Description

The City of Doncaster Council is a confident, ambitious organisation which puts improving the life of its residents at the centre of everything we do. You have an opportunity to be part of this in the role of Archives Manager.

A number of recent developments in Doncaster have established heritage and culture as a key priority across the city, including the relocation and transformation of Doncaster Archives.  We are looking for a professional archivist to become the City Archivist for Doncaster, and lead the team to securing Archive Service Accreditation at a crucial time for the service.

Experience of team leadership is essential, alongside a strong understanding of the archival standards and principles required to successfully manage a busy archive service and strategically plan for the future. High quality partnerships and service development are at the heart of everything we do. Further details about the responsibilities and requirements of the role are contained in the role summary and job profile.

In return for your hard work and dedication, we can offer you the chance to be part of a great team dedicated to ensuring that all people in Doncaster thrive. You will also have access to a variety of attractive employee benefits including competitive leave entitlement, a generous local government pension scheme, a wide range of well-being support and development opportunities. You will also have access to a range of staff discount and benefits schemes. 

Please ensure you view the job summary and job profile as you will need to demonstrate in your application form how you meet the required criteria. 

Shortlisting will take place week commencing 6th October 2025.

Interview date to be confirmed

For further details or an informal chat please contact: Amanda Matheson at [email protected]

Requirements

Education/Training

Essential:

• Postgraduate qualification recognised by the Archives and Records Association to enable the title designated City Archivist for Doncaster 
• Demonstrable evidence of continuous personal and professional development

Experience

Essential:

• Significant experience of working in Archives or Records Management
• Leadership or line management experience
• Successful management in the curation and maintenance of a variety of collections of historical importance including, but not limited to, archival
• Experience of successfully developing and sustaining influential and productive working relationships with colleagues and wider partners.
• Experience and successful management of working in the sector across heritage and libraries, developing programme of work to support specific events, community programmes and presentations
• Experience of developing clear and understandable interpretative information, ensuring it is accessible to a wide range of audiences and an understanding the appropriate format for the target audience
• Experience of working independently and on own initiative and coping with conflicting priorities positively
• Experience of working in a high-pressure environment to time and resource constraints effectively
• Experience of working independently and on own initiative and coping with conflicting priorities positively

Desirable:

• Experience of developing, implementing and evaluating public services
• Experience of site or duty management. 

Specialist Knowledge

Essential:

• A clear understanding of the archive accreditation criteria and how to achieve and retain this. 
• Knowledge of best practice in archival cataloguing and conservation 
• Knowledge of, along with ability to facilitate effective implementation of archival digital preservation
• Effective relationship-builder, with a can-do attitude and determination
• An understanding of the importance of heritage and the ability to communicate this to a range of audiences 
• IT skills and the ability to record, monitor and development effective process

Desirable:

• Knowledge of audience development approaches, including the effective evaluation of success measures and effective communication skills 
• Understanding of building management requirements and health and safety requirements.

 Additional Requirements

Essential:

• Able and willing to work outside normal working hours and a flexible approach to working weekends and unsociable hours as required
• Excellent attention to detail and be results-oriented in order to develop positive and lasting relationships with partners and service users
• The ability to positively challenge behaviours to implement sustainable positive change and modern working practices  

Desirable:

• Ability to travel around the City