Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 31 March 2028 in the first instance.
We are looking for two enthusiastic and careful Digitisers to join the Cambridge University Herbarium and the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge.
These are fixed-term positions within the Central England Digitisation Co-Hub, a new Cambridge - Oxford partnership to digitise over 1.1 million natural history specimens as part of DiSSCo UK, a £155 million national programme to digitise and connect the UK's natural science collections.
You will work as part of a small digitisation team, with your time split evenly between the two collections. You will prepare and safely handle specimen material, and digitise specimens through photography, transcription, georeferencing and databasing, capturing data and images to a high level of accuracy and consistency. You will optimise images using imaging software, follow established workflows and imaging protocols while suggesting improvements to them, and contribute operational data for project reporting and evaluation. You will also work alongside peers across the Central England network and the wider national programme, contributing to knowledge exchange and training, and delivering behind-the-scenes tours to visiting groups.
We're looking for someone educated to A level, NVQ level 3 or an equivalent level of practical experience, with practical experience of collections management work and of using a collections management system or relational database such as KE EMu.
Manual dexterity in handling delicate, irreplaceable objects, real attention to detail, and the ability to sustain accuracy through long-term repetitive tasks are essential, as is a working knowledge of biodiversity data standards such as Darwin Core and GBIF. Applied expertise in botany or entomology, and experience of digitisation, re-curation or conservation projects, would be an advantage.
These are exciting opportunities to work hands-on with two of the UK's most significant natural science collections on a landmark national programme. The British plants and insects you digitise (collected over the last two centuries) will form a historical baseline for research into species turnover and climate change, and will be made freely available to researchers worldwide through GBIF.
If you'd like to help unlock centuries of biodiversity data for the researchers who need it, we'd love to hear from you.
Once an offer of employment has been accepted, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a health assessment.
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Please quote reference PD50418 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
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