Museum assistant jobs in waltham abbey, essex
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
The Natural History Museum at Tring, Hertfordshire, welcomes 145,000 public visitors a year to our Victorian galleries as well as visitors to our research collections held on site. Our Housekeeping Team are crucial to providing a clean and safe environment for all visitors and staff in the Museum. As part of this team, the Museum & Housekeeping assistants’ role is to provide and maintain the highest standard of cleanliness within the Museum’s galleries and spaces, carry out portering duties, non-specialist maintenance tasks and supporting the Museum’s team in gallery exhibit conservation.
Working 36 hours per week on a five out of seven-day Rota, which includes one weekend in four & public holidays.
About you
We hope to hear from people who have experience of commercial cleaning & minor maintenance with a good level of physical fitness that enables you to spend much of your working day carrying out physical activity. With record visitor numbers to the Natural History Museum, this fast-paced environment requires adaptability within the role, teamwork, and a positive attitude. Experience working in a customer facing environment would be desirable, with an understanding of health & safety regulations, COSHH and environmental matters beneficial. You are confident working independently while collaborating effectively as part of a team with strong communication, administrative & interpersonal skills while having an ability to be flexible and use your own initiative. You’ll thrive on multitasking and working at pace, supporting your colleagues while consistently providing outstanding service. Working to a rota and following set operating procedures are essential. Good ‘IT’ skills, including the use of Microsoft applications for administrative tasks & an interest in Natural History and Heritage would also be beneficial to the position. There’s never been a better time to join us. With the Museum more popular than ever, this is a great opportunity to be part of our team. If you’re motivated and eager to make a difference for our visitors, we’d love to hear from you.
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.
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.
- 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
Due to the nature of this role the work pattern will be 100% on site.
How to apply
If this sounds like you, please apply by submitting an application on our recruitment portal.
Please note that as part of our commitment to anonymised shortlisting, panels do not view CVs during the recruitment process. If you choose to upload your CV, our system will automatically pull information from your CV into our application form. We advise you to double-check your application form data before submitting as the tool may interpret CVs differently.
Closing date: 23:59 on 5 August 2025
Interviews expected: w/c 18 August 2025
Please note that this role does not qualify for Museum sponsorship so the successful postholder will need to have a valid right to work in the UK at the point of offer.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Job Description
The Jewish Museum London has undergone substantial positive change over the past two years, moving out of our Camden site and moving to a ‘Museum without Walls’ model. With new leadership installed at both lay and staff levels and a consultation process underway for the development of a five and fifteen-year strategy the Museum is looking for a new member of the team to assist in running the day-to-day administration of the organisation.
Our museum is made up of passionate and expert staff and a collection of over 40,000 objects which are both accredited and designated with Outstanding status by Arts Council England. Our learning programmes hold multiple awards, and our visitor feedback is consistently very high, however, we have much bigger ambitions than our current success. The Museum is looking to expand, in space, in profile and in audience reach. We are looking for someone passionate about our potential to assist the wider team as we move forward to the next phase of the Jewish Museum London.
Reporting to the Senior Leadership Team the appointed candidate will have the organisational and administrative skills to ensure the Museum can effectively run its programmes and help grow the organisation.
Main Duties & Responsibilities
The main role of the Executive Assistant will be to administrate the activities of the Museum. Organizing key meetings on behalf of the Senior Leadership Team (this will include Finance, Ops, Collections and Learning) will be a key part of the role. Excellent communication skills are required as this role will involve liaising with a wide range of
internal and external stakeholders. You will assist with social media and general comms as the Museum’s digital presence continues to develop.
From time to time, you may be asked to provide research and presentations for meetings. In consultation with the Finance Director and Head of Operations, you will be responsible for the smooth running of the day-to-day logistics of Museum activities.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Job Title: Operations Manager
Duration: Permanent
Hours: Full time
35 hours per week Monday – Friday
Salary Scale:£36,839 – £42,781
Appointments are made at the start of the salary scale, with annual pay progression through the scale based on satisfactory performance. The pay scale is reviewed annually in the light of cost of living and operational budgets.
Pension: 6% employer pension contribution
Holiday: 26 days plus bank holidays
Reports to: Deputy Director
Line Manages: Operations Supervisors, Gallery Technician, Front of House staff and Cleaners
The appointment is subject to a satisfactory DBS check
The Operations Manager is a key role within the team, ensuring the effective and efficient management of the SLG’s three sites: the Main Gallery, the Fire Station and Art Block. This includes managing the maintenance and upkeep of the SLG’s Grade II listed buildings and artist-designed gardens, as well as leading the Front of House team to ensure that the SLG provides a welcoming and inclusive environment for all visitors and a high quality of visitor experience.
The Operations Manager works closely with the Deputy Director and manages a team comprising two Operations Supervisors, the Gallery Technician and contracted and casual Front of House staff and Cleaners. The role takes the lead on the implementation and monitoring of the SLG’s environment and sustainability policy and contributes to organisation-wide work towards the SLG’s equity, diversity and inclusion objectives.
The post holder will be required to be an appointed first aider and a fire marshal, as well as a primary keyholder. They may, therefore, be called upon for out of hours emergencies. Appropriate training will be given.
In our endeavour to diversify our workforce and create a more inclusive environment, we particularly encourage and welcome applications from people from backgrounds which are underrepresented in museums and galleries, including people from low-income backgrounds, people from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse backgrounds and disabled people.
Our client's vision is to serve as artistically adventurous and culturally inclusive arts museums for the UK and the world. Our client's Future Fund will raise an endowment of £150million by 2030 and has already raised £43million from the recent 25th anniversary. To deliver this campaign requires great collaboration and brilliant development professionals, including this Senior Strategic Projects Manager.
This role is offered on a maternity cover for c. 10-12 months with a start date no later than October 2025.
The Senior Strategic Projects Manager will implement successful strategies for strategic fundraising projects and campaigns. Reporting to the Director of Development and working with the Major Gifts, Individual Giving and Corporate Partnerships teams, you will be responsible for supporting solicitation campaigns of principal gifts and ensuring delivery of first-class stewardship of donors. The Senior Manager will also evaluate project strategy, approach and outcomes and facilitate relationships with senior colleagues and key volunteers to access new prospect networks.
The selected candidate will have a personal track record in fundraising and ideally working with senior colleagues to secure significant gifts of £500,000 or more. You will have demonstrable success in stewardship and a successful track record of developing and maintaining a network of contacts. Ideally, the best person for this job will have proven experience of managing complex and nuanced donor relationships which require a bespoke approach and a high level of judgment.
At Prospectus we invest in your journey as a candidate and are committed to supporting you with your application. We welcome all candidates to apply, regardless of age, sex/gender, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status or pregnancy/maternity. If you have any disability and require reasonable adjustment/s to any part of the process then please contact Ryan Burdock.
If you feel you meet some of the criteria but not all, we really hope you'll enquire and learn more. Prospectus can advise and support on each part of the role and hopefully your application, so we look forward to hearing from you.
In order to apply please submit your CV in the first instance. Should your experience be suitable, we will arrange for a meeting to brief you on the role. You'll then have all the information you need to formally apply. We are looking forward to connecting with you soon.