Head of Conservation

About Us
We are a world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre. We use the Museum's unique collections and our unrivalled expertise to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world today. We care for more than 80 million objects spanning billions of years and welcome more than five million visitors annually and 16 million visits to our website.  

Today the Museum is more relevant and influential than ever. By attracting people from a range of backgrounds to work for us, we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things.

We employ 900 staff in a variety of roles, all united by our vision of a future where people and planet thrive. We need everyone to have the passion and drive to help us with our mission to create advocates for our planet and inspire millions to care about the natural world.

This is an exciting time to join the Museum as we have secured investment from the UK Government to build a new science and digitisation centre at Thames Valley Science Park, University of Reading.  The purpose-built centre will house much of the Museum's collection and will include laboratories, digitisation suites, collaborative research spaces, conservation labs and workspaces. This is part of the NHM Unlocked initiative, an ambitious programme to secure the future of our irreplaceable collection, accelerate scientific research and innovation, and enhance our public offer.

The Museum’s Conservation Centre is one of the world’s leading facilities for the conservation of natural science collections. The highly skilled team have a strong reputation for developing new techniques and specialist remedial treatments. With access to a range of analytical equipment the team contribute regularly to research in conservation methods and further understanding of NHM Collections.

Diversity and inclusion matter to us.
Our vision is of a future where both people and the planet thrive. Diversity is one of our core values and we strive to build a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. All new staff who join us learn about the importance of diversity and inclusion to the Museum and how to contribute to creating an inclusive environment.
We know we have more to do, but we are committed to ensuring that everyone who works at the Museum feels they can thrive and feel valued and respected.

About the role

The Museum is seeking a Head of Conservation to lead on the protection of the world’s most extensive natural history collection of approximately 80 million specimens. The collections are continually growing through new acquisitions, fieldwork and donations ensuring they remain a vital and dynamic resource for understanding the natural world. This role delivers through leadership, representation, planning and cross museum collaboration whilst ensuring the collections are preserved for future generations to access and study. The role will include leading and managing a busy team of preventive and remedial conservators as well as oversight of conservation science research activities

Based in Science Innovation Platforms (Science Group), the role works across all areas, including Science Group, Corporate Services, Public Programmes and Development. At the heart of this role is responsibility for the development and delivery of the Museum’s conservation strategy, a comprehensive conservation policy and conservation services to the Museum.

The successful applicant will work closely with the Director of Collections and Head of Registry plus other Senior Leadership Team colleagues to ensure an integrated approach to the care and conservation of NHM Collections.

About you

You will have authority in the conservation sector, and with your established network of contacts, you have access to best practice standards globally to help advise the NHM on how to preserve their collection to the highest standards. You are rigorous in your thinking and use evidence-based approaches to find solutions. Your organisational skills allow you to set effective prioritised work programmes. You enjoy sharing your knowledge and are a team player who thrives on collaboration and being part of multidisciplinary forums. You have a proven track record in leadership and people management. You are inquisitive and a problem solver with a real ability to work proactively – someone who can manage, motivate and develop a wide range of people. You see conservation as a dynamic and enabling profession that excites and challenges and can help enable access to collections to the wider public and research community.

Thriving at the Museum: the way we work

We are proud to work at the Museum and have identified the qualities we all need to embody to reach our shared ambition. This sits alongside the Museum’s values and forms the framework for the way we work.

Find out more here

What we offer

• 27.5 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays (full time equivalent)
• Generous defined contribution Natural History Museum Pension Scheme (employer contribution 4 - 10%)
• Season ticket, bicycle and rental loan
• Life insurance
• Free admission to our exhibitions and many other paid exhibitions at museums, galleries and institutions across London and the UK.
• Staff discount at our Museum shops and cafes
• We offer a wide variety of training initiatives and opportunities to build skills. Investing in staff development is important to us, and we are ambitious about helping staff to grow and fulfil their potential.
• Affordable membership to the Civil Service Sports Council which offers a range of benefits including an extensive list of special offers and reduced entry fees at a selection of cinema chains, theme parks, theatres, retailers and supermarkets. It also provides entry to up to 300 English Heritage sites and other national treasures. For more details, visit https://www.cssc.co.uk
• Membership to our Sports and Social Association (for a small fee), which includes access to our in-house gym and clubs such as football, softball, table tennis and tennis and classes in Middle Eastern dance, yoga and Tai Chi

Hybrid working

We are working towards a vision where both people and planet thrive, and nothing gives a greater connection with this, than seeing first-hand, the visitors, scientific research and collections that all of our work is inspired by and working side by side with the teams delivering the visitor experience and events.  We also recognise the benefits and flexibility that hybrid working brings.  We operate a hybrid working model that requires regular, weekly attendance for this role, with the precise pattern of days on site and worked from home to be agreed with your manager.