Head of the Royal Bindery

It’s the sense of guardianship for a world class collection

It's preserving unique art, history and knowledge. And it's encouraging your team to care for and present remarkable treasures and stories. This is what makes a career in Royal Collection Trust exceptional.

The Royal Library and Royal Archives are home to one of the largest and most important collections of manuscripts, printed books and archives in the world.

As Head of the Royal Bindery, you’ll lead the Royal Bindery team, ensuring the highest standard of conservation and ongoing care of this unique collection.

Key Responsibilities

• Managing all aspects of the Royal Bindery’s work, you’ll plan and oversee the programme of conservation works.
• As the lead practitioner you’ll bring vast technical expertise to the role, advising and guiding others in bookbinding and conservation methods, as well as undertaking key conservation projects yourself. You will also oversee the creation of new binding structures.
• Collaborating with both internal and external colleagues, you’ll make strategic contributions to the storage, display, loans, access and information management of the collection. 
• You’ll ensure our policies and best practise guidelines are evolving continuously and will bring new solutions to technical challenges.
• Managing the Royal Bindery team, you’ll encourage new talent and grow skills in those around you, developing future leaders in book conservation. 
• Aligning conservation needs with the wider activities and aims of Royal Collection Trust, and of a modern working palace, will be a unique challenge.

And in all you do, you’ll be preserving history and knowledge from the past for millions to admire today and into the future.

Essential Criteria

• With professional accreditation and significant experience of hand bookbinding and book conservation, you’re an expert in your field, looking to apply and develop your knowledge further in a new environment.
• A highly skilled craftsperson, your practical experience and benchwork skillset will be key to your success.
• You’ll have an in-depth knowledge of and experience with the full range of materials used in manuscripts, rare books and archives, and will be highly competent in binding structures, period binding styles, gold finishing and edge gilding. 
• Having worked for a library or archives collection for some time, you'll be confident planning and managing a varied schedule of works for your department.
• Highly organised and with excellent project management skills, you'll be adept at managing both your own and your colleagues’ workloads to meet deadlines.
• An excellent communicator, you’ll work well with a variety of people, and be able to influence and engage with colleagues across our talented teams.
• You'll also have strong people management skills, particularly when it comes to direct line-management and contractor relationships.
• Perceptive and resourceful, you’ll have good initiative and will be able to apply your experience to find solutions, making you a strong leader and a real asset for the team.
• And with an adaptable and collaborative approach, you’ll enjoy working with colleagues in complementary specialist fields to achieve shared goals on behalf of The Royal Collection Trust.

We know that to deliver our best work, we need to feel at our best. That’s why at the Royal Household we offer a generous benefits package designed to support your wellbeing and life priorities.

• Enjoy 25 days annual leave, rising to 30 days (plus bank holidays) dependent on the length of time you have worked for us.
• Our excellent non-contributory pension plan (we’ll contribute 15% and you can contribute more if you wish) is highly valued by our employees, as is complementary lunch on-site to keep you fuelled throughout the day.
• We also offer a range of leave options to support your life priorities, such as parental pay and leave and volunteering days, as well as benefits to support your physical and mental wellbeing.
• Other perks include 20% off at our Royal Collection Trust Shops and complementary admission tickets across all our locations, along with many more exclusive employee discounts.

Find out more about the full range of benefits available to our employees here.