Technical Services
Heriot-Watt employs over 100 members of technical services to support its teaching, research and consultancy activities at our Edinburgh, Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia campuses. These roles are critical to Heriot-Watt’s success.
Heriot-Watt considers technical services to embrace all colleagues in technical services roles within Schools and Global Research Institutes or within a campus-wide pool team, who support learning and teaching, research and enterprise and innovation through carrying out a range of technical activities.
Our technical services job family encompasses a very broad diversity of roles, ranging across grades, and involves activities undertaken within laboratories, workshops, stores, buildings management and School facilities, as well as specialised teaching and research technical support activities.
Our definition of technicians in this context does not include colleagues in Estates and Facilities or Information Services positions.
Technician Commitment
The University has been a signatory to the Technician Commitment since 2022, supporting the Visibility, Recognition, Career Development and Sustainability of our technical services.
Our Technician Commitment Action Plan
Our first Technicians Commitment Action Plan was undertaken during the period 2022 – 2025.
Download Action Plan 2022-2025
During the period of our our first Action Plan we worked on a range of initiatives, including the following:
- Celebrating our technical services through our annual Technical Services Excellence Awards
- Enhancing the visibility of our technical services staff through a series of staff profiles
- Making funding available to help members of technical services apply for professional registration
- Providing support and guidance to enable members of technical services to apply for professional registration
- Mapping career pathways for technical services and updating technical services job descriptions
We are now underway with implementing our second Action Plan which runs for the period 2026 - 2028.
Edinburgh Technical Collaboration
Since 2022 Heriot-Watt has been member of the Edinburgh Technical Collaboration, a cross-institution partnership between Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh Napier University, University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University. Through this network we have introduced a successful mentoring and job shadowing scheme for technical services staff employed across Edinburgh, and a number of technical services staff have benefited from this opportunity.
Apprenticeships
We welcome Modern Apprentices and Graduate Apprentices, supporting people as they learn skills in the workplace alongside completing college and University qualifications.
Heriot-Watt has also recently hosted Science Foundation Apprentices, where pupils aged 16-18 from local schools have been able to spend time in our labs each week, developing skills and achieving SCQF qualifications.
Technical services career opportunities
We have a wide range of technical services roles at Heriot-Watt and regularly advertise new opportunities. If you are interested in joining a technical services team at Heriot-Watt please visit our jobs page to find our available opportunities.
Related content
The Technician Commitment
The Technician Commitment is a university and research institution initiative, led by a steering board of sector bodies, hosted by the UK Institute for Technical Skills & Strategy. Find out about the technician commitment and its four key areas.
Technical Services Hub (internal only)
Heriot-Watt has over 100 members of technical services working across our Schools and global Research Institutes across our campus locations in Edinburgh, Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia. Our internal staff have access to a wide range of resources.