Conservation and Heritage Science Technician

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 have a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Conservation and Heritage Science Technician.

This is a full time, permanent contract based in Fort Cumberland.

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 28% 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 .

What you will be doing

Fort Cumberland Laboratories provide a national facility for the study of the historic environment through time, delivering applied research and advice to Historic England, the English Heritage Trust through a shared service agreement, and to the wider sector. It holds unique scientific reference collections, an array of equipment and facilities and comprises a multi-disciplinary team of heritage scientists who also deliver teaching and supervision of undergraduate/postgraduate students and manage learning placements for external clients.

We require a Conservation and Heritage Science Technician to develop external access to our laboratory facilities, provide analytical advice, training and support to visiting researchers, conduct analysis and imaging, and support our operations by managing laboratory equipment and resources, and building our client base for the analytical services we provide.

Working primarily with our materials scientists and conservators, you will analyse a wide range of cultural materials, from archaeological and maritime sites, museum collections and historic buildings, including metals, ceramics, organics, stone and polymers. Training will be provided but experience of using chemical analysis, and at least one of the following (SEM-EDS, XRF, XRD, or FTIR spectroscopy), is essential.

You will manage the operation of the laboratories, including overseeing maintenance contracts and routine calibration of equipment, as well as undertaking imaging, analyses, quality assurance and data management in support of Historic England projects and services.

You will play a key role in the delivery of the AHRC Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science ( RICHeS) programme funded project ' Creating a national integrated mobile and fixed lab for collections, historic buildings and sites ' working closely with the Collections Access Manager, based at Fort Cumberland, and your counterpart in the English Heritage conservation science team based in Rangers House, London.

Please note that:

• the role requires regular travel, including to sites not serviced by public transport and sites which may have challenging access, for example stairwells, confined spaces, heights or places with low lighting.

• the role also involves working outdoors or in cold buildings and requires overnight stays for joint working, attending meetings and training.

• the work entails reasonable lifting of heavy/bulky objects within published health and safety guidelines on manual handling.

Who we are looking for

• Recognised professional qualification as an instrument technician or an undergraduate degree or equivalent in a relevant (sciences/conservation) subject.

• Experience with analytical machines, different materials and possibly site work.

• Understanding and interpretation of chemical data.

• Data and computer literate.

• Attention to detail / critical eye.

• Writing skills.

• Presentation skills.

• People skills / training experience.

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 just won the Gold Award from MIND, 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.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at if you have any recruitment queries.

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.

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Provisional interview dates: 11th February 2025 - Online via Microsoft Teams

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description -