Birmingham City University
Department of Computer Science
Location: Birmingham, West Midlands
Birmingham City University is looking to appoint a high calibre graduate as an AI Software Engineer (KTP Associate) to deliver an exciting 24-month Knowledge Transfer Partnership with BCU's Department of Computer Science within the School of Architecture, Built Environment, Computing and Engineering (ABCE) and PBL Care Limited.
Based primarily at PBL Care in Birmingham, you will work with leading BCU academics and PBL's operational team to develop and embed an AI-enabled platform and can transform how social-care services are planned, coordinated and monitored.
This Knowledge Transfer Project (KTP) is co-funded by a grant from Innovate UK and PBL Care 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) For more information please go to https://iuk-ktp.org.uk
The project will develop SMARTPBL, an operational-intelligence platform that integrates with PBL's existing systems to improve workforce planning, care continuity, regulatory compliance and staff satisfaction. Its three core innovations are an intelligent geospatial carer-matching engine, a workforce retention and attrition-risk predictive model, and a domain-adapted NLP/LLM pipeline for converting care notes into structured and auditable intelligence.
This is an excellent opportunity for a software/AI professional who wants to take ownership of a substantial real-world innovation project, combining applied AI, data engineering, software development, cybersecurity, user-centred design and organisational change in a regulated care environment.
Personal Training & Development Budget
The AI Software Engineer KTP Associate will have access to a wider range of benefits including a personal development budget of £4,000 to upskill during the project, alongside the wider KTP Associate training programme.
Location and Reporting
The successful candidate will be employed by Birmingham City University and seconded to work full-time onsite at PBL Care Limited, at Benson House, 98-104 Lombard Street, Birmingham, B12 0QR. The Associate will deliver the 24-month KTP project in partnership with Birmingham City University and PBL Care Limited.
The Associate will be supervised and mentored by BCU's Knowledge Base Lead and Academic Supervisors and by PBL's Company Supervisor.
PBL Care Limited
PBL Care Limited is a CQC-regulated social-care provider delivering adult domiciliary care, children's homecare, NHS/ICB-commissioned services and supported-living provision across the West Midlands. PBL Care is seeking to strengthen its digital and analytical capability so it can scale safely, improve workforce stability, strengthen regulatory performance and deliver consistently high-quality care. For more information, please visit: www.pblcare.com.
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 role requires close collaboration with senior management, care coordinators, carers, technical staff and BCU academics, with a strong emphasis on knowledge transfer and embedding sustainable in-house capability.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
- Lead requirements elicitation, feasibility analysis and technical planning for SMARTPBL.
- Design the secure, modular platform architecture, data layer, APIs, dashboards and user interfaces.
- Develop the geospatial intelligent matching and replanning capability.
- Develop ML models for workforce retention and attrition-risk prediction.
- Develop and validate a domain-adapted NLP/LLM pipeline for care notes and risk/quality intelligence.
- Implement cybersecurity, access control, secure communications and GDPR-aligned data-protection measures.
- Build and integrate the web and mobile solution with PBL's existing systems and cloud/data services.
- Plan and conduct unit, integration, security and user-acceptance testing and support production deployment.
- Train and mentor PBL staff, produce technical/user/helpdesk documentation, and embed sustainable internal capability.
- Support project reporting, impact evaluation, publications, dissemination and commercial exploitation planning.
Skills and Experience
You should hold at least a 2:1 degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Software Engineering or a closely related discipline. A relevant Master's degree is advantageous.
Essential:
- Strong software-development skills and experience building data-driven systems.
- Applied machine-learning and data-analytics capability, including predictive modelling and/or optimisation.
- Knowledge or experience of NLP/LLMs and unstructured-text processing.
- Experience with databases, APIs and systems integration.
- Experience of cloud-hosted platforms or application architectures.
- Understanding of cybersecurity, access control, secure communications and data-protection principles.
- Web and/or mobile application development experience.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder-engagement, problem-solving and project-delivery skills.
- Ability to work independently, manage change, take ownership of deliverables and operate effectively in a regulated environment.
Desirable:
- Approximately two years' relevant software-development/applied-AI experience.
- Experience integrating or adapting open-source LLMs and practical NLP solutions.
- Experience of GIS/routing/scheduling optimisation or workforce analytics.
- Experience of Azure, AWS or Google Cloud.
- Experience in social care, healthcare, digital health or another regulated/sensitive-data sector.
- Knowledge of explainable AI, human-in-the-loop approaches, fairness/bias monitoring and responsible AI.
- Academic acumen to contribute to technical reports, publications, conference outputs and training materials.
Personal Skills
- Enthusiastic, self-motivated and able to take a proactive role in delivering the proposal's work plan successfully.
- Practical interpersonal skills to establish good working relationships with colleagues, stakeholders, and industrial partners.
- Excellent communication skills to express ideas adequately and articulate complicated matters between the academics and the company project team members either orally or in writing.
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and computational skills, along with being adept at applying knowledge to commercial projects, driving value and making an impact where possible.
- Strong project management skills.
The successful candidate will be required to undergo an Enhanced DBS check with barred list checks for both children and adults in accordance with the safeguarding requirements of PBL Care.
For further information, please contact Dr Faisal Saeed faisal.saeed@bcu.ac.uk or Prof Abdel-Rahman Tawil abdel-rahman.tawil@bcu.ac.uk
Interviews will take place on Wednesday 9th December 2026
Further Details: Job Description
Use of AI in applications
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; How to Apply - Jobs at Birmingham City University
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.
Closing Date: 23.59 hours GMT on Sunday 22 November 2026
