About the role
The Museum Data Service (MDS) is an innovative new digital infrastructure that aims to make the millions of object records held by UK museums available as FAIR data for research and countless other uses. Currently, over six million object records from over 150 accredited museums can be searched on the MDS site.
The University of Leicester has secured grant funding from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council to run and develop the service from April 2025 to March 2028, on behalf of the MDS charitable company established in June 2024, in partnership with Art UK and Collections Trust.
The MDS’s Technology Manager will play a key role in supporting the strategic transition of MDS from start-up to an established and indispensable part of AHRC’s digital infrastructure ecosystem (iDAH), by managing the existing digital infrastructure, whilst at the same time working with colleagues and stakeholders to continually improve its usefulness for contributing collections, research users and B2B re-use by other institutions. The Technology Manager will report to the Head of Service.
The post is funded through the substantial investment of the iDAH programme of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and forms part of a wider body of work to develop the Museum Data Service over this next funding cycle.
The MDS Technology Manager can be based remotely, and is affiliated to the university’s Institute for Digital Culture. The Institute pursues purposeful inter-disciplinary research with the culture sector globally as it adapts to a digital world.
About you
The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of data management practices and principles, including FAIR data and will have experience/understanding of managing multiple applications as components within an integrated platform/ecosystem. Experience in working with large-scale research data initiatives is also required. You will have obtained skills in cyber security risk assessment and have advanced data processing skills as well as excellent organisational and project management skills