Senior Interpretation Developer

Job Description

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

We are looking for an experienced interpretation developer to cover a maternity leave (5 months with the possibility of extension) delivering an exciting new semi-permanent (10 year+) gallery for the museum.

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 are transforming a suite of existing spaces into new galleries as part of our ambitious Public Space Plan. The first gallery in this series is a re-mount of a popular temporary exhibition, Our Broken Planet: How we got here and ways to fix it (OBP), a gallery that aims to inspire young changemakers aged 13 – 35 to take positive action for the planet. The revised exhibition will remount the original three zones (food, materials, and energy) with the addition of a new zone (health), alongside new interactives that connect our visitors to their own ability to make a difference.

Underpinned by the strategy for the Public Space Plan, the Senior Interpretation Developer (SID) will work collaboratively with colleagues in Interpretation, Audience Research, Collections, Design, Development, and across the museum to deliver all creative assets for the gallery, which opens in November 2024.

About you

We are looking for someone wilth the following skills and experience to join our team.

Solid experience of developing and delivering engaging interpretation and content in a museum, gallery, heritage site or a similar environment (required)

• Experience of using interpretation plans and audience research to guide the development of creative assets
• Experience of using collections to tell compelling stories and communicate messages
• An understanding of the exhibition design development process
• Experience of using interactive exhibits to communicate messages
• Experience of developing and adapting interpretation for EDI best practice

Skilled communicator:

• Highly skilled in text writing for museum audiences, working with scientific colleagues to review for accuracy, and editorial for style and comprehension.
• Experience of communicating openly and clearly with senior colleagues and stakeholders, including subject specialists
• Highly skilled in writing and developing visuals to communicate exhibition concepts and content to internal and external stakeholders, including potential fundraisers

Proven ability to deliver work effectively and on time:

• Excellent planning skills with the ability to prioritise, whilst ensuring deadlines are met
• Experience of being able to manage demanding workloads and remain calm under pressure, alongside excellent planning skills with the ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks, whilst ensuring deadlines are met
• The ability to work successfully both independently as well as part of a team, with a positive ‘can-do’ attitude and willingness to learn
• Experience of Project Management preferred

Proven experience and interest in relevant subject areas:

• Up to date with contemporary debate and understanding of the crisis facing our planet and the natural sciences more broadly
• A passion for the natural world and our need to protect it
• Experience within Science Communication, Museum Studies, Education or other relevant discipline (degree level or equivalent qualification desirable).

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