Head Of Collections Services

Royal Museums Greenwich is a collection of diverse historical sites. The sites are the National Maritime Museum, Cutty Sark, the Royal Observatory, and the Queen’s House. Each of these sites has a unique identity and a common purpose to serve our communities, through sharing our collections and expertise. We form a campus within the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, with supporting operations at the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre in Kidbrooke, the Brass Foundry in Woolwich and administrative offices in Greenwich. We are a place to explore the sea, space, art and history, and our strategy ‘Charting Our Course’ puts people at the core of its success.

Our collections and the stories inherent within them are at the core of everything we do as a museum. As Head of Collections Services, you’ll be leading the team responsible for the care, conservation, management of and access to these internationally significant collections. Working within the Collections Services team and reporting to the Executive Creative Director, The Head of Collections Services will be responsible for leading the organisational approach on the sustainable development and review of Collections, digital preservation, environmental initiatives in collections care, spoliation, restitution and repatriation, and collections partnerships.

A progressive approach to conservation practice will put collections care first, while ensuring conservation practice at Royal Museums Greenwich remains innovative and open, striving to improve the storage of and access to our wider archival collections. The Head of Collections Services will also ensure Royal Museums Greenwich has a robust and resilient approach to digital collecting that facilitates the widest possible access to the collections.

The successful candidate will be a strong, motivational, and progressive leader, with excellent communication, listening, coaching and interpersonal skills. The postholder will have knowledge of statutory Collections Services and library and archive requirements, knowledge of contemporary principles and practice in conservation, collections management, and library and archive disciplines, and an understanding of emerging and established best practice in the management of digital approaches, infrastructure, and content creation. Demonstrable experience of ensuring that research and content outputs are relevant and engaging to a wide range of audiences, budget management and managing diverse teams are essential to this role, as is the ability to work collaboratively with an inclusive approach. The postholder will have a wide-reaching network, with the ability to forge new and relevant networks, and will have press and media experience in the cultural sector.

This is a full time, permanent role in Band 3 – Senior Leaders and Head of Departments. Core hours of work will be 36 per week, 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday, although due to the nature of the work, some flexibility is required.

We offer a culture encouraging inclusion and diversity, pension, 25 days annual leave (rising to 30 days after 1 year), training and development and an environment with flexible working options, plus many more benefits.

Salary: £64,160 per annum

We encourage you to read the attached candidate pack and job description/person specification before applying for this role.

Diversity and inclusion are integral to our work at Royal Museums Greenwich, as we are a museum for everyone. We want to foster a spirit of inclusion, collaborative working, innovation, and valuing people as individuals whose lives have been shaped by different experiences. Therefore, we welcome applications from everyone. We also actively work with the Disability Confident scheme and ask that you let us know if there are any adjustments you need during the interview process.