Collections & House Manager - Warminster

National Trust; Warminster; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 56,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Substantial pension scheme

Free entry to National Trust places

Rental deposit loan

Season ticket loan

EV car lease scheme

Perks at work discounts

Holiday allowance 32 days

Flexible working

Employee assistance programme

Free parking

Job summary

The National Trust is seeking a Collections and House Manager for Stourhead, an 18th‑century Palladian mansion set in a world‑famous landscape. You will lead a team of collections staff and volunteers to provide outstanding presentation, conservation and public access.

Working with curators and visitor experience teams, you will shape the visitor journey, manage budgets and safety, and ensure accreditation standards are met while telling diverse stories to new audiences.

Qualifications

• Experience in achieving high standards of presentation, customer care, compliance and collections management in a historic setting.
• Aware of current developments and approved practices in the heritage sector in visitor engagement, innovation and access.
• Keen to promote inclusivity and diversity in the interpretation and presentation of history.
• Able to remain resilient and positive while managing colleagues, changes and challenges.
• Able to build strong and effective working relationships with diverse people.
• Experienced in managing people and achieving goals through others.

Responsibilities

• Translate conservation priorities into the visitor journey and decide which stories to tell and which spaces to open.
• Lead a team of collections staff and volunteers, driving performance with clear objectives and feedback.
• Set and manage operational and conservation budgets and manage risk to house, collection, staff and visitors.
• Coordinate duty management and property-wide leadership alongside peers.
• Oversee collection checks, loans and movements and ensure documentation meets accreditation standards.

Skills

Leadership

People management

Visitor engagement

Heritage sector knowledge

Diversity and inclusion

Job description

We're looking for someone who cares deeply about achieving high standards, and helping to make beauty and history accessible to all, to join us as a Collections and House Manager at the iconic Stourhead., This is a role for someone who wants the Conservation Management Plan to be an evolving working document rather than a document on a shelf. You'll use it, alongside the audience plan, to tie everything together, making the case for what we do and why, and turning conservation priorities into visitor moments that genuinely land. You'll make sure access, conservation and storytelling are never traded off against each other, but planned as one, making Stourhead's house and collection unforgettable. Working closely with the Curator, Conservator and Visitor Experience teams, you'll translate conservation priorities into the visitor journey, choosing which stories to tell, which spaces to open up, and which hidden histories deserve the spotlight, so that every intervention in the collection becomes an opportunity to deepen how people connect with it. As a leader, you'll recruit, coach and develop a team of staff and volunteers, driving performance through clear objectives and regular feedback, and playing an active part in growing volunteering at Stourhead. It's through this team that the plan gets delivered: preventive and remedial conservation, recording of collection condition, commissioning specialist contractors where needed, and carry out long-term conservation. You'll be responsible for meeting Museum Accreditation (Spectrum) documentation standards, developing and delivering documentation plans, and keeping the collections database accurate and useful. You'll also manage the annual cycle of collection checks, loans and movements, and use the audience plan to shape how the collection is reviewed and developed to keep bringing new stories to new audiences. You'll set and manage operational and conservation budgets, identify and manage risk to the house, collection, staff and visitors, and take on wider property leadership responsibilities and duty management alongside your peers.

We'd love to hear from you if you're:

• experienced in achieving high standards of presentation, customer care, compliance and collections management in a historic setting
• aware of current developments and approved practices in the heritage sector in the field of visitor engagement, innovation and access
• keen to promote inclusivity and diversity in the interpretation and presentation of history
• someone who can remain resilient and positive while managing colleagues, changes and challenges
• able to build strong and effective working relationships with diverse people
• experienced in managing people and achieving goals through others.

Stourhead is an 18th-century Palladian mansion set in a world-famous landscape garden that already draws around 400,000 daytime visitors a year. It is one of the National Trust's busiest and best-loved places, home to nationally significant interiors and a highly fragile collection of remarkable range and depth.

You'll join a close-knit leadership team at a moment of real ambition. Over the next decade Stourhead aims to become one of the most welcoming, culturally vibrant and ecologically resilient historic landscapes in Britain - a place where people from every background feel they truly belong. Success here depends on genuine collaboration: you'll lead your own team of collections staff and volunteers, work closely with the Curator and Conservator. You'll also work alongside your peers, including the Visitor Experience Manager, Visitor Operations Manager and Garden and Landscapes Manager. Under the oversight of the General Manager, you'll share duty management and property-wide leadership as a unified team.

The National Trust is committed to promoting and preserving those places of natural beauty and historic interest for which it has the privilege to be responsible for the benefit of the nation, for everyone for ever. The Trust is proud of what has been achieved over the last 126 years and is determined to maintain those high standards of conservation, stewardship and curatorial care for which it has been recognised throughout the world. Its achievements have enabled the general public and the Trust's members and visitors to enjoy and appreciate the countryside, coastline, gardens, historic buildings and collections, all of which encapsulate so much of the history of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is a duty to tell that history in a complete, balanced and accurate way, and without judgement. The National Trust continues as a guardian of the past, and for the future, to uphold its duty to maintain and enhance what has been entrusted to its care.

The package The National Trust has the motto 'For everyone, for ever' at its heart. We're working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It's important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we're for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.

• Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary
• Free entry to National Trust places for you, a guest and your children (under 18)
• Rental deposit loan scheme
• Season ticket loan
• EV car lease scheme (for roles that meet the salary criteria)
• Perks at work discounts such as gym memberships, shopping discount codes, cinema discounts
• Holiday allowance up to 32 days relating to length of service, plus holiday purchase scheme, subject to meeting minimum criteria.
• Flexible working whenever possible
• Employee assistance programme
• Free parking at most Trust places