The Natural History Museum is both a world-leading science research centre and the most visited natural history museum in Europe. With a vision of a future in which both people and the planet thrive, it is uniquely positioned to be a powerful champion for balancing humanity’s needs with those of the natural world.
It is custodian of one of the world’s most important scientific collections comprising over 80 million specimens. The scale of this collection enables researchers from all over the world to document how species have and continue to respond to environmental changes - which is vital in helping predict what might happen in the future and informing future policies and plans to help the planet.
The Museum has been awarded a substantial government investment of £182m, over 6 years, to create a new science and digitisation centre at the Harwell Science and Innovation Centre in south Oxfordshire. As part of this development, the Museum is planning to move approximately 40% of its 80 million specimens, library and archive collections from up to four sites (in London, Hertfordshire and Yorkshire) to the new site.
You will act as a senior lead and contact with the Department of Earth Sciences on all aspects of the NHM@Harwell programme, and be an ambassador for the programme within the Museum and with external partners. You will work with the Moves Project Manager, department staff and teams across the Museum to deliver the Earth Sciences specimen moves workstream, including proposing, recruiting and line-managing a dedicated NHM@Harwell collections team.
This is a multidisciplinary role, requiring the skills, knowledge and experience of a highly competent collections manager, as well practical project management experience and strong people and relationship management experience. You will have the ability to motivate staff (including those you don’t have direct line-management responsibility for) over a long-term project.
You will have a proven ability to lead and engage with curatorial or other Science teams through a period of change, and demonstrable experience of leading and successfully delivering major collections- based projects. Experience of planning and delivering collection moves is desirable.