Archived: Buyer (Seasonal)

Contract: Full time (36 hours p/w), Permanent

Salary: £35,798 per annum plus benefits

Location: South Kensington, hybrid working available

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

This is an exciting opportunity for a passionate, commercially driven, highly creative buying professional to work as part of the Retail team. Using the fantastic assets and imagery in the Museum’s collections, the Buyer (Seasonal) will focus on developing and sourcing new product for seasonal assortments (e.g. Christmas), our temporary and touring exhibitions (e.g. Wildlife Photographer of the Year) and our online store, nhmshop.co.uk.

The Natural History Museum’s retail business is a critical source of income for the Museum and supports vital work in helping people and planet thrive, including the work of over 300 scientists.

The retail business is split across 3 permanent onsite shops and additional temporary ones for exhibitions, an expanding online business, and our touring exhibition programme.

Our ambition is to be a leader in sustainable retail and you will be developing and sourcing high quality product that meets the Museum’s ethical and sustainability policy and offer value and quality to our domestic and overseas visitors. You will be working with the Merchandising team to deliver an assortment that maximises sales and profit in line with the Museum strategy.

This position reports into the Head of Retail and works in a team of 2 buyers and with an Assistant Buyer and Buying Assistant (FT). The Retail team works in close co-operation with teams from across the Museum and an ability to build and maintain cross department relationships is key to the success of this role and retail within the museum. Hybrid working is available for this role.

About you

You have significant experience of a similar role in High street and/or Heritage retail and can demonstrate clear strategic thinking in your buying strategy

You are highly creative and full of ideas, with a laser focus on your customer, and you can demonstrate significant past success in developing new products based on your vision.

You’re passionate about sustainability and can show how you have embedded sustainability into product design and materials and packaging choice.

You have strong Commercial awareness and create product with that has measurable customer or commercial gains.

You always keep up to date with market trends and ensure your product design looks to the future

Your creative vision is underpinned by a good working knowledge of relevant legislation relating to your product categories

You have strong negotiation skills and can work with suppliers to agree value for money trading terms for the Museum that maintain margin

You love working as part of a team and can communicate across a range of departments and stakeholders

You thrive on taking the initiative and demonstrate resilience and an ability to maintain a positive and mindset

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

• 27.5 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays (full time equivalent)
• Generous defined contribution Natural History Museum Pension Scheme (employer contribution 4 – 10%)
• 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 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

How to apply

If that sounds like you, please apply online on the Natural History Museum’s careers portal, at careers.nhm.ac.uk

Closing date: 9:00am, Monday, 3rd April 2023

Interviews expected: w/c 19 April 2023

Salary: £35,798 per annum plus benefits

*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.

var ClickMeter_pixel_url = ‘//pixel.watch/cj1h’;