Job Description

Position Details

School of Computer Science

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £58,225 to £67,468 with potential progression once in post to £87,974

Grade: 9

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 31st August 2026

One post is available as either a a Assistant Professor (Research and Education) in Computer Science - 107618 - Grade 8 or a Associate Professor (Research and Education) in Computer Science -107617 - Grade 9. Applicants from both vacancies can be considered for either role, and do not need to submit a second application.

The School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham is recruiting academic staff to fulfil its ambitions as a leading UK university for computer science. We seek to recruit in all areas of computer science, with an emphasis for candidates with research activity in or related to Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence. Other research themes of interest in Birmingham include Cyber-Physical Systems, Theory of Computation, Human-Computer Interaction and Distributed Systems. In your application, please make clear which research theme best describes your research.
Computer Science in Birmingham research is ranked 3rd in research for all UK universities according to the latest UK-wide  Research Excellence Framework. Education is also ranked among the top in the UK for computer science, according to 2025 tables (6th in the 2026 Complete University Guide). The University is ranked 68th in the QS world ranking.
You will contribute to a range of research, teaching and administration. In addition you will be expected to demonstrate academic citizenship, developing and maintaining generous, mutually respectful and supportive working relationships with all staff and students, and ensuring the way you carry out your role impacts positively on how others can carry out theirs.

Teaching includes contributions to: (a) the management, development (including programme/module review) and delivery of teaching and assessment; and (b) enhancement of the student experience or employability. The role will typically involve developing and advising others, including: (a) providing expert advice to staff and students, (b) supervising and examining PhD students, and (c) developing and advising others on learning and teaching tasks and methods.

Research involves initiating, conducting and disseminating original research. Your research will have measurable outcomes reflected in your growing national (and ideally international) reputation. Members of the School are also active in industrial collaborations based on their research, run professional education or consulting activities and lead start-ups. You are strongly encouraged to pursue such opportunities.

Management and administration involves contributions at Departmental and School level, and/or making an important contribution to managerial/leadership activities (e.g. working groups) within the University or your academic community. This may include developing and making substantial contributions to knowledge transfer, enterprise, business engagement, public engagement, widening participation, schools outreach, or similar activities at Department/School level or further within the University.

Main Duties

Education

You will contribute across the range of teaching and learning activities:

• making a significant contribution to the pedagogical knowledge base of the subject that advances teaching through the enhancement of practice, the development of teaching resources and/or through practice-based research;
• leading on the management and the development of approaches to teaching and learning, including designing innovative approaches to digital resources/environments and supporting colleagues to use them that are innovative to the subject area or institution;
• leading on curriculum design at module and programme level to ensure it is contemporary, inclusive, engaging and academically challenging;
• actively engaging students in curriculum design and sharing evidence of “what works”;
• making an impactful, high quality contribution to debates about education policy, methods and practices through internal and external publications, subject societies and conference activity;
• developing an external profile evidenced through engaging in external quality assurance activities related to teaching, eg. external examining and engaging with/supporting education in other institutions;
• playing an important and sustained role in the recruitment and admission of students;
• co-supervising doctoral students to completion;
• leading the development of teaching, learning and assessment policies and strategies;
• acting as an education mentor to colleagues in the School/Department/College or more widely;
• leading the development of new and appropriate approaches to learning and teaching. This may be underpinned by research and evaluation of teaching methods and systems
• leading sustained high value impact in knowledge transfer and enterprise (including business engagement, public engagement) that enhances the student experience and/or or employability, and is of manifest benefit to learning and teaching in the College and the University
• undertaking own teaching, which will include teaching and examining courses at a range of levels, planning and reviewing own teaching approaches, developing programme proposals, supervision, marking and examining. You will ensure that your teaching practice is informed by discipline based research, through participating in the research culture of the School.

Research

To pursue sustained research activity through original research and scholarship, including other research-related contributions through conference papers and presentations and/or consultancy projects and advice, including (as appropriate):

• contributing to the management of research activities and/or supervising other research staff;
• leading successful funding bids;
• consistently publishing internationally excellent research, with some research regarded as world leading, that results in a sustained, highly respected reputation of international quality;
• supervising and examining PhD students, both within the institution and externally;
• providing expert advice internally and externally;
• peer reviewing articles for peer reviewed academic journals and grant applications by research councils and/or other major funding bodies;
• leading sustained impact activity including public engagement and makes a significant contribution to policy development at a national and international level;.
• supervising and examine PhD students, both within the institution and externally;
• as appropriate, managing research activities and/or supervising other research staff;
• developing novel methodologies and techniques appropriate to the type of research being pursued.

Management/administration

Lead activities in the Department/ School and represent the School on College/ University committees or working groups. Where appropriate to the discipline, this is likely to include some but not all of the responsibilities listed below:

• making an important contribution to the development and running of the Department or School, for example, leading activity on research and/or teaching assessment
• leading a successful international engagement at School or College level;
• developing and managing staff and resources in support of major research and/or teaching activities
• making important contributions to the development of the Department’s research and/or learning and teaching strategy
• contributing significantly to the development and delivery of knowledge transfer, enterprise, business engagement and public engagement activities with sustained high value impact of manifest benefit to the College and the University;
• actively seeks to develop a fair and equitable workplace. that aligns with the Equality Act 2010 and the University EDI strategy objectives
• leading, serving on and assisting the work of committees and task and finish groups beyond School/ Research Institute, e.g., Senate, Council, University Education or Research Committee etc.;
• leading external committees, e.g., those associated with public/professional bodies or delivery of activities for an external body at an appropriate level, e.g., chairing sub committees associated with large elements of work;
• leading/project managing a team to devise and implement a new and/or revised process (e.g. a new research initiative, or a recruitment drive);
• making a sustained contribution to widening participation, schools outreach and/or public understanding of the discipline;.
• contributing to administrative activities within the University (e.g. appeals panels, working groups).
• other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity duties document.

Citizenship

• identifying wellbeing issues within the School/College/University and developing appropriate solutions to address these;
• taking collective ownership of challenges faced by the School or College and working with colleagues to develop solutions;
• mentoring and coaching of colleagues, particularly those in the early stages of their career.

Person Specification

• A PhD relevant to the research/teaching area or equivalent PhD-level qualifications

Demonstrated excellence in at least Research, with competence in Learning and Teaching and Management and Administration.

Learning and teaching requirements

An excellent teaching profile and performance in terms of both impact and quality. The teaching quality demonstrated to be informed by an appropriate level of scholarship.

Where appropriate, evidence of success under the following headings:

• High national reputation for the development of teaching and learning excellence within the discipline
• Successful and sustained use of a range of appropriate teaching methods, and assessment strategies that promote high quality learning, including learning that is flexible, distinctive and current and stimulates learners’ natural curiosity
• Significant and sustained contribution to one or more of the following: strategic development of new programmes; approaches to learning; the development of learning resources
• High quality and sustained contributions to fostering excellence in teaching activities moretuib widely, i.e. in the Department/School or College and/or externally
• Track record of substantial and sustained high value impact on the enhancement of the student experience, and/or employability
• Mentoring and expert advice which develops the skills of colleagues in teaching and in fostering learning

Research requirements

An excellent national reputation and a developing international profile through significant original research work and a clear record of impact. Evidence of success under the following headings, as appropriate to the discipline:

• High level peer esteem as evidenced by
  • Excellent reputation in the UK and often internationally, reflected in sustained high quality output, level of innovation, impact on subject and recognition
  • An excellent and sustained record of peer reviewed research publications
• Successful and sustained supervision of doctoral students to completion
• Substantial and sustained research income generation, e.g. through research grants, contracts, research consultancy or other external funding
• Sustained high value impact knowledge transfer and enterprise that is of manifest benefit to the College and University

Management and administration-related requirements

Demonstrated significant achievement in management and administration-related activities, which may include leadership of activities/initiatives. Evidence of success under the following headings

• Successful and sustained performance in significant administrative/managerial role (s) (e.g. exams officer)
• Significant and sustained high quality innovative contributions to the management/administration of the Department/School/College or University
• Successful and sustained contribution to the corporate life of the School/College/University, displaying willingness to contribute actively to committees, collaborative teaching and administrative tasks.
• Effectively communicates the University EDI Strategy and relevant policies and procedures.
• Able to use and analyse equality data and take appropriate actions in line with the University EDI strategy.
• Experience of developing interventions to address equality and diversity issues in line with University Policies and Procedures.
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity knowledge, skills and experience document

Candidates are required to upload the following:

• CV, which includes list of publications as well as URLs for 4 selected top publications in the last 5 years. Please highlight these 4 publications clearly.

They are also recommended to upload below documents to support their applications:

• Covering letter, which can be filled in the application, so the document upload is optional
• Research Statement
• Teaching Statement

We follow a two-stage appointment process:

• October 2026, longlisted candidates will be invited to give an online, 20-minute, research presentation, based on which shortlisting takes place.
• November 2026, shortlisted candidates will then be invited to visit the University of Birmingham, meet with staff members and students (if possible), and conduct a panel interview.

Visit the School of Computer Science’s LinkedIn page at www.linkedin.com/company/uobcompsci/ and our web site to learn more about the research groups, at https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/research-in-computer-science

Informal enquiries to Professor Aad van Moorsel, email: a.vanmoorsel@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