Curator of Pteridophytes in London

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.

The Pteridophyte Herbarium has been assembled over more than 200 years and comprises an estimated 350k specimens. It is one of the largest collections of ferns and lycophytes in the world. It represents a unique resource with which to understand pteridophyte diversity, how it has changed through time and how it is now responding to rapid planetary change. Together with the NHM’s fossil plants collections, the NHM Pteridophyte Herbarium offers a unique opportunity to bridge the past with the future but also to explore extant biodiversity from Great Britain and Ireland and the rest of the world. We are currently working with the Museum’s Digital Collections Programme to make the herbarium digitally discoverable through digitisation. Embedded within the Algae, Fungi and Plants Collections Division, the Curator of Pteridophytes will ensure best practice in collections care and development and provide a world-class collection of natural history specimens with specimens acquired, curated and used, and made available to facilitate research, teaching, training, reference, and exhibitions.

The successful applicant will have a focus on managing and developing the pteridophyte herbarium (ferns and lycophytes) but will be willing to support curatorial projects across the team. You will have expertise in botany and knowledge and experience of herbarium collections management and collections-based research. A working knowledge of pteridophyte identification and systematics and fieldwork experience are desirable. This is an exciting opportunity to support the role of the Pteridophyte Herbarium in understanding, communicating, and conserving pteridophyte diversity on Earth.

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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.

If this sounds like you, please apply below by clicking on Apply for job. Please note that as part of our commitment to anonymised shortlisting, panels do not view CVs during the recruitment process. If you choose to upload your CV, our system will automatically pull information from your CV into our application form. We advise you to double-check your application form data before submitting as the tool may interpret CVs differently.

Closing date: 23:59 on January 18th 2026

Interviews expected: w/c February 09th 2026

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.