This is an excellent opportunity to join the Herbarium Curation team in Science Collections as a Senior Curator-Botanist (Americas). The successful candidate will curate the Herbarium collections to a high standard, which includes processing new acquisitions, processing specimens before mounting, incorporating specimens, performing or overseeing sampling of specimens and working with Kew's Integrated Collections Management System. In addition to this, the role includes facilitating access for our many visitors to the collections from around the world, identifying specimens collected from Americas and undertaking individual collection-based research and/or research collaboration in line with Science Strategy. The postholder will be a key member of the Science Collections team based in the Herbarium building, working with the other members of the broader Science Directorate and visitors to the Herbarium Building. The role will be based at our Kew Gardens site near Richmond in West London and is full-time and onsite (with flexibility to work from home one day a week when appropriate).
Educated to degree level and with a proven background in a similar role with significant experience in curation, our ideal candidate will be a team player who can manage multiple priorities of the Americas Curation team, whilst being able to adapt to changing processes across curation. This person will need to be confident to lead and manage on curation tasks and staff. They will enjoy teamwork and good communication skills to bring teams from Americas curation and research together. They will have some supervision, mentoring or management experience; have experience of working with herbarium specimens and be familiar with working with databases and curation procedures, including an interest in collecting curation statistics and working with spreadsheets. It would be desirable to have knowledge of a second language used in the tropical Americas.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) is a leading plant science institute, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and major visitor attraction. Our mission is to understand and protect plants and fungi for the well-being of people and the future of all life on Earth.
We are working to end the unprecedented extinction crisis and to help create a world where nature is protected, valued by all and managed sustainably. We will achieve these goals by drawing on our leading scientific research, unrivalled collections of plants and fungi, global network of partners, inspirational gardens at Kew and Wakehurst, and our 260 years of history.
Join us on our journey as protectors of the world’s plants and fungi.
The salary for this position is £38,100 per annum [Band D]
Our fantastic benefits package includes opportunities for continuous learning, a generous annual leave entitlement, flexible working to help you maintain a healthy work-life balance, an Employee Assistance Programme and other wellbeing support such as cycle to work scheme and discounted gym membership. We also offer a competitive pension, an employee discount scheme and free entry into a wide range of national museums and galleries, as well as access to our own beautiful gardens at Kew and Wakehurst.
If you are interested in this position, please submit your application through the online portal.
We are dedicated to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from all sections of the community. We are committed to interview disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.
