Collections Access Manager

ABOUT V&A

The V&A is a family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity. Their mission is to champion design and creativity in all its forms, advance cultural knowledge, and inspire makers, creators and innovators everywhere. They share a 5,000-year-old story of creativity through exhibitions, events, educational programmes, digital experiences, conservation, research, and an ever-evolving national collection of over 2.8m objects spanning every creative discipline.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The mission of the Collections Care and Access division is to manage, preserve, and provide access to the V&A’s collection in both physical and digital format, working across multiple V&A sites, at South Kensington, Bethnal Green and in Stratford. The Division is made up of the following departments: Conservation, Technical Services, Collections Management, Photography and Digitisation, and Collections Access.

Collections Access is the newest department within the Collections Care and Access Division. Its purpose is to enable greater public access to our collections when not on display whilst ensuring the highest standards of object care, safe storage, and movement.

The Collections Access Manager plays a vital role in managing and delivering access to V&A collections not on display.

You will be responsible for the operational delivery of the V&A’s revolutionary new Order an Object Service. This will include the training, development and rostering of staff to ensure the Order an Object Service provides excellent visitor experiences whilst ensuring the safety and care of the V&A Collections. 

You will manage the Study Centre at V&A East Storehouse ensuring that the Centre provides a suitable environment for access to the V&A’s Collections.

This is a senior role within the Collections Access Department, and, alongside the other department managers, you will manage a team of full, part time and casual staff undertaking a wide range of collections care activities focused on facilitating access to stored collections.

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

Key Responsibilities

• Hold responsibility for the day-to-day management of the Order an Object Service across the V&A’s East Storehouse and South Kensington sites, ensuring excellent visitor experience delivery across all parts of the Order an Object journey.
• Manage a team of full-time, part-time, and casual Senior Collections Access Officers and Collections Access Officers undertaking a wide range of collections care activities focused on facilitating access to stored collections.
• Set and be accountable for the departmental staffing rota to ensure that adequate staff are available to deliver all agreed department activities seven days a week, including evenings as necessary.
• Be responsible for the day-to-day management of the Study Centre at V&A East Storehouse, ensuring the completion of all risk assessments required to ensure the readiness of the space, equipment, collections and V&A teams for visitors.
• Reporting to the Head of Collections Access, work with Collections Management and Technology teams to ensure the smooth running of the appointment booking software (MS Field Service) and the collection access workflows in the Collection Management System (CMS) essential to the delivery of Order an Object.
• Ensure compliance with all existing V&A policies, procedures and guidelines, particularly, Collections Care, Health and Safety, and Visitor Service Standards.
• Create a supportive culture of continuous improvement and development, ensuring the Order an Object Service is responsive to operational demands and stakeholder feedback, with the principle of easy, safe, meaningful and equitable access to collections at its core.
• Develop and implement policies, systems and ways of working that support effective access to collections not on display across the V&A sites and contribute to the development of medium- and long-term collection access strategies across the institution.
• Effectively manage and communicate with internal and external stakeholders, helping to secure their support and contribution to collection access activities, including contributing to report writing for regular Executive Board and Trustee review, and management of risk registers.
• Maintain rigorous control and detailed overview of spend against operational budgets, including all staffing, materials, consumables and other costs.
• Build a broad knowledge of the V&A’s collections and collections access best practise, and be open to sharing this with colleagues as part of peer to peer knowledge building and development activities.
• Champion and role model V&A values and behaviours, taking responsibility for personal development and performance and assisting with the training and development of new team colleagues.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential Criteria

• Proven experience of managing a medium to large team, ideally across more than one site or area of activity, including the production and oversight of complex rotas for staff on a variety of different contracts.
• Experience and successful track record of planning, implementing and monitoring new systems and ways of working.
• Proven experience of working with public facing teams and delivering continued exceptional visitor service.
• Demonstrable operational planning, administration and budget management experience with excellent organisational and project management skills.
• Demonstrable interest in and understanding of the work and values of museums and the collections they safeguard.
• Proven willingness to learn new skills and to adapt existing knowledge to new situations or environments.
• A self-starter who is able to problem solve and identify creative, cost-effective solutions to logistical challenges.
• Knowledge in how to champion access, inclusion, and diversity and how they relate to a large visitor attraction.
• Evidence of bringing improvement of the above to an organisation.

Core Skills

• Significant interpersonal and consultative skills, including the ability to communicate, present, negotiate, influence and build credibility with colleagues and external parties.
• An excellent team player with the ability to generate ideas and drive projects forward whilst being inclusive and maximizing the talents of others in the team or involved with the projects.
• Significant experience of managing and prioritising a high workload and multiple complex issues and tasks in a changing environment with tight deadlines.
• Excellent standard of written English and highly numerate with the ability to carry out complex numerical analysis.
• Experience of using MS Office and other relevant IT systems to an intermediate / advanced level.
• Demonstrable financial and budget management skills and experience.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a large multi-department business, with contribution towards the wider organization goals and achievements
• Experience of working with MS Field Service or similar appointment management software or databases, or collections management databases.

Normal working hours are 9am-5.15pm Monday to Thursday and 9am-5pm Fridays. Though weekends and evenings may be necessary at times and work pattern if flexible.

To view the full job description, please click here –> V&A East – Collections Access Manager – Job Pack