About The Role

Archive Assistant

Permanent, Part Time

£25,959 to £27,613 per annum (full time equivalent)

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Fixed-base worker

Closing Date: 3rd August 2026

Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this role. Applicants must have a current, unrestricted right to work in the UK.

This is a part-time opportunity working 32.3 hours per week with a pro rata salary of up to £24,105 per annum.

About Essex County Council

Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK and we look after a large and diverse geographical region of the country.

Essex covers over 1,420 square miles and has over 1.8 million residents in a range of coastal, rural, and urban communities. ECC has a very successful track record of delivering transformational change in the public sector and has worked hard to deliver better quality at lower cost. We have an ambitious transformation agenda – one with the scope to reach every part of the council. We are changing the way we think, the way we work, and the ways in which we deliver our services to support our residents.

The Opportunity

With excellent customer service skills and experience in either researching family/local history or civil registration, this role will deliver advice and guidance to visitors to the Essex Record Office (ERO) and carry out administrative and technical tasks to deliver services relating to historical and genealogical information. The role is essential in delivering the Duplicate Certificate Service, providing copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates. This requires attention to detail as well as an ability to work to strict timescales.

The Archive Assistant will engage with the public, as the first point of contact when accessing ERO services, ensuring a high-performing search room, document production service, duplicate certificate service, reprographics, and historical/genealogical research service.

What will you be doing?

• Contribute to the operation of the ERO Search room, meeting customer requirements to achieve high levels of satisfaction.
• Contribute to the operation of the ERO Duplicate Certificate Service, meeting strict time timescales, providing advice, and dealing with customer enquiries via phone and email.
• Advising the public on the safe handling of documents and ensuring the security of unique archival material.
• Respond to enquiries in respect of all aspects of genealogical and historical research, relating to the historic county of Essex, utilising ERO's electronic catalogue, Ancestry, and other genealogical and historical databases.
• Maintain secure storage and retrieval of documents, actively promote long-term storage through the use of preservation techniques.
• Provide specialist information, advice, and guidance to customers and colleagues and assist with the promotion and safe storage of the Essex Art Collection.
• Work with colleagues to share expert knowledge that increases awareness of the ERO including the preparation and delivery of ERO Outreach events and updating and maintaining content on social media outlets.
• Responsible for actively promoting, processing, and securing local sales to maximise income generation opportunities.
• Provide support and assistance to remote users, including the undertaking of customer research projects in a cost-effective way to increase revenue via the paid Search Service.
• Responsible for administering reprographics services and assisting with the operational delivery of the duplicate certificate service, processing payments for these.
• Contributes to the administration of the repository office and repository rooms, including efficient and accurate document retrievals and returns.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.