Job Description
Position Details
IT ServicesLocation: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UKFull time starting salary is normally in the range £33,002 to £35,608 with potential progression once in post to £39,906Grade: 6Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to May 2027Closing date: 1st April 2026There are 2 positions available
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.
Over the next decade, our aspiration is to establish Birmingham in the top 50 of the world’s leading universities. That’s a 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, IT Services recognition programme, and a superb Social Committee which arranges regular activities and events.
Role Summary
The QA Analyst will be responsible for quality across IT Services ensuring that all application releases meet agreed standards of quality and fitness for purpose; through engagement with key suppliers, other ITS teams, project personnel, application release teams and anyone involved in testing throughout the University. Their responsibilities will cut across all parts of IT Services to ensure the adoption of a consistent level of professional approach to quality management as it applies to service releases within a context of continuous improvement and value for money.
They will be responsible for the design, execution and results analysis of the full range of testing processes required for all projects. This is likely to include functional, systems, integration, regression, load, stress, user acceptance testing and defect management. This work will run through all phases of projects, including design, build, acceptance and release.
Business process testing
- Specifies and develops test scenarios to test that new/updated processes deliver improved ways of working for the end user at the same time as delivering efficiencies and planned business benefits.
- Records and analyses test results and reports any unexpected or unsatisfactory outcomes.
- Uses test plans and outcomes to specify user instructions.
Testing
- Accepts responsibility for the creation of test cases using own in‑depth technical analysis of both functional and non‑functional specifications such as reliability, efficiency, usability, maintainability and portability.
- Creates traceability records, from test cases back to requirements.
- Produces test scripts, materials and regression test packs to test new and amended software or services.
- Specifies requirements for environment, data, resources, and tools.
- Interprets, executes, and documents complex test scripts using agreed methods and standards.
- Records and analyses actions and results and maintains a defect register.
- Reviews test results and modifies tests if necessary.
- Provides reports on progress, anomalies, risks, and issues associated with the overall project.
- Reports on system quality and collects metrics on test cases.
- Provides specialist advice to support others.
Quality management
- Assists projects, functions or teams in planning the quality management for their area of responsibility.
- Assists in the development of new or improved practices and organisational processes or standards.
- Facilitates localised improvements to the quality system or services.
Quality assurance
- Contributes to the collection of evidence and the conduct of formal audits or reviews of activities, processes, data, products, or services.
- Examines records for evidence that appropriate testing and other quality control activities have taken place and determines compliance with organisational directives, standards, and procedures.
- Identifies non‑compliances, non‑conformances, and abnormal occurrences.
Supplier management and sourcing
- Assists in preparation of pre‑qualification questionnaires and tender invitations in response to business cases.
- Assembles relevant information for tenders.
- Produces detailed evaluation criteria for simple tender criteria.
- Assists in evaluation of tenders.
Specialist advice
- Actively maintains knowledge in one or more identifiable specialisms.
- Provides detailed and specific advice regarding the application of their specialism(s) to the organisation’s planning and operations.
- Recognises and identifies the boundaries of their own specialist knowledge.
- Collaborates with other specialists, where appropriate, to ensure advice given is appropriate to the needs of the organisation.
The post holder will provide advice on the following
- Functional testing
- Systems testing
- Integration testing
- Regression testing
- Load testing
- Stress testing
- User acceptance testing
- Defect management
- Testing and Defect Management Tools
- Test automation Tools
- Contributes to developments in policies, procedures and plans
- Promotes equality and values diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture
- Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working
- Any other duties commensurate with the grade.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
- Educated to Degree level (or equivalent qualifications) or relevant technical qualification and relevant experience – where no equivalent qualification is held, extensive proven practical and technical experience in a similar role will be required.
- Extensive proven practical experience in a relevant scientific, technical or IT specialism with a conceptual understanding of the quality assurance area.
- Up‑to‑date specialist understanding of quality assurance approaches, processes and tools and their benefit to all areas of the University.
- Knows how to apply knowledge, to identify complex problems and recommend solutions.
- Ability to develop testing approaches to meet the needs of the University and an understanding of quality assurance procedures, practices and tools.
- Must be able to effectively communicate with user/customer/technical areas to understand their requirements and then deliver them.
- The ability to understand and anticipate customer requirements and ensure testing strategies meet their needs.
- Must be able to evaluate quality assurance problems continually monitoring effectiveness and recommending improvements.
- Must be able to plan and co‑ordinate resolution of problems, implement services and provide support.
- Will advise staff and students on the application of quality assurance approaches, assisting them in the interpretation of their requirements.
- Must be able to respond to changing priorities and differing situations.
- Ability to progress several initiatives concurrently and to plan effectively over short and long time‑scales.
- Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly, and to analyse information and data.
- Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.
Informal enquiries to Stephen Moran, email: s.r.moran@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.
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