DRTP ATLAS Pilot: Advancing Technical Leadership And Skills

Many talented digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs) face unclear pathways to senior roles, often lacking both formal leadership training and safe, structured opportunities to apply those skills. At the same time, many UK universities operate student “Software Factories”. Ours (est. 2009) is being relaunched under a new model, creating a prime opportunity to enhance it with professional dRTP input and provide a practical testbed for developing leadership capability.

We will pilot the Digital Research Technical Professional – Advancing Technical Leadership and Skills (dRTP ATLAS) model for structured leadership development.

Building on our Factory’s existing academic-led approach, the dRTP ATLAS Pilot will test a scalable model for dRTP leadership by integrating professional training with real project delivery. A small cohort of 2–4 dRTPs will undertake a formal suite of specialist training in business analysis, agile project management, and stakeholder engagement. These trained dRTPs will then be embedded as “Technical Leads” alongside academic supervisors to support clients, mentor student developers, and shape project delivery. This creates a new, complementary leadership role that strengthens both professional capability and provides a safe environment to apply their training. The pilot will produce the open-source ATLAS Framework as a scalable national model for dRTP leadership development.