for a two-stage interview process, held on different dates. As part of the interview process, you will likely meet a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

Note for internal candidates

If you are an existing employee, we request you inform your current line manager of your intention to apply for this role.

As this is a fixed term role, if you were (in the future) to be offered and accept this role, it would mean relinquishing your contractual permanent employment status with the University. Following the expiry of the fixed term period, your employment with the University would cease, unless an alternative role is secured. If instead you would like to apply for this role on the basis of it being a secondment (i.e. not relinquishing your permanent status), please discuss this with your current line manager. Only your line manager can consider and agree to a secondment because this impacts the resourcing in your current team. Please contact HR if you or your line manager need to discuss this further.