Innovation and Technology Solutions (ITS)
Innovation and Technology Solutions, a section of over 100 staff, is organised in six main operational service groups - Infrastructure, Commercial Applications, Software Development, Technology for People and Place, Governance, Architecture and Assurance, and Strategic Projects. The post-holder will be a software developer with key responsibilities for the University's data exchange architecture and the curation of all our data.
Our work is at the heart of the life of our award winning University. Voted the UK's University of the Year (Times Higher Education Awards 2018), we're part of an elite group of dual intensive' universities, gold rated for teaching excellence (Teaching Excellence Framework 2017) and top 25 for research in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019.
With more than 16,000 students and more than 4,000 staff, we also rank 29th in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide. The University's digital estate and its future development will provide the power to deliver the University's ambitious aims outlined in our new Strategic Plan.
Duties of the Role
The post sits in the Enterprise Data team within Innovation and Technology Solutions (ITS).
The post holder will be responsible for developing, maintaining and upgrading the technical solutions that guarantee the timely, robust and accurate exchange of data between the corporate systems in use at the University. This includes both commercial and in-house developed applications. The majority of these data exchanges occur in MS SQL, but there are a growing number of WebAPI interfaces and a desire to move towards an Enterprise Service Bus architecture, which this role will have a responsibility for shaping.
You will have a strong understanding of the importance of data quality and an ability to liaise with data owners to understand data and correct data quality issues. You will ensure that the data held within our systems complies with the University's information management policies and is GDPR compliant. You will also be proficient in documenting data flows to a high standard, and serve as a Nexus of experience for others in the section.
The post is based at the Colchester campus. Travel to the Loughton or Southend campuses may be required.
Skills and qualifications required
The post is on the University's grade 8 but appointment at grade 7 will be considered with support to development to grade 8.
The successful candidate will hold an honours degree or equivalent level qualification/experience. You will have proven programming experience in a modern development environment and experience of business process analysis and integration system design. You will have knowledge and experience of SQL query programming and of working in the .NET framework (preferably .NET core) using C#. With all round ICT skills, a self-motivated practical approach to problem solving and integration systems development, you will have excellent communication skills enabling you to communicate effectively to a wide audience of differing levels of technical understanding.
At the University of Essex, internationalism and diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries, faiths and backgrounds, where you can find the world in one place.
To support this commitment we have our Global Forum, a staff-led network that promotes and celebrates the rich cultural diversity among Essex staff, and our Colchester campus based Faith Centre, which hosts regular services, meetings and events organised by our chaplains and faith representatives. For more information see our website
Closing date for applications: 24 March 2020
Interview date: 07 April 2020
Expected start date: as soon as possible
