Head of Design

Are you an established and collaborative Designer? Can you manage project teams and deliver exceptional design leadership?

About us

The Science Museum Group (SMG) is an ambitious, fast-moving organisation driven by the belief that museums can change lives and inspire the next generation.

During a decade of transformation in its public realm and permanent galleries, the Science Museum won a number of design and cultural awards, culminating in the ArtFund Museum of the Year award in 2019. Since then, the Science Museum's ambition has continued to grow, with bold major exhibitions and plans for new permanent galleries.

To support this work, we are now recruiting for a Head of Design to be a strategic and influential design expert reporting to the Masterplan Director.

About the roleAs Head of Design, you will advocate for outstanding creativity and design in exhibitions, marketing, commercial offers and major projects. You will deliver design leadership and ensure consistency of brand, working with teams to drive creative responses which are attuned to our audiences and by ensuring we are confident clients in the design process. You will be a technical expert and a critical friend in projects, supporting project teams to develop coherent and relevant experiences. Through your curiosity and keen awareness of the wider creative sector, you will engage with creative partners on behalf of the organisation, commission design work and source the best design teams for exhibitions and other projects.

You will also lead the Science Museum's well-established design studio, which is responsible for delivering (directly or through a pool of trusted freelancers) 3D and 2D design for the public programme as well marketing campaigns, learning materials and wayfinding.

About youAs our Head of Design, you will be able to confidently lead design teams on large projects, with a good understanding of RIBA design stages, and will hold a relevant design degree, professional qualification or equivalent experience. You will be comfortable commissioning and managing a variety of designers to a high professional standard. As a leader, you will have a strategic and forward-thinking approach; being able to see the big picture and focus resources accordingly will be key.

View the Vacancy Information Pack listed under 'Attachments' on the vacancy listing on our website for more details about the role and the application process, or click 'Apply Online' to submit an application.

Don't feel you meet all of the criteria? At SMG, we are committed to building a workforce that is open for all, and welcome you to apply, even if your experience doesn't fit perfectly. With your transferable skills, you could be the right candidate for this, or other opportunities that we have.

What we offer

Joining us as an employee, you will have the opportunity to develop your career in a world-class museum group. We know work/life balance and wellbeing is crucial to our colleagues, so we offer up to 27 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays; a support with personal and professional development; employee assistance programme; enhanced contributory pension; and enhanced support for things that happen in life such as parental and adoption leave, sickness and career breaks.

'Open for All' is one of the Science Museum Group's five core values and sets out our important aspiration to be a place for everyone. As a national museum group, we have an ability to reach a wide and diverse population of audiences, colleagues and partners through our geography and scale.

We are working hard to understand our organisation better and to foster a culture that recognises and values different backgrounds, mindsets, skills, experience, knowledge and expertise. By having greater diversity, we believe that we will be a stronger and better organisation and ultimately will be able to inspire more futures. We therefore welcome applications from those who bring difference.