Software Engineering Apprenticeship - Level 6 - Salford

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

Job summary

BBC in Salford is offering a fixed-term apprenticeship (40 months) in Software Engineering. You will learn on the job, study towards an apprenticeship qualification with a learning provider, and help build  maintain BBC systems used by millions.

Based in Salford – Dock House, Quay House – you’ll work with world-class engineers, gain hands-on experience across TV, audio and digital platforms, and be supported to grow into a professional in BBC Media Technology.

Qualifications

• Non-graduates welcome; coding experience preferred.
• GCSE maths and English at grade C/4 or above required.
• You will study for an apprenticeship qualification.

Responsibilities

• Gain hands-on experience in the BBC’s software engineering teams across TV, audio, and digital platforms.
• Develop understanding of BBC apps and websites from analysis to support.
• Apply software engineering principles across the solution life cycle.
• Ensure quality and reliability through testing and quality control.
• Explore troubleshooting with your team guidance.
• Contribute to ground-breaking projects aligned with BBC’s Digital First strategy.

Skills

Maths

Coding interest

Education

Maths GCSE

English GCSE

Job description

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 apprentice within our team, you will be right at the heart of the BBC’s digital first world, developing and maintaining the 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’s the platform you helped build that makes it happen.
• You will learn to handle the massive digital challenge of running services that have to be fast, reliable, and available 24/7.
• You will be working with world class software engineers to evolve the platform, ensuring the BBC remains at the forefront of digital media.

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

• Gain hands‑on 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 solution development 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, from inception to delivery.

You’ll study for your industry recognised apprenticeship qualification, learning both on‑and‑off‑the‑job. This means on successful completion of the apprenticeship, you will be awarded with an Undergraduate Degree (Bachelor of Science with Honours) in Digital and Technology Solutions Professional (Software Engineer pathway) from a UK University, and you will be supported to find a job role within the BBC’s Technology or Product delivery teams.

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.

Skills

• Have a love of maths and a passion for coding.
• You’re excited about embracing the latest AI and Machine Learning technologies 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 changing circumstances.
• Have a keen interest in the BBC and how people consume content, bursting with fresh ideas to introduce new perspectives.

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

• 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 bootcamp or personal projects. A basic coding test will form part of the assessment for this scheme.

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 you having the required qualifications that we have deemed to be necessary for your role and the requirement of the training provider for your scheme. The offer would be subject to you undergoing and meeting the requirements of a skill scan process with the BBC nominated training provider to determine your eligibility.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Recruitment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.