Senior Systems Specialist - Administrative Systems

The way a university plans its curriculum and builds its timetable shapes the day-to-day experience of every student and member of staff, often without them ever noticing. This is an exciting opportunity to join the Information and Digital Group (IDG) as a Senior Systems Specialist at a time of real change, as we introduce Akari as the University's curriculum management system and move our timetabling from Scientia to TimeEdit.

Working within the Teaching & Learning Systems team, you will be the subject matter expert for our curriculum management, timetabling and related administrative systems, across both physical infrastructure and cloud services.

Responsibilities include:

- Resolve escalated ServiceNow and JIRA calls, getting to the root cause of complex technical issues and implementing clean, well-documented fixes.
- Monitor system health and respond to alerts, ensuring our services and data remain secure, stable and highly available.
- Play a key role in medium and large projects, gathering user requirements, undertaking systems analysis and shaping technical solutions.
- Identify opportunities to get more from existing functionality and help build the business case for new developments.
- Recommend and prepare change requests, representing them at the Change Advisory Board.
- Lead on lifecycle, capacity and business continuity planning, helping to inform the University's five-year planning cycle.
- Work closely with internal developers and third-party vendors, and mentor less experienced colleagues in the team.

This is a highly independent role, ideal for someone who enjoys taking ownership and wants to help shape how these systems are delivered for years to come.

About You:

You will be an experienced systems professional with extensive technical expertise in administering the corporate or administrative systems that support teaching and learning, ideally including curriculum management and timetabling. You will understand that no system works in isolation, bringing a sound grasp of how these platforms connect with others such as student records, room booking, attendance monitoring, timetable publishing, etc.

Essential requirements:

- A degree or equivalent experience.
- Experience of taking an active, leading role within a technical team.
- Experience of implementing systems integrations and co-ordinating projects, including end-to-end delivery using Agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban.
- Experience of determining and documenting user requirements in a technical environment.
- Sound knowledge of query support and resolution tools and methods.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to explain technical matters clearly and a genuine commitment to outstanding customer service.
- Strong analytical, diagnostic and problem-solving skills.

Desirable:

Knowledge of platforms such as Akari, TimeEdit, Scientia, CELCAT or Worktribe, or experience of supporting a system implementation or migration, would be a real advantage. Familiarity with REST APIs, JSON and XML, SQL, scripting in Python, PowerShell or JavaScript, or reporting tools such as Power BI would also be valuable, as would an understanding of the academic year cycle in higher or further education. An ITIL 4 Foundation or recognised project management qualification would be welcomed.

About the Department:

The Information and Digital Group (IDG) delivers the digital services and solutions that enable Warwick's students, academics, researchers and staff to reach their full potential. We are committed to a digital-first culture built on continuous improvement and agile ways of working.

The Teaching and Learning Portfolio, part of Portfolio Delivery, looks after the systems that underpin the academic journey, from the virtual learning environment, lecture capture and digital assessment to the curriculum and timetabling platforms at the heart of University planning. As part of the Teaching & Learning Systems team, you will join a group of likeminded colleagues and work closely with the Curriculum Management and Timetabling project teams, faculties and professional services, helping to deliver a major programme of change that will benefit the whole University community.

Benefits:

We will provide you with a great range of benefits, which include an attractive pension scheme, a generous holiday allowance plus Christmas closure, excellent learning and development opportunities, and savings on a wide range of products and services. We offer a generous maternity/paternity/adoption/parental leave policy, and onsite childcare facilities. We recognise the importance of a healthy work/life balance and offer access to flexible working. We are proud to say that we are a Living Wage employer.