Service Desk Technician in Birmingham

Department Information Technology Operations Location Joseph Priestley Building Salary £28,995 to £32,006per annum Permanent. In addition, for this role, there is a 5% shift allowance. Post Type Full Time Release Date 21 September 2026 Closing Date 23.59 hours BST on Friday 02 October 2026 Reference I126011

Please note: this opportunity is only available to current employees of the University

At Birmingham City University, we are a diverse and inclusive learning community of over 31,400 students from more than 120 countries. We aim to become an exemplar anchor institution, creating and sharing knowledge for a better and more inclusive society. We are committed to providing a transformational educational experience, supporting world-class research, and fostering a collaborative and supportive working environment for our staff.

Recognised as one of the UK’s Top 250 employers (Financial Times & Statista), we pride ourselves on being a place where colleagues feel valued, supported, and able to grow their careers while contributing to the success of our students and communities.

Our student demographic reflects the rich cultural and ethnic diversity of Birmingham itself, with a significant proportion of students from minoritised ethnic backgrounds and the majority of our home students coming from the West Midlands. This diversity is a strength, and it calls for a workforce that is equipped to challenge deficit narratives and thinking — those assumptions that position students from underrepresented groups as lacking rather than recognising their assets, strengths and potential.

By embracing this perspective, we aim to create an environment where all students and colleagues can thrive, and where our work contributes positively to the social, cultural and economic life of Birmingham and beyond.

Role Summary

We are seeking a Service Desk Technician to join our IT Customer Services teamworking to support students and staff. This role will join an established team and play a major part in supporting customers on our central Service Desk, largely on the telephone and through live online chat. This will suit candidates with a background in IT customer service and first line support, looking to advance their career in an exciting environment.

Working over the phone and through live chat services with students, staff and other users of IT services, you will be first point of contact for day-to-day IT support, providing excellent customer service and effective creation and management of incidents and service requests which arise. You will be using diagnostic and customer service skills to understand the issue, to capture it accurately in a ticket and to resolve at first point of contact if at all possible. For more complex or longer-term issues, you will work in partnership with our wider technical teams, to elevate tickets to them, ensuring that they have the most complete and accurate information available in order to effectively resolve.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide a high-quality customer service experience through the central Service Desk by telephone, email or any other designated support channel.
• Capture and accurately record incidents and service requests as they are raised by customers, using clear language and customer empathy.
• Deliver standard first line fixes for issues around account management, standard software installation and initial diagnostics, as well as any other documented fixes made available by the Service Desk Manager.
• Where applicable, follow up with customers and manage calls within the ITSM system to ensure that incidents and service requests do not breach service level agreements.
• Act as a point of escalation for IT Graduate Technicians in more complex calls, ensuring that ongoing support for students and staff follow procedures where applicable, and that calls are routed appropriately.
• Provide a first point of communication around Major Incidents or ongoing IT issues and planned changes. Ensure messaging to customers is consistent with agreed plans.
• Gather intelligence around ongoing or potentially related issues affecting customers to share with the wider department, noting trends, symptoms and impact of issues. Share these via the Service Desk Supervisor to ensure that related issues are treated as IT Problems.
• Act as first line of defence against cyber security issues, identifying incidents which may pertain to security vulnerabilities or potential attacks, and alerting Service Desk Supervisor as appropriate
• Carry out pre-flight checks across online systems ahead of IT Help phonelines opening, noting planned changes for the day, and alerting Service Desk Supervisor if unexpected issues are detected.
• Provide a first line for customer complaints and feedback, ensuring that it is captured accurately, and that issues are resolved where possible, or escalated with the customer’s knowledge.
• Educated to A level or equivalent standard
• Holds or is working towards a professional qualification such as ITIL ® Foundation in IT Service Management
• Familiar with IT Service Management principles as defined by ITIL and standard IT hardware and software environment, particularly operating system such as Windows and MacOS.
• The use of everyday desktop software for example: Microsoft Office

Further Information

If you are excited by the opportunity to help shape the future of our IT Customer Services team, we would love to hear from you.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Matt Chaney at matt.chaney@bcu.ac.uk.

• Work–life balance – Generous leave and hybrid working (role dependent).
• Career development – Opportunities to grow, develop and progress your career.
• Reward and wellbeing – Competitive pay, pension, wellbeing support and staff benefits.
• Inclusive culture – A supportive, diverse environment where everyone belongs.

This role does not meet the minimum salary requirements for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. We are therefore unable to consider applicants who require sponsorship to work in the UK.

At BCU, we welcome applications that clearly demonstrate how your skills and experience meet the requirements of the role. AI tools may be used to support you in preparing your application, but the information you provide must be accurate, authentic and based on your own experience. Applications that rely too heavily on AI, appear generic or do not provide specific evidence against the role criteria are less likely to progress to the next stage of the recruitment process. For more information, please refer to our candidate guidance

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and to an environment that supports lawful free speech and academic freedom. We will continuously review and improve our policies, practices, and procedures to ensure that we are promoting these in all aspects of our operations. We believe that by working together, combining our many different backgrounds and life experiences, we will empower each other to reach our full potential.

Disability Confident Employer

Birmingham City University is proud to be a Disability Confident Committed Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role will be guaranteed an interview.

The appointed candidate will normally be employed through our subsidiary company, BCU Support Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Birmingham City University. Appointees with prior LGPS membership who wish to re-enter the scheme may do so and will be employed directly by the University.