Academic Head

The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology is a distinctive higher education institution, designed to develop engineers in close connection with practice. It brings together academic study and real‑world engineering in a way that reflects how engineers learn and work in industry. The Institute attracts individuals who are motivated by solving problems, understanding how things work, and applying their learning in live contexts.

Our undergraduate engineers undertake an integrated programme that combines academic study with substantive roles in Dyson’s global engineering teams. They contribute to real projects throughout their degree while studying for an MEng awarded under our own degree‑awarding powers. As salaried employees who graduate without tuition‑fee debt, they leave with both academic achievement and meaningful professional experience.

We seek to appoint an Academic Head to join the Institute’s executive team at an important and ambitious stage in its development. This is a role for an academic leader who is motivated by the opportunity to work, lead, and play a different, innovative role. Someone who brings a strong commitment to academic quality and rigour, but who is equally energised by the opportunity to adapt, test and evolve approaches within a more integrated, industry‑facing model.

Working closely with the Director, the postholder will lead the Institute’s teaching and learning strategy and community, with responsibility for academic staff, programme development, and the overall student experience. A central part of the role will be continuing to evolve the Institute’s approach to pedagogy and assessment, particularly in view of new opportunities afforded by AI, building on strong foundations while addressing the practical challenges of supporting and assessing learning in a workplace‑embedded environment.

This includes engaging with emerging questions around the assessment of applied, professional capability, and shaping approaches that are both academically robust and fit for purpose.

The role also offers the opportunity to work with the Director to shape a focused and applied research agenda. Research at the Institute is intentionally selective and purposeful, reflecting both academic priorities and the realities of operating within a global engineering company. This creates a set of important challenges: balancing commercial sensitivity with academic openness, aligning with Dyson’s need for timely and impactful outputs, and creating space for broader, earlier‑stage enquiry that can be disseminated and published.

The Academic Head will support staff to engage in research that is credible, relevant and distinctive to the Institute’s context.

Close and constructive engagement with Dyson is central to the Institute’s success. We are looking for a candidate who is comfortable operating at this interface, and who sees real value in academic staff engaging directly with the business to inform their teaching and research. This may include encouraging greater movement between academic and engineering contexts and helping to build a responsive culture in which academic and industrial perspectives actively inform one another.

Alongside this, the Academic Head will contribute to the Institute’s continued growth and outward reach, including the development of new academic provision such as credit‑bearing professional qualifications, and the expansion of the Institute’s footprint internationally, particularly in South East Asia. This will require an ability to translate the Institute’s model into different contexts while maintaining its core integrity and quality.

The successful candidate will be a thoughtful and credible leader, able to operate effectively in a focused and evolving organisation. They will bring sound academic judgement, an openness to new approaches, and the ability to work productively within a corporate context. Above all, they will be motivated by the opportunity to help shape and lead a distinctive model of engineering education;

engaging with the real opportunities and constraints of that model and contributing to its continued development and impact.

We are…