Summary
We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.
Historic England have a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Data Standards Specialist.
This is a Full Time, 18 month Fixed-Term Contract.
We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 28% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.
To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here .
What you will be doing
The AHRC-funded Heritage Data Service (HSDS) will provide key digital research services to transform heritage science and conservation research and its capacity to advance understanding, preservation and management of UK heritage. It will offer a single discovery point to distributed facilities, cross-disciplinary expertise and shared data as a research resource. This new coordinated approach brings considerable advantages, enabling international leadership and open innovation, including advances in AI and data science.
The HSDS will be developed and managed by the Archaeology Data Service in partnership with the STFC Hartree Centre. It will bring together key UK heritage bodies covering England, Scotland and Wales. Historic England will contribute expertise in the areas of IT, data standards, science collections and linking to archives.
The role will play a key part in delivering the Heritage Science Data Service project in which Historic England are partners and that is part of the UK’s Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS ) programme. You will work closely with colleagues across Historic England and be part of the HSDS research community which includes key organisations and data providers across the UK, including The British Museum, British Geological Survey, The National Gallery, The National Archives, Natural History Museum, Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, Museum Wales, and Manchester Metropolitan University .
Shared data standards will be essential to ensure that the HSDS provides Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) data. You will collaborate with data providers and international partners to review existing ontologies and controlled vocabularies and develop new resources where required. You will also carry out mapping work for vocabularies and partner data schemas.
This role requires specialist technical skills in data standards. You will be adept at collaborating effectively with partners, communication, prioritising and planning and delivering quality and consistency.
Who we are looking for
* Experience of developing and implementing taxonomies, thesauri or controlled vocabularies
* Experience of developing and implementing data standards or metadata schema
* An interest in heritage science and conservation
* Familiarity with XML and the development of XML schemas
* Working knowledge of reference data management systems and query languages
* Excellent logical, analytical and problem-solving skills
* Effective time management and an ability to manage and prioritize, and take responsibility for a range of concurrent tasks and projects
We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.
We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.
We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.
Why work for Historic England
We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.
We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.
Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries.
At Historic England we use a hiring system called Applied. Applied is a behavioural science-backed recruitment platform that reduces bias, improves quality of hire and increases diversity. We do not use CV application for the majority of our hiring processes. You will answer a selection of questions that allow our hiring teams to test your skills and suitability for the role.
To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.
Provisional interview dates: week commencing 17th and 24th February 2025 - Virtual
Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description –