Science Purchasing & Procurement Administrator

Natural History Museum; London; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

The Natural History Museum is seeking a Science Purchasing & Procurement Administrator to assist with procurement processes and support the Science Group financially. The ideal candidate will have a degree, strong IT skills, and experience in customer interactions. This hybrid role offers a dynamic work environment within a reputable institution committed to diversity and inclusion.

Benefits

Life insurance

Free admission to exhibitions

Staff discounts at shops and cafes

Training initiatives for skill development

Access to sports and social activities

Qualifications

• Educated to Degree level or equivalent experience in a similar role.
• Strong communication skills to interact with staff at all levels.
• Experience in dealing with external customers, including non-native English speakers.

Responsibilities

• Assist with science group procurements, sourcing suppliers and preparing specifications.
• Raise purchase orders, liaise with suppliers, and coordinate travel bookings.
• Provide financial administrative support, maintaining confidentiality.

Skills

Communication

Problem-solving

Organisational skills

Customer focus

IT skills

Education

Degree or equivalent experience

Tools

O365

MS Excel

Job description

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Science Purchasing & Procurement Administrator, London

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Client:

Natural History Museum

Location:

London, United Kingdom

Job Category:

Other

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EU work permit required:

Yes

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Job Reference:

6a07054ea073

Job Views:

3

Posted:

29.06.2025

Expiry Date:

13.08.2025

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Job Description:

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.

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

The Science Purchasing and Procurement Administrator will assist the Science Procurement Lead with science group procurements such as sourcing suppliers via frameworks, preparing simple specifications.

The role involves raising purchase orders using designated frameworks, liaising with suppliers and internal customers, issuing sales invoices, coordinating travel and accommodation bookings, and processing expense claims.

Additional responsibilities include monitoring shared mailboxes, reviewing processes and suggesting improvements. The postholder will provide financial administrative support to Science Group, whilst maintaining a high degree of confidentiality on all sensitive information. The successful candidate will update team related Intranet pages and standard operating procedures, plus maintain financial records to a high level of accuracy.

About you

The role requires the individual to be Educated to Degree level or equivalent experience in a similar role, with excellent communication skills both verbal and written with the ability to interact with museum staff at all levels.

Candidates should have experience of dealing with external customers including those that do not have English as a first language, and must be able to demonstrate strong problem-solving skills. They must have the ability to organise, plan and prioritise own workload; and posses a strong customer focussed attitude. Must have excellent IT skills notably O365 & MS Excel, financial administration experience and experience of working in an academic environment with an interest in science.

They must be a proactive team player and have the ability to work well in a fast fluid environment and maintain a professional manner at all times.

It is desirable the individual has basic understanding of procurement in the public sector.

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.

Find out more here

What we offer

• 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

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.

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.

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.