Natural History Curator Employment Contract UK

Responsibilities reflected in the contract

• Curate and research biological specimens.
• Maintain taxonomy provenance and collection data.
• Support loans visitors and scientific enquiries.
• Assess sampling collecting and permit requests.
• Manage hazardous or sensitive specimen information.

A realistic working scenario

You work across stores, labs, galleries and digital systems to prepare specimens for accession, display or loan. You run condition checks, update collections management and exhibition records, brief conservation and learning teams, complete handovers, and escalate collection condition deterioration, rights gaps, loan exceptions or visitor‑safety incidents to the museum manager or collections lead.

Outputs to agree

• Accession recommendations and updated collections management entries for new biological specimens.
• Object‑condition reports and conservation briefs for specimens scheduled for display or loan.
• Exhibition and loan documentation, including rights, provenance and handling instructions.
• Visitor, learning and incident log entries describing any safety, safeguarding or service‑continuity events.

Records and evidence

• Collections management and accession records for each specimen, with provenance and rights notes.
• Exhibition, loan and object‑condition records documenting assessments, treatments and handling needs.
• Visitor, learning and incident logs recording safety events, complaints and operational interruptions.
• Rights, provenance and conservation records linked to loans and display decisions.
• Work records.
• Handover notes.

Reporting relationship

Typically reports to Line Manager or Department Manager. Confirm the employer's actual reporting structure in the builder.

Authority and escalation

• Authorised to perform condition checks, prepare accession entries and propose exhibition or loan priorities within delegated limits. Do not approve loan agreements, accession exceptions with unresolved rights/provenance, or any release of specimens where object condition, conservation need or visitor safety is compromised. Escalate those matters to the museum manager or collections lead for approval and to notify conservation, visitor‑services or partner institution contacts.
• Obtain approval before committing expenditure, changing contractual commitments or making regulated or staffing decisions outside the assigned role.

Workplace context

• Office, client premises, remote systems or assigned work locations.

Contract priorities

• Maintain and update collections management and accession records accurately after each action.
• Complete object‑condition checks and conservation briefs before any move, display or loan.
• Record and report visitor, learning and incident events in the visitor and incident logs promptly.
• Escalate accession exceptions, loan requests with rights gaps, damaged or deteriorating specimens, and visitor‑safety incidents to the museum manager or collections lead.
• Use collections systems and company devices only for authorised curatorial work.

Information the employer should prepare

• the taxa collections and research remit
• the acquisition loan and sampling authority
• the permits fieldwork and ethics controls
• the preserved specimen and hazard systems
• the publication data and sensitive-location rules