King's College London

About us:

The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world.

Within Libraries & Collections, we aspire to be leaders in enabling access to knowledge and information fundamental to this vision. Developments in digital education, e-research and AI are transforming our services. Our Open Library strategy outlines our ambitious plans and how they contribute to student success and research excellence.

Our world-class archive collections comprise the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, and the King’s College London archives. We are excited to be seeking an exceptional individual to lead the staff and services delivered by our Archives team.

About the role:

This is a rare and exciting opportunity to lead the Archives at King’s and develop sector-leading professional practice that embraces new technology alongside an ethical and inclusive approach. Candidates should be able to demonstrate their skills and expertise in driving the development and delivery of archives to the benefit of all users, applying and demonstrating a commitment to furthering professional good practice.

The Head of Archives will lead and develop our outstanding archive collections, services and team, ensuring that our world-class collections play a leading role in research, education and public engagement at King’s.  They will work across Libraries & Collections, particularly with the Senior Management team, to explore how Archives can deepen connections with other teams and services. The university-wide Campus Futures programme and our commitment to digital transformation will provide opportunities for close cooperation with our Special Collections team.

They provide advice, expertise and insight as a member of the Libraries & Collections Senior Management team particularly on developments in the Archives sector such as digitisation, digital preservation, digital scholarship, the impact of AI and ethical and inclusive professional practice.

​All Libraries & Collections staff are encouraged to take responsibility for their own performance and development, through agreeing clear objectives, maintaining professional awareness, participating in professional networks and reflecting on own performance. We expect all senior managers to adopt a positive, proactive, flexible and committed approach that inspires and motivates others with an authentic approach to leadership.

You will be required to participate in frontline services as required, including contributing towards a Manager on Duty rota for evening and weekend working.

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.

This is a full time role (35 hours per week) and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience could include work in a research library or archive, or other institution holding significant collections. Relevant educational experiences should include being educated to degree level and/or a professionally accredited archives qualification
2. Detailed knowledge of current archives management practices - both digital and analogue – and awareness of developments and debate in technology and professional practice
3. Experience of delivering collections-based services and projects that embrace new technology and achieve strategic objectives
4. Highly organised and skilled in managing and delivering projects and initiatives with an understanding of the role of business planning and business intelligence in effective service delivery
5. Ability to manage, lead and motivate teams through significant change, successfully applying the principles of change management
6. Experience of managing risk and making difficult decisions with willingness to take ownership of those decisions
7. Ability to work on own initiative and comfortable with ambiguity, taking active ownership for service development and delivery and persevering when faced with obstacles
8. Ability to engage in collaborative working within and beyond King’s, with a meaningful and visible commitment to Diversity & Inclusion policies and practices

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of implementing digital preservation processes and systems
2. Experience of working with a wide range of historic and heritage collections
3. Experience of working with the Agile project management framework

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process

Further information:

Please submit a supporting statement when applying for this vacancy, as well as a CV, clearly setting out how you meet the essential criteria, as this is how we shortlist applications. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please included your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held on 9th September 2025.