Senior Digitiser, Bloomberg Photography Innovation

Job Description

About the role

The Natural History Museum has recently received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator for Arts and Culture, which supports arts organisations through strategic improvements to technology infrastructure. This funding will help us scale up our mass digitisation capabilities in preparation for DiSSCo UK , a £155 million, 10-year programme to digitise natural science collections held in the UK.

We are seeking a Senior Digitiser, Photography Innovation to improve on our existing in-house digitisation setups and workflows. You will design and construct new lightbox-based photographic setups using off-the-shelf, commercially 3D-printed or laser cut components. You will integrate these photographic setups with software to control the camera(s), automatically process images, and implement quality control and assurance processes. You will evaluate and test new cameras and imaging equipment, write documentation and train other members of the team to use them. You will work with other Senior Digitisers to develop new workflows for collections that lack mass digitisation workflows.

This role sits within the Digital, Data and Informatics (DDI) group within our Science department. DDI is responsible for the museum’s mass digitisation, collections data management, scientific AI applications, and the delivery of DiSSCo UK. You will report to the Science Digital Programme Manager.

We do not expect candidates to meet all the role competencies would encourage applicants from outside of the museum or cultural sector but have experience with cinematography or imaging design to apply. Please see the DiSSCo Digitisation Guides website for examples of digitisation workflows.

About you

1. Degree in science, engineering, museology, or computer science, or equivalent experience.
2. Experience in designing and assembling/building small-scale equipment (e.g. camera rigs and lightboxes).
3. Experience of digitisation workflow development, software development or automated photographic/imaging processes.
4. Experience of testing and evaluating software and hardware, including assessing quality levels of digital imaging (e.g., the FAGDI star system).
5. Experience in demonstrating and training others to use photographic equipment.
6. Knowledge of applying analytical tools on data to make informed and justified decisions.
7. Broad knowledge of photography, digitisation, and/or software automation.
8. Experience of working in galleries, libraries, archives or museums is desirable but not required.

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.

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