Senior Community Science Officer, NENP

About Us

We are a world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre. We use the Museum's unique collections and our unrivalled expertise to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world today. We care for more than 80 million objects spanning billions of years and welcome more than five million visitors annually and 16 million visits to our website.

Today the Museum is more relevant and influential than ever. By attracting people from a range of backgrounds to work for us, we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things.

We employ 1100 staff in a variety of roles, all united by our vision of a future where people and planet thrive. We need everyone to have the passion and drive to help us with our mission to create advocates for our planet and inspire millions to care about the natural world.

Diversity and inclusion matter to us.

Our vision is of a future where both people and the planet thrive. Diversity is one of our core values and we strive to build a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. All new staff who join us learn about the importance of diversity and inclusion to the Museum and how to contribute to creating an inclusive environment.

We know we have more to do, but we are committed to ensuring that everyone who works at the Museum feels they can thrive and feel valued and respected.

About the role

The Senior Community Science Officer role will provide day to day project management of the community science workstream within the National Education Nature Park programme, coordinating the work of a small team of colleagues and liaising across the Museum and wider partnership. The role will work closely with Postdoctoral Researchers to facilitate meaningful research collaborations between young people, educators and biodiversity researchers, and to use evidence to inform nature recovery action across the country.

The National Education Nature Park is an England wide programme of nature recovery, community science research, and climate education with over 9000 schools participating. Young people develop a meaningful connection to nature, experience rich curriculum content about biodiversity, climate change and the Planetary Emergency, and critically, feel able to take action to enhance and protect nature. The programme is commissioned by the Department for Education and led by the Museum in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society and others.

The post will be based within the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Nature (Science Department) as part of the Community Science team. The successful candidate will form an integral part of this internationally recognised research practice group.

About you

We are looking for an experienced community science (citizen science) professional to play a key role in delivering a high profile, exciting national programme. You will be passionate about participatory approaches to scientific research and have a wealth of experience to draw upon to create engaging and creative research activities that result in high quality research data. This role provides the opportunity for you to combine community science research with on the ground real world change, by supporting schools to enhance habitats on their school site and work towards nature recovery. Your knowledge of UK habitats and biodiversity, and approaches to enhance these, is key. Your experience of working with young people and designing resources or learning experiences for them will ensure that community science activities are deeply grounded in the National Curriculum and that this programme is equitable and accessible to all.

Thriving at the Museum: the way we work

We are proud to work at the Museum and have identified the qualities we all need to embody to reach our shared ambition. This sits alongside the Museum's values and forms the framework for the way we work.

What we offer

• 27.5 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays (full time equivalent)
• Generous defined contribution Natural History Museum Pension Scheme (employer contribution 4 10%)
• Season ticket, bicycle and rental loan
• Life insurance
• Free admission to our exhibitions and many other paid exhibitions at museums, galleries and institutions across London and the UK.
• Staff discount at our Museum shops and cafes
• We offer a wide variety of training initiatives and opportunities to build skills. Investing in staff development is important to us, and we are ambitious about helping staff to grow and fulfil their potential.
• Affordable membership to the Civil Service Sports Council which offers a range of benefits including an extensive list of special offers and reduced entry fees at a selection of cinema chains, theme parks, theatres, retailers and supermarkets. It also provides entry to up to 300 English Heritage sites and other national treasures. For more details, visit
• Membership to our Sports and Social Association (for a small fee), which includes access to our in house gym and clubs such as football, softball, table tennis and tennis and classes in Middle Eastern dance, yoga and Tai Chi

Hybrid working

We are working towards a vision where both people and planet thrive, and nothing gives a greater connection with this than seeing first hand, the visitors, scientific research and collections that all of our work is inspired by and working side by side with the teams delivering the visitor experience and events. We also recognise the benefits and flexibility that hybrid working brings. We operate a hybrid working model that requires regular, weekly attendance for this role, with the precise pattern of days on site and worked from home to be agreed with your manager.

Please note that this role does not qualify for Museum sponsorship so the successful postholder will need to have a valid right to work in the UK at the point of offer.