Participation Director

Summary

We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England has a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Participation Director.

This is a full time permanent position

The location of this role is National where we offer hybrid working, you will be based in one of our following offices and from home - Newcastle, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Swindon, Bristol, Portsmouth (Fort Cumberland) London and Cambridge. 

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive defined benefit pension scheme to which we make 28.97% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here.2

Application process will involve providing a CV and cover letter.

What you will be doing

You will be responsible for developing and embedding strategies and programmes that help people across England to discover and connect with their heritage, increasing engagement with Historic England (HE) and the historic environment through our nationally important Archive collections and engagement programmes, which include learning (Heritage Schools), community engagement, inclusion grants and participation programmes (e.g. Blue Plaques).  Through the power of partnership, storytelling, capacity building and audience led approaches, you will lead your teams to unlock the power of heritage for people and places, embedding inclusive practice and centring social impact. 

Reporting to the Director of Communications and Engagement and working as part of the Communications and Engagement Leadership Team, you will help shape the direction of Historic England’s engagement and participation activity, ensuring our vision and mission are well understood and supported in society, and by key stakeholders.  As a member of the Corporate Leadership Team, you will work together with senior colleagues across Historic England to embed our strategic priorities for people and places, including delivery on government priorities and income generation opportunities.

You will share your expertise and passion, ensuring the organisation’s knowledge, resources and voice are leveraged beyond Historic England, and we are actively working together with more people and partners to the benefit of people and places.  Working closely with the Marketing & Digital Director, Philanthropy & Income Development Director and Communications Director, you will ensure that our presence continues to grow and gain positive recognition on a national stage, with new and current audiences, and that we are in an open conversation about how we can all work together to take action for heritage and the historic environment.  You will work with a range of internal and external senior stakeholders and community partners.  

Who we are looking for

• Experience of leading multi-disciplinary teams in a participatory engagement discipline

• Experience of successfully creating and delivering integrated engagement activity in an arts, culture, or heritage setting.

• Experience of project delivery including community led approaches, and co-creation with communities.

• Experience of initiating and leading projects within a strategic framework

• Excellent leadership and management skills, including culture change

• Strategic thinking skills

Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having won the Gold Award from MIND for workplace wellbeing in seven consecutive years, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

At Historic England we use a hiring system called Applied. Applied is a behavioural science-backed recruitment platform that reduces bias, improves quality of hire and increases diversity. We do not use CV application for the majority of our hiring processes. You will answer a selection of questions that allow our hiring teams to test your skills and suitability for the role.

At Historic England, we value the expertise and individuality each candidate brings and want to hear about this in your own words. If you require the use or AI tools or other resources to support your application, we ask that all information is factually accurate, original, and reflects your own experience. To best represent yourself, we encourage you to write in your own words and use AI-generated content only as inspiration—not as direct input.

Provisional virtual interview dates: 30th July 2026

Please note this role internally is known as Participation and Learning Director.