Collections & House Officer - Chesterfield

Summary

Do you have a proven track record of helping to ensure the preservation and presentation of collections, sharing your work with visitors and bringing the history of collections to life, then please read on.

What it's like to work here

Hardwick has something for everyone. An impressive Elizabethan masterpiece, with a world-class collection of textiles, paintings and furniture, beautiful gardens, and a working flour mill, all in a heritage listed estate. We're passionate about caring for this wonderful property and visitors are at the heart of all we do. We're a busy, driven team, who likes a challenge. We collaborate with each other and the wider property to engage, share our stories and provide exceptional service.
You'll be a member of the collections and house team, reporting to the Senior Collections and House Officer. You'll lead and line manage a team of three Collection Assistants to deliver our ambition as one of the National Trust’s Treasure Houses. There'll be many opportunities to develop within this role including leading conservation and experience projects.

What you'll be doing

You’ll be responsible for the daily opening of the house, ensuring appropriate resources are in place to be able to provide a consistently excellent service for our visitors. Working with a team of Collection Assistants, you'll supervise the team responsible for implementing conservation routines, preventive conservation and annual deep cleaning programme within the house to ensure excellent standards of care, delivering strategies to improve conservation.

You'll collect and record information during housekeeping cleaning routines to inform our understanding of the house and the collection, and use preventive conservation techniques to improve how we conserve, interpret and present the property. You’ll enjoy telling visitors about our fascinating history, sharing tales from the past as well as your personal experience of working here.

Who we're looking for

You'll need to have the following experience: 

• Knowledge of customer care and approaches to optimising visitor enjoyment.
• Good team player with day to day line management and supervisory skills.
• Good interpersonal skills enabling relationships to be maintained.
• Some knowledge and experience of managing costs and expenditure.
• Willing to contribute original or imaginative ways to make elements of the collection or house that are difficult to reach accessible to all visitors.

The package

The National Trust has the motto ‘For everyone, for ever’ at its heart. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.

Wherever you’re from, and whatever your background, we want to hear from you – and it doesn’t matter if you’re jam first, cream first, or even if you don’t like scones at all. Everyone is welcome.

Benefits for working at the National Trust include:

• Flexible working whenever possible
• Free parking at most locations
• Free entry to our properties for you, a guest and your children (under 18)
• Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary

Click here to find out more about the benefits we offer to support you.