Software Engineering Apprenticeship - Level 6 - Salford

BBC; Eccles; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 27,000; Full time

Job summary

BBC invites applications for a Software Engineering Apprenticeship at Salford. This Level 6 apprenticeship lasts 40 months and combines on‑the‑job training with formal learning to earn an undergraduate degree. You’ll contribute to BBC iPlayer, Sounds, News and Sport platforms while developing essential software engineering skills.

You will learn modern tech like Java, Python and OpenSearch, and gain exposure to AI/ML enhancements, semantic search and large-scale systems.

Qualifications

• Maths and English GCSE at grade 4/C or higher.
• Some coding or software engineering experience.
• Be 18 or older by September 2027.
• Must live within a commutable distance of role.
• Must have lived in the UK for the last 3 years.

Responsibilities

• Gain hands-on experience in BBC software engineering teams across TV, audio, online and digital platforms.
• Understand how BBC apps and websites are fit for purpose across the development life cycle.
• Apply software engineering principles from requirements to delivery with security in mind.
• Develop testing and quality control practices to ensure reliability.
• Explore troubleshooting with guidance from your team.
• Work on ground-breaking complex projects aligned with BBC's Digital First strategy.

Skills

Maths

Coding

AI/ML interest

Organisational skills

Problem-solving

Time management

Education

Maths GCSE or equivalent

English GCSE or equivalent

Job description

Software Engineering Apprenticeship - Level 6 - Salford

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Job Requisition ID: 55676 Job Closing Date: 24 November 2026

Salford, GBR, M50 2QH | Salford, MAN, GBR, M50 2QH

Contract Type: Fixed-Term Apprenticeship, Full-time for 40 months

Department: Media Technology

Location: Salford - Dock House, Salford - Quay House

Salary: £ 24,650

COULD A BBC APPRENTICESHIP BE THE NEXT ROLE FOR YOU?

Join us as an apprentice at the BBC to give yourself the opportunity to kick-start your career in a job you'll love. We’re committed to your skills and talent development. You’ll learn on-the-job, developing your knowledge and skills in an area that interests you, whilst working towards your apprenticeship qualification with one of our learning providers.

WHY JOIN THIS SCHEME?

As an apprenticewithinour team, you will be right at the heart of the BBC's digital first world, developing andmaintainingthe systems that audiences rely on every single day.

Imagine this: The code you write helps deliver the suspense of EastEnders on iPlayer, the freshest tracks on Sounds, the minute-by-minute drama of a breaking news story, or the thrill of a live goal on Sport.

Your Code, Millions of Users

• Your work directly delights millions of people every week. When they tune in to a podcast, catch up on the news, or stream a live event,it'sthe platform you helped build that makes it happen.
• You will learn to handle the massivedigitalchallenge of running services that have to be fast, reliable, and available 24/7.
• You will be working with worldclasssoftwareengineersto evolve the platform, ensuring the BBCremainsat the forefront of digital media.

You’vegot to be interested now, right?

Want to find out more? Watch recordings from our webinar series on our Life at the BBC YouTube playlist to learn more about this scheme and other opportunities we offer, and hear from current apprentices about their experiences.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM?

Partnerships Team:

We are the team behind iPlayer off product discovery. We work with a range of partners from Samsung, LG, Google, Amazon to surface the amazing BBC content that we have on their platforms. We power important services such as continue watching, promotional content, experimentation and we're responsible for providing iPlayer metadata to our partner platforms.

We maintain and create core services such as VOD catalogue (the content available for on demand playback), schedules (EPG data for upcoming programming), promotions (automated and manually curated sets of themed content), continue watching (continue watching your last programme from off product).

We create services which are used by millions on a wide variety of devices, so no day is never the same! We're the gateway to BBC iPlayer and drive over 20% of traffic directly to the BBC. We are a huge growth area for the BBC, so come join us on an exciting journey!

Iplayer & S TV Engineering Team:

BBC Search plays a vital role in helping millions of people discover the content they love across BBC iPlayer, Sounds, News, Sport and the wider BBC. Our search platform handles millions of requests every day, and we're passionate about making search smarter, faster and more relevant for our audiences.

Our engineering team is organised into three squads: Search Catalogue, Search Intent & Retrieval, and Search Ranking, working together to deliver an intelligent, scalable and innovative search experience.

As an apprentice, you'll have the opportunity to work with modern technologies, including Apache Solr, OpenSearch, AWS, Python and Java, while gaining hands-on experience in building and improving large-scale search systems.

You’ll also get exposure to some of the most exciting developments in search technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), semantic search and machine learning. We're exploring innovative ways to understand what audiences are searching for, recognise their intent, handle misspelt queries and deliver more meaningful results.

Search Team:

We are TV Client and we build iPlayer on TV, serving over 20 million people every month. We have 6 teams in our space that look after a wide variety of different problem spaces.

They split them into two types, platform teams who build the interface with TV devices directly and experience teams who use that platform to rapidly experiment on and deliver audience features every day.

We use a wide range of technologies but with any new joiner we start small and build up, coaching and supporting every step of the way. If you are interested to learn how TVs work and how we manage to deliver experiences on them come and join us.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT

Asa SoftwareEngineer apprentice (SED27), thisisabrilliant opportunityto learn, grow, and contribute–you will:

• Gain hands‑ons experience in the beating heart of the BBC’s software engineering teams responsible for TV, audio, online, and digital platforms.
• Develop your understanding of how the BBC’s existing apps and websites are fit for purpose, ranging from analysis, design, code, build, test, implementation, and support.
• Develop your knowledge and skills on how to apply software engineering principles to all stages of the solutiondevelopment life cycle, from gathering code and data requirements and ensuring they are secure.
• You will gain a new understanding on how to ensure the quality and reliability of software through rigorous testing and quality control practices.
• You will explore considerations and how to tackle troubleshooting concerns, guided by your team.
• You will play a part in ground-breaking complex projects, in alignment with the BBC’s Digital First strategy, frominceptionto delivery.

You’llstudy for your industry recognised apprenticeship qualification, learning bothon-and-off-the-job.This means on successful completion of theapprenticeship,you will beawardedwithan Undergraduate Degree (Bachelor of Science with Honours)in Digital and Technology Solutions Professional (Software Engineer pathway) from a UKUniversity,andyou will be supported to find a job role within the BBC’sTechnology or Product deliveryteams.

For more information on what you will study during the scheme, please see the Software Engineering degree apprenticeship standard .

YOUR SKILLS AND ELIGIBILITY

We’re interested in your passion for working at the BBC and your enthusiasm for delivering world-class content and operational excellence to our audiences. We’re not focused on your qualifications; instead, we look for potential and offer you the opportunity to apply your transferable strengths and experience to work in different ways.

If you can bring some of these skills and experiences, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply:

• Have a love ofmaths and a passion for coding.
• You're excited about embracing the latest AI and Machine Learningtechnologies to transform working practices.
• Have brilliant organisational skills and are great at problem -solving and negotiating.
• You can manage multiple deadlines and demands on your time, and have a calm and focused approach to changingcircumstances.
• Have a keen interest in the BBC and how people consume content, bursting with fresh ideas to introduce newperspectives.

This scheme is aimed at non-graduates. If you have a degree and you’re interested in similar roles at the BBC, we recommend applying for jobs at the BBC careers site or having a look at our other apprenticeship schemes.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

To be eligible for an apprenticeship at the BBC, you must:

• Be 18 years old or over by the time the apprenticeship begins in September 2027.
• Have lived in the UK continuously for the last three years prior to the start of the apprenticeship.
• Be legally eligible to work full-time in the UK for the entire duration of the apprenticeship.
• Not currently be enrolled in another apprenticeship programme, whether with the BBC or another organisation.
• Not already hold a qualification in the same subject area at the same or a higher level than this apprenticeship.

To apply for this scheme, you must also:

• Have maths and English GCSE at Grade 4/C or above or National 5 (Scotland) at C or equivalent qualification.
• Have some experience of coding and/or software engineering. Whether that is from an A Level/BTEC course, coding bootcampor personal projects. A basic coding test will form part of the assessment for this scheme.

You’ll need to live within a commutable distance of where this role is based.

The BBC recognises that you may need to relocate to a new location to take up a BBC Apprenticeship scheme. The cost of relocating can be a barrier for some applicants and where that is a barrier to participation, we want to help where we can. To help ensure our apprenticeship opportunities are accessible to people from a wide range of backgrounds, a limited number of relocation support awards are available each year for those who meet our financial eligibility criteria. Relocation financial support is available for this role, subject to meeting the financial eligibility criteria. Further information will be shared with applicants during the recruitment process. Details on the wider support, initiatives and networks available at the BBC can be found on our careers site.

This is a fixed-term apprenticeship - your contract lasts for the duration of the scheme. Once you have completed your apprenticeship, you will be able to apply for any suitable open vacancies at the BBC or outside in the wider creative industry. You’ll be supported with career development, employability training, and networking opportunities to help you take your next step.

For apprenticeship opportunities, disabled applicants who choose to apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and who meet the minimum criteria for the role will normally be progressed to the next stage of the recruitment process. For most of our campaigns, this would be an online assessment designed to assess your skills, motivations and suitability for the role. Further details can be found in the FAQs section of our careers site.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Our apprenticeship roles are also subject to