Deputy Head of Security, Emergency Planning and Logistics
Organisation:
Natural History Museum
Salary:
£50,000 p.a.
Type:
Full-Time Position
Location:
London, England
Closing Date:
Sunday, 29th June 2025
Job Ref No:
000454
About Us
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 900 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.
This is an exciting time to join the Museum as we have secured investment from the UK Government to build a new science and digitisation centre at Thames Valley Science Park, University of Reading. The purpose-built centre will house much of the Museum's collection and will include laboratories, digitisation suites, collaborative research spaces, conservation labs and workspaces.
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.
About the role
Are you ready to play a vital role in safeguarding one of the world’s most iconic institutions? The Natural History Museum is seeking an exceptional Deputy Head of Security, Emergency Planning and Logistics to help lead our Security, Emergency Planning and Logistics team – a department that sits at the heart of the Museum’s daily operations, exhibitions, and future vision.
As Deputy Head of Security, Emergency Planning and Logistics you'll work side-by-side with the Head of Department to deliver an exemplary, future-focused service that ensures the safety of our people, collections, and historic estate. From managing critical relationships with our external security providers, to guiding emergency planning and overseeing site logistics during construction and gallery builds, this is a rare opportunity to impact the operational backbone of a globally recognised Museum.
The Security, Emergency Planning and Logistics team manages all aspects of security, incident and emergency planning and site logistics for all construction activity on site, including gallery builds.
The Deputy will work alongside the Head of Security, Emergency Planning and Logistics in delivering a comprehensive and efficient security, emergency planning and logistics service across all Museum sites. This will encompass liaising on a daily basis with the external provider of the security service in order to maintain compliance with sector standards and ‘best practice’ to protect people, buildings, and collections.
The post-holder is responsible for ensuring that the security resources determined by the security contract schedule are deployed by the supplier, and that they are professionally competent to successfully conduct the assigned duties and maintain a safe and secure environment within the Museum. They will also help manage challenging site logistics, overseeing a small team, to help Estates, Masterplanning and Projects colleagues, ensuring that strict processes are adhered to for safe and efficient build projects, in both exhibitions and estate improvements.
The post-holder will assist in the implementation and maintenance of the Museum’s Business Continuity Management System, helping to coordinate testing and exercising of plans across the organisation to ensure readiness should an incident take place.
To assist in this, the post holder must build relationships across all departments within the Museum, and provide professional and expert security, emergency planning and logistics advice on operational matters to Heads of Departments and all colleagues within their organisations.
The post holder will deputise for the Head of Security, Emergency Planning and Logistics in their absence.
About you
You’re a calm, capable leader with a sharp eye for detail and a strategic mindset. Whether managing an incident, planning for a VIP event or preparing for a major build, you’re proactive, collaborative, and always thinking three steps ahead. You’ve led security operations in complex, multi-site environments and thrive under pressure.
Thriving at the Museum: the way we work
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. Investing in staff development is important to us, and we are ambitious about helping staff to grow and fulfil their potential.
• 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. It also provides entry to up to 300 English Heritage sites and other national treasures. For more details, visit https://www.cssc.co.uk
• 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
Hybrid working
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.
Application Instructions
How to apply
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 29 June 2025
Interviews expected: w/c 7 July 2025
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.
