Student Solutions Design Manager

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About Us

This is an exciting role offering opportunity for the successful candidate to work in Student Solutions within IT Solutions.

Our Student Solutions team provides comprehensive technical student solutions, including solution analysis, architecture, design, and development, for a wide range of student applications-from applicant management through to supporting students during their academic journey at our university.

Our mission is to implement solutions that not only meet our business needs to support the delivery of the university 2029 vision and Education strategy but also adhere to our architectural principles and standards, ultimately transforming both administrative and learning experiences.

We lead the technical development roadmap for student service products, working collaboratively with academics, professional services staff across all departments, and external partners. Our goal is to design, develop, and deliver a wide range of innovative student solutions. As a forward-thinking team, we have ambitious growth targets in this crucial area of development. We are committed to fostering a supportive culture and community that prioritizes both individual and collective wellbeing.

The role will report to the Head of Student Solutions.

This post will be offered on an indefinite basis.

About The Role

The overall purpose of this role is to provide expertise in design, develop, and deliver IT solutions that support the university's Student Solutions in alignment with the University 2029 Vision and Education strategy. The role has a high level of independent responsibility and discretion

The work includes developing and shaping technical architecture vision for all the products across Student ART and implementing Student Solutions for the area and contributing to longer-term planning within the context of the University's broader functions and strategic aims.

This role focuses on ensuring that the solutions developed and implemented for the university's Student Solutions are effective, meet business requirements, and adhere to architectural standards. They will be expected to set quality and professional standards.

The role is responsible for creating end-to-end IT solutions, including infrastructure, hardware, and software components, integration with other enterprise systems and for ensuring that each product fits within the broader IT service architecture. Collaboration with Student Product Owners, Solutions Designers, and various IT teams is essential to successfully deliver these solutions.

The role will manage a dynamic of solution designers, working alongside other Solution Design Managers to ensure that each assigned product within the Education & Students domain meets business needs, adheres to agreed standards, and fits within architectural requirements. The role will focus on developing the technical vision for solutions, encompassing infrastructure, hardware, and software, integration with other enterprise system to build effective and efficient systems. This role requires deep domain knowledge in Education & Students, expertise in solution architecture, and collaboration with various teams within the IT Directorate to ensure successful implementation and integration of solutions.

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Education to degree standard and/or equivalent qualification and experience orsubstantial experience and proven success in a strategically important broad function/specialist area.
2. Good knowledge or working experience of providing designing/developing/supporting one or more applications/systems within Student domain (e.g. SITS, Timetabling (Teaching/Exam), Library Management systems, Admission Portal, InPlace, Kaizen, etc)
3. In-depth expertise of SITS technologies including eVision task development, SRL, StuTalk and Web Services
4. Proactively advocate for the adoption of new technologies and improvements to existing systems that add value to the business
5. Extensive, demonstrable experience in the integration aspects of solution architecture using a variety of protocols and transport mechanisms
6. Evaluate and provide strategic insights into the student solutions domain, influencing the development of service product strategies that align with the college's long-term objectives
7. Develop and maintain a comprehensive technical architecture for the digital student platforms and solutions, aligning with the vision and goals
8. Design scalable and flexible systems that can cater to the needs of each product vision and accommodate future growth and technology advancements.

Desirable criteria

1. Architecture, Project Management and Service Management qualifications/experience (e.g. TOGAF, SAFe architecture, ITIL 4 )
2. Appreciation of key issues within the HE sector (political, social, economic) and appreciation of how these forces drive technology requirements and solutions
3. Knowledge and experience of Cloud technologies (AWS and Azure) and Integration and API understanding

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click "Apply Now". This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ' How we Recruit ' pages.