Senior Copyright Officer

University of Oxford; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A prestigious university in Oxford is seeking an experienced professional to lead a rights management project within the Ashmolean Museum’s Digital Collections service. This full-time, fixed-term role involves researching and verifying rights to publish collections online, collaborating with museum colleagues, and ensuring accurate rights information. The ideal candidate has a relevant degree, strong knowledge of copyright law, and excellent interpersonal skills. The position offers a competitive salary and generous benefits including 38 days annual leave and a contributory pension scheme.

Benefits

Excellent contributory pension scheme

38 days of annual leave

Comprehensive childcare services

Family leave schemes

Cycle loan scheme

Discounted bus travel

Qualifications

• In-depth knowledge of copyright law at national and international levels.
• Practical experience applying rights and risk management in cultural heritage.
• Confident working with digital asset management systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead a project to research and verify rights for museum collections.
• Collaborate with colleagues to improve rights workflows.
• Support digitisation priorities and manage stakeholder expectations.

Skills

Knowledge of copyright law

Data analysis

Interpersonal skills

Negotiation skills

Experience with digital asset management systems

Education

Relevant undergraduate degree or equivalent experience

Job description

About the role

Working within the Ashmolean Museum’s Digital Collections service, you will lead a focused project to research, verify and clear rights so that more of the Museum’s collections can be published online. You will collaborate closely with colleagues across the museum to improve rights workflows and support digitisation priorities.

Your work will include reviewing existing agreements, conducting rights holder research, undertaking risk assessments, negotiating licences within agreed budgets, improving orphan-works guidance, and ensuring rights information is accurately recorded in ResourceSpace and MuseumPlus. You will provide clear guidance to colleagues, support data cleaning and analysis, and help shape a consistent rights management culture across the Museum.

This is a full-time, fixed-term (project) post for 2 years. The role will be based onsite at the Ashmolean, but with flexibility for home working arrangements.

About You

You will have a relevant undergraduate degree or equivalent experience, with in-depth knowledge of copyright law at national and international levels and practical experience applying rights and risk management in a cultural heritage or publishing setting.

You will be confident working with digital asset management systems and comfortable undertaking precise data analysis and bulk data cleaning.

Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across teams, are essential, together with strong influencing and negotiation skills to manage licence discussions and stakeholder expectations.

What We Offer

As an employer, we genuinely care about our employees’ wellbeing and this is reflected in the range of benefits that we offer including:

• An excellent contributory pension scheme
• 38 days of annual leave
• A comprehensive range of childcare services
• Family leave schemes
• Cycle loan scheme
• Discounted bus travel and Season Ticket travel loans

More information is available at https://hr.admin.ox.ac.uk/staff-benefits

How to apply

You will be required to upload your CV and a supporting statement as part of your online application. Your supporting statement should list each of the essential and desirable selection criteria, as listed in the job description, and explain how you meet each one. CVs alone will not be considered.

Only applications received online by 12.00 midday (GMT) on Tuesday 6 January 2026 can be considered. Interviews are expected to take place on 16 January 2026.

* An automatic annual increment each year will be paid up to (and not including) the discretionary range within the University of Oxford’s Grade 6 salary scale.

From £35,681. Grade 6