Digital Transformation and AI Integration Engineer - KTP Associate (Fixed term for 36 months)

Birmingham City University are looking to appoint a high calibre graduate as a Digital Transformation and AI Integration Engineer (KTP Associate). This role presents an exciting opportunity to work in collaboration with leading academics at Birmingham City University, to apply knowledge and technical innovation, delivered on site at the company. This Knowledge Transfer Project (KTP) is co-funded by a grant from Innovate UK and Ecam Engineering Limited. It is therefore essential you understand the fundamentals of the KTP collaboration between a UK business and a University works to deliver benefits for each (the company, the university, and the graduate).

Personal Training & Development Budget: The Digital Transformation and AI Integration Engineer (KTP Associate) will have access to a wider range of benefits including a personal development budget of £6,000 to upskill during the project.

Location and Reporting: The successful candidate will be employed by Birmingham City University and seconded to work full-time onsite at Ecam Engineering Limited, Tower Crane Drive, Cheadle, Staffordshire, ST10 1UF. The Digital Transformation and AI Integration Engineer (KTP Associate) will deliver the 36-month KTP project in partnership Birmingham City University and Ecam Engineering Limited. Ecam Engineering provides end-to-end fabrication services (design, prototyping, machining, assembly) as a supplier of precision engineered components to a range of multiple sectors.

The successful candidate will have full access to Birmingham City University’s resources such as offices, labs, and library to complete the KTP project (a project workplan written with KPIs and outcome deliverables has been written). The Digital Transformation and AI Integration Engineer (KTP Associate) will be supervised and mentored by both a lead academic and academic supervisor from BCU’s Department of Computer Science within the School of Architecture, Built Environment, Computing and Engineering (ABCE) as well as a company supervisor located at Ecam Engineering Limited whose aim is to assist the Digital Transformation and AI Integration Engineer (KTP Associate) to deliver the knowledge into Ecam Engineering Limited and successfully deliver the 36‑month KTP project on behalf of Ecam Engineering Limited and Birmingham City University.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Supporting the delivery of the digital transformation project by analysing current manufacturing and commercial processes, identifying improvement opportunities and translating operational needs into clear technical requirements.
• Help design and implement the target digital architecture, including AI-enabled MES/IoT systems, cloud-based platforms, databases and system integrations, whilst ensuring that production, engineering and commercial data can be captured, structured and used effectively across the business.
• Lead practical deployment activities, including shop‑floor data capture, dashboard development, testing and user adoption, and support the development of AI‑enabled quotation, document parsing, and automated BoM/costing tools.
• Focus on end‑to‑end integration, validation, documentation, training and handover, ensuring the new systems are robust, scalable and embedded into day‑to‑day operations.
• Interact with the senior management, suppliers and clients of the company as well as BCU academics.
• Apply knowledge to commercial projects, driving value and making an impact where possible, with an ability to solve problems and create innovative solutions.

Skills and Experience:

• Hold a relevant degree (first class or 2:1 honours) in Manufacturing Engineering, Mechatronics, Automation, Computer Science, Data Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a closely related discipline. A master’s degree in a similar discipline is acceptable.
• A minimum 2:1 undergraduate qualification in relevant fields.
• Practical experience of manufacturing systems, industrial processes or production environments.
• Experience with systems integration, including some combination of MES, ERP/MRP, CRM, APIs, databases or cloud platforms.
• Experience handling structured and unstructured data, including data cleansing, transformation and validation.
• Ability to work across hardware, software and process domains rather than in a narrow specialist silo.
• Strong technical documentation and reporting capability.
• Evidence of delivering technical projects from requirements through to deployment and testing.
• Able to rapidly learn new technologies, including programming languages and digital platforms, and adapt effectively as systems, tools and project requirements evolve.
• Able to engage confidently with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Master’s degree or PhD in relevant subjects or relevant experience.
• Experience with industrial IoT, sensor integration, edge‑to‑cloud architectures or industrial communication protocols.
• Experience with Azure, AWS or comparable cloud environments.
• Knowledge of manufacturing analytics and predictive maintenance.
• Experience building dashboards, workflow automations or data pipelines.
• Exposure to AI/ML, natural language processing, document extraction or rules‑based decision engines.
• Experience with quotation systems, cost modelling, BoM structures or engineering commercial workflows.
• Knowledge of security, compliance, backup and disaster recovery in connected production environments.
• Experience of pilot deployments, user acceptance testing and change adoption in operational settings.
• Experience working with academic/industry collaboration, innovation projects or grant‑funded delivery programmes.

On a personal note, the Associate should be enthusiastic, motivated, punctual, conscientious, trustworthy and work well within a team.

Interviews for this role are scheduled to take place week commencing 1st June 2026.

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 enter the LGPS scheme will be able to do so and will be employed by Birmingham City University directly.

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.