Head of Conservation

Location: Edinburgh

Salary: £52,406 - £60,809 per annum (pay award pending) plus generous benefits and hybrid/flexible working

Application Deadline: 27 November 2025

Job Summary

About the role

As Head of Conservation, you will take on an exciting leadership position at the heart of our Collection Access and Care Directorate.

This is a pivotal position that reflects the increasing demands being made on the role of the conservator including the opportunities that multidisciplinary research provides. You will bring your own specialist conservation expertise while having operational responsibility for a busy team of seventeen.

We are looking for someone with proven, strong leadership and coaching skills to support continuous development of the team in delivering their goals. As a senior leader, you will play a pivotal role in contributing to Our People Vision of ‘… ensuring the National Galleries of Scotland is a great place to work, where our people thrive in a culture where we are trusted, empowered and engaged to achieve our true potential.’

To succeed you’ll have an outstanding ability to work with many stakeholders, collaborating within and out with the department and across the professional network of conservation to achieve ambitious goals. You will work closely with colleagues across various disciplines including our learning, curatorial, collections management and collections information teams, to develop an integrated approach to conservation at the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS). We are committed to sustainability in all aspects of our work and your approach to conservation will have sustainable practice as its starting point.

You will play an important role in the development of our ambitious project to create a new National Collections Facility - The Art Works for NGS and our partners.

Conservation at the National Galleries of Scotland

We have developed an exciting strategy for the coming years with clear aims aligned to our purpose ‘We make art work for everyone.’ Conservation will sit at the heart of this strategy as a key enabling function to develop our national and international programmes and develop and engage audiences in new ways.

The conservation department includes specialist conservation expertise across paintings, frames, works on paper and photography, sculpture, installation, media and performance art and preventive conservation. A conservation technician team supports the conservators delivering a programme of non-interventive care including crate design, preparation of frames, and mount making. Developments in the field of sculpture conservation at NGS are at an early stage and methodologies for this emerging skill area are being formulated. There is a strong desire to develop further an integrated heritage science function relevant to the materials and range of the NGS collection and those works in its care.

The department is involved in the field of technical art history and continues to lead the way in Scotland in the field of IR-reflectography and micro fader technology. We are a founding member of the National Heritage Science Forum

We regularly host interns from the UK and abroad, providing essential experience during conservation training and opportunities for learning once qualified. We also support an ongoing volunteer programme.

The department is a lively member of the Scottish conservation scene and has developed links with other cultural bodies including the National Museums of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, National Libraries of Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, and the Scottish University sector. Through ARTIST ROOMS the department works closely with Tate.

The conservation team provide full support to the world-class NGS public programme – exhibitions, displays, national and international touring projects and development of the collection through acquisitions and long loans.