Special Events Manager

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.

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

Reporting to the Head of Special Events you will work with them to develop the Museum’s Special Event activity. The Museum hosts up to 70 events a year including dinners, receptions, lectures and tours. This role will use these events to deepen relationships with supporters, inspire greater engagement with our activities and maximise income to help us achieve our ambitions as we work through to our milestone 150th anniversary in 2031.

Taking responsibility for specific events, you will work with teams across the Museum, to assess need and develop a bespoke programme of relevant and impactful events. The role will need to work creatively across the whole Museum to bring the programme to life, translating the Museum content into compelling engagement opportunities. The role will involve managing the planning, logistics, budgets, communications, and content for a group of events, alongside other event related activity such as guest list management, financial admin, liaising with suppliers, managing RSVPs and data entry. You will then evaluate and apply learning to future opportunities to evolve the programme.

This role would suit a highly experienced events professional with substantial experience in all aspects of event management. The successful candidate will be a self-starter with the ability to work on several complex projects simultaneously whilst remaining calm under pressure.

About you

You are a passionate event professional with experience of high-level event delivery, ideally for invited audiences within a fundraising environment. You are use to managing multiple complex projects simultaneously with a proven ability to develop creative and innovative event opportunities that engage donors directly with a cause. You will have experience of working with and managing event suppliers to deliver events and good logistical knowledge. You will have managed event communications from guest listing to follow ups with excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively both face-to-face and through written material such as letters, invites and briefings are essential.

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 (minimum 2 days plus events), with the precise pattern of days on site and worked from home to be agreed with your manager.