Head of Technical Conservation

Location: Hybrid · United Kingdom (multiple locations) - Cambridge, Portsmouth, Bristol, Swindon, Birmingham, Manchester, York, Newcastle.

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 has a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Head of Technical Conservation. This is a Full Time, Permanent position.

The location of this role is National where we offer hybrid working, you will be based in one of our following offices and from home - Newcastle, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Swindon, Bristol, Portsmouth (Fort Cumberland) and Cambridge. We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 28.97% 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.

What you will be doing:

• This senior role has responsibility for a number of technical conservation and survey teams working to protect the nation’s amazing historic buildings and landscapes.
• You will lead the integration of these teams to create a powerful and nationally recognised centre of excellence in all aspects of the repair and maintenance of the historic built environment.
• You will lead an agreed programme of technical services and research and development in support of Historic England’s priorities.
• You will forge close links with our Regional Delivery teams in support of planning and heritage at risk-related work.
• You will ensure high quality advice and expert capability to other teams in Historic England, as required.
• You will drive the development of diverse income streams for services to increase the resilience of the teams and Historic England.
• You will ensure that the teams maintain currency in relevant technical conservation skills and work closely with our Science teams where appropriate.

Who we are looking for:

• Demonstrable understanding of UK technical conservation methods and processes coupled with a personal track record of successful direct involvement in the field.
• Significant experience and a proven track record of the management of conservation and survey teams and successful project or programme management.
• Excellent leadership and effective management skills exercised in an interdisciplinary environment.
• Proven ability to lead a performance culture and high performing teams, and of tackling poor performance at all levels.
• Strong organisational skills and excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to communicate persuasively with staff at all levels, and with colleagues and a diversity of external partners, both verbally and in writing, in a manner which instils and inspires confidence.

Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria. 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.

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.

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. This is a CV application process. Please upload your CV and cover letter as one document in the CV section and answer the two qualifying sift questions.

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted. Provisional interview dates: 19th May 2025 via Microsoft Teams. There are two stages to this interview process.