Are you a good people manager with a knowledge of audience research methodologies? Do you want the opportunity to advocate for our museum visitors to help ensure our exhibitions are genuinely audience-focused and open for all?
About us
Audience Research and Advocacy is part of Science Museum Group's (SMG) Communications department. The team ensures our exhibitions, galleries and learning resources and programmes are developed in a way that is truly audience focused, helping colleagues from across SMG to deliver inspiring, engaging, and memorable learning experiences.
The team does this by working with visitors and people who currently do not see our museums and sites as places for them, researching their needs, wants and expectations and sharing lessons learned.
We are now recruiting for an Audience Research Manager (North) based at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester working 35 hours per week on a fixed term, maternity cover contract lasting 12 months. Hybrid working is also currently available for this position.
About the role
This is an exciting opportunity to manage the team across SMG, in close collaboration with the Audience Research Manager based in the South, to aid SMG's mission to inspire futures. As Audience Research Manager you will apply your knowledge and experience of audience research to develop and deliver an engaging and inspiring offer for all audiences, supporting SMG's 'Open for All' policy.
You will manage the team, planning and co-ordinating strategic audience research and evaluation. You will use a 'science capital' approach in all your work to encourage equitable focused practice and ensure a broader people feel more at home with science.
In this role you will manage budgets and foster relationships with stakeholders, including commissioning and managing work by external research contractors so that high-quality and actionable findings are delivered to project teams on time and within budget.
About you
Joining us you will have experience of people management, with the ability to manage, influence, motivate and coach team members. You will be a good communicator with the ability to develop relationships, advocate for your work and influence senior stakeholders.
You will be able to manage budgets and projects successfully from conception to delivery, with effective planning and organisational skills and the ability to prioritise and coordinate multiple projects to meet conflicting deadlines.
Crucially, you will have experience planning complex audience research projects, using audience research methodologies, in addition to experience working with people from a range of potential museum visitor groups e.g. families, adults, community groups, education groups, visitors with additional needs.
Applying
View the Vacancy Information Pack listed under 'Attachments' on the vacancy listing on our website for more details about the role and the application process, or click 'Apply Online' to submit an application.
Don't feel you meet all of the criteria? At SMG, we are committed to building a workforce that is open for all, and welcome you to apply, even if your experience doesn't fit perfectly. With your transferable skills, you could be the right candidate for this, or other opportunities that we have.
What we offer
Joining us as an employee, you will have the opportunity to develop your career in a world-class museum group. We understand that work/life balance and wellbeing is crucial to our colleagues, so we offer the perks listed below, as well as support for things that happen in life such as parental and adoption leave, sickness, and career breaks.
- Support with personal and professional development
- 27 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays
- Employee assistance programme
- Enhanced contributory pension
- Unmind App and other wellbeing support
- Interest-free loans
- Days Out discounts
- Health & Dental Insurance
Open for All is one of the Science Museum Group's five core values and sets out our important aspiration to be a place for everyone. We are working hard to understand our organisation better and to foster a culture that recognises and values different backgrounds, mindsets, skills, experience, knowledge, and expertise. By having greater diversity, we believe that we will be a stronger and better organisation, capable to continue to Inspire Futures.