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 1100 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.
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.
The Museum’s vision is to create a future where people and planet thrive, and its mission is to create advocates for the planet. To achieve this strategy, we want to transform a suite of existing spaces into new galleries as part of our ambitious Public Space Plan, titled the NHM 150 programme, as well as continuing to deliver successful and engaging temporary exhibitions.
The Senior Interpretation Developer’s primary role is to develop and deliver narratives and interpretation for new exhibition or gallery projects, working in close collaboration with Exhibition or Gallery Leads, other Interpretation roles, and Science Leads.
This role will work both collaboratively and independently to deliver content work packages for exhibitions or galleries, with a focus on galleries. It will work closely with colleagues in Audience Research, Collections, Design, Conservation and other teams across the museum to deliver exhibition or gallery concepts, narratives, and interpretation approaches, including interactive exhibits, as well as to select objects and specimens for display. The role also requires working independently in the early stages of projects — setting research questions, conducting rigorous research, and collaborating closely with scientific researchers or collections curators. It will work with an Exhibit Producer to develop and write briefs for interactive or audio-visual exhibits and to iterate and prototype these through to production.
In addition, this position will be a vital link to fundraising and partnership management, including presenting ideas to funders and giving tours. Finally, the Senior Interpretation Developer will promote new exhibitions or gallery both internally and externally, including to the press.
This role will be central to the development and delivery of content-rich exhibition projects, both temporary exhibitions and permanent galleries. It will carry out research; identify collections and build an experience through innovative text, exhibits and AV, all to tell a story about our planet and why we need to protect it. All exhibitions will have audiences at their heart. The successful candidate must have the skills to understand the needs of the visitor (identified through visitor research) and align those to our guiding strategies.
The Senior Interpretation Developer (SID) will work collaboratively with colleagues in Exhibitions & Galleries, Audience Research, Collections, Design, and Development and across the museum to deliver these projects. They will be expected to work independently as well as part of a project team.
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.
- 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
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.
