JOB DESCRIPTION

Employment status and working hours

Permanent, 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

Chief Operating Officer, Development and Enterprise Systems.

Your line manager will be Caltha Stevenson-Hanns, Enterprise Systems Delivery Manager.

Place of work flexibility

The majority of your working week will be spent at our office in Reading and the rest at your home*. The exact split of days/hours is negotiable but must include a minimum of three working days each week in Horizons on (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). The office closes on Fridays. *Working from home is only possible if your environment is suitable – please see the ‘Working from home’ section on our Careers Site for further information.

Background

The Development and Enterprise Systems team contribute to the University’s technical excellence through the scoping, development, testing, and release of new systems and applications; e:Vision workflows, vistas, dashboards etc as well as a network of enterprise systems are used where appropriate. This supports the University’s services as an online provider of higher education. The team help to ensure that processes are seamless, automated, and make working at the University a modern and efficient experience for all employees.

High level summary of job role

You will be working on a wide variety of Tribal applications used by staff and students, as well as other third-party software applications. You will cover the full development lifecycle from requirements capture to deployment, including testing and release management processes. You will also be involved in ServiceRequest/Incident Ticket resolution.

You will actively participate in the University development process, including attending project review meetings and catch-ups with stakeholders. Liaising with colleagues across the University, you’ll take responsibility for the successful delivery of the projects you work on and produce technical documentation to ensure that all new applications can be managed effectively by fellow developers and analysts.

Specific job role accountabilities and responsibilities

• e:Vision configuration and content development for staff and students (apprentice and non-apprentice), including:
  - Portal administration including set-up, maintenance and administration of the e:Vision portal
  - Task Management
  - Vistas and Data Maintenance facilities
  - SRL – Standard Letter/Report facilities
  - STUTALK
  - IPP processing
  - Batch jobs
  - Flywire
  - Maytas integration

• Develop and maintain a full technical and functional appreciation of the University’s SITS:Vision system, integrations and other enterprise systems.

• Act as a technical and process expert for e:Vision and enterprise systems.

• Develop and maintain relationships with system users at all levels, acting as a key interface point within the team.

• Create technical documentation to support all development undertaken, working closely with the Business Analyst to ensure that all developments are thoroughly tested and signed off.

• Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of appropriate systems and technologies, participating in Tribal and sector interest groups and forums.

• Ensure ongoing data validation and compliance with Data Protection/GDPR.

• Ensure change management for system changes is implemented in accordance with agreed procedures.

• Work with external consultants on the implementation of new features or the fixing of issues.

• Increase the level of efficiency and automation of key functional areas.

• Support and develop knowledge of other University Student Record Systems and data management tools which may include software such as PICS, PowerBI, dotmailer, and Agresso.

• Support the Enterprise Systems Delivery Manager in delivering University objectives, undertaking any other duties that fall within the scope of the role.

• Participate in the evaluation of different solutions, recommending solutions appropriate to functional, time, technological and/or financial constraints.

• Create the technical design in preparation for the construction of/modification to enterprise platforms.

• Resolve relevant help calls raised to you by the appropriate channels. This needs to be within scope of the team’s SLAs and includes providing feedback to the Business Owners.

• Undertake any other related duties commensurate with the scope and level of the role.

• Some out of hours may be required on occasion to support upgrades/changes.

Other important features of the job role

Line management responsibilities: None.

Budget responsibility: None.

In this role you will liaise with the following: All staff groups including employees and Associate Lecturers, students, 3rd party suppliers, and contractors.

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 safer recruitment and 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 unless specified otherwise), and three years employment history. This is all part of our commitment to safeguarding our students. Keeping our students safe is a responsibility shared by everyone within the University.

Qualifications and training

Degree level qualification (E, A).

Relevant IT qualifications (D, A).

Agile or Prince2 qualifications (D, A).

Previous experience

In a similar role including experience and skills with:
- Tribal product development, particularly e:Vision and STUTALK
- Enterprise systems that support the student lifecycle or the operation of a higher education institution
- Microsoft SQL Server and Transact-SQL
- JavaScript, jQuery, CSS, HTML, XML (E, A, I).

Requirements gathering with a range of stakeholders (E, A, I).

Full software development lifecycle management and execution (E, A, I).

Developing technical documentation (E, A, I).

Using PowerBI and setting up data integrations with SQL and other databases (D, A, I).

Working with relational databases using SQL/TSQL (D, A, I).

Developing applications which utilise Microsoft Azure or authentication (D, A, I).

Working on process review and managing change (D, A, I).

Software testing experience (D, A, I).

Behaviours and attitudes

Alignment to the University’s core values and growth mindset approach, which reflect our culture. Refer to the specific behaviours within the Competency Framework (E, I) – summarised within the careers site.

Skills, knowledge, other requirements

Software Development Lifecycle knowledge (E, A, I).

Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex concepts to diverse audiences (E, A, I).

Analytical mindset with strong problem-solving skills (E, A, I).

Organisation skills (E, A, I).

Commitment to innovation, modern engineering practice, and continuous improvement (E, A, I).

Self-motivated with the ability to work flexibility and adapt readily to changing circumstances. Able to prioritise workload (E, I).

Passionate about learning and sharing new skills (E, I).

Documentation skills and the ability to deliver system documentation in a clear, concise format (E, A, I).

Knowledge and understanding of the administrative and business processes related to the student journey within the higher education sector (D, A, I).

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

Commitment to delivering positive outcomes for our students regardless of your area of work within the University; we want our students to be successful (E, I).

You must be prepared to undertake mandatory online training should you be appointed. The University is regulated by the Office for Students and Ofsted, and we have specific requirements and expectations around safeguarding, Prevent, and anti-harassment and bullying. This is all part of our Competency Framework requirements (E, I).

PAY AND BENEFITS

Salary: Salary range £40,000 to £50,000 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 range of lifestyle discounts and everyday savings.

• We offer learning platforms including LinkedIn learning.

APPLICATIONS - THINGS TO CONSIDER

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Caltha Stevenson-Hanns on 0118 921 4600 or email c.stevenson-hanns@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 Monday 05 October 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

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.