The British Museum
Senior Interpretation Planner: Exhibitions
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Senior Interpretation Planner: Exhibitions
Full-time
Hybrid (at least 3 days per week on-site in Bloomsbury, London)
Permanent
£43,317 per annum
Application deadline: 23:59 on Monday, 24 August 2026
About the role
We are seeking an exceptional Senior Interpretation Planner: Exhibitions to lead the development of ambitious interpretation strategies for major special exhibitions and changing free displays. This is a rare opportunity for an experienced museum interpretation professional to influence how audiences engage with collections, stories, and ideas at one of the world's most dynamic cultural organisations.
Working at the intersection of curatorial expertise, visitor insight, community engagement, design, and storytelling, you will play a pivotal role in creating engaging, accessible, and meaningful experiences for diverse audiences. You will lead on the development and shaping of content and interpretation during initial project stages and oversee its implementation and delivery, ensuring that exhibitions are audience-focused, intellectually rigorous, emotionally engaging and creatively inspiring.
This is a diverse and varied role, and you will be working on multiple exhibitions and displays, in various stages of development, at any one time.
This role offers the opportunity to:
- Influence the visitor experience at a nationally and internationally significant museum.
- Work alongside world-leading curators, designers, and cultural professionals.
- Contribute to ambitious special exhibitions and support transformative long-term projects.
- Develop and shape innovative approaches to interpretation, audience engagement, and inclusive storytelling.
- Help define museum experiences for millions of visitors.
If you are an experienced interpretation professional who combines strategic thinking, creative storytelling, audience advocacy, excellent time management and prioritisation and collaborative approaches to working, we would love to hear from you.
About you
You'll have:
- Extensive expertise in interpretation planning and audience-focused exhibition development.
- Significant experience writing and developing interpretive concepts and content in the museum or heritage interpretation fields.
- Strong writing and editorial skills with the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and engagingly.
- Experience conducting or commissioning visitor research and applying audience insight to project development.
- A strong track record of working collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams.
- Experience managing staff, consultants, or creative teams in a similar environment.
- Excellent influencing, diplomacy, and stakeholder-management skills.
- The ability to balance multiple high-profile projects in a fast-paced environment and prioritise accordingly.
- Experience of working with a wide range of public including young people and community groups would be advantageous in this role.
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Key areas of responsibility
Interpretive Planning and Management including:
- Develop innovative interpretation plans for special exhibitions and other key projects, and support Interpretation Managers in delivering these.
- Shape and define the structure for special exhibitions or displays, working closely with the project teams to develop the exhibit design and content through concept stage.
- Work closely with project teams to develop the exhibit design and content and act as a conduit between the curatorial and design teams to establish interpretation frameworks.
People Management including:
- Lead, motivate and line-manage Interpretation Managers and manage the work of contracted staff.
Audience Advocacy including:
- Provide expert advice on interpretation planning, helping define a clear intellectual structure for allocated projects.
- Define audiences for projects, championing audience-centred practice, and develop evaluation and visitor research plans, supporting in overseeing research to fill relevant gaps in the Museum’s knowledge about visitors.
- Communicate curatorial knowledge and specialist research effectively to the public.
The Masterplan
The British Museum is undertaking its biggest transformation since its founding nearly 300 years ago. This physical and intellectual transformation includes large scale building and gallery transformation, new ways of connecting with audiences and different ways of working. As we look towards this exciting future, we remain guided by the words of our founder Hans Sloane - who dreamed of a museum connecting all arts and sciences, which would be accessible to everyone, everywhere.
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Benefits
At the British Museum, we believe our people are at the heart of everything we do and have designed a benefits package that goes beyond the ordinary. Our full list of benefits can be found here, but we’ve outlined some highlights below:
- Free exhibition entry for you and guests, exclusive private views, ICOM and reciprocal museum access.
- Civil Service Pension Scheme defined benefit with 28.97% employer contribution.
- 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays and 2.5 privilege days (and +5 days after 10 years).
- Peer support and allyship with five diversity networks for community.
- Learning and development through courses, mentoring and Athena as well as support for professional qualifications.
- Enhanced parental leave including maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave.
- Support for carers through Employers for Carers.
Our Values
Our values drive everything we do, from how we handle our objects to how we work in our team to fostering a culture where everyone feels heard and empowered:
- Care Deeply
- Embrace the Unknown
- Spark Curiosity
- Value Many Voices
These are a core part of how we recruit. Throughout the application, interview and selection process, we look for examples of how candidates demonstrate these behaviours in their own work and experiences. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with our values and reflect them in your application.
Additional details
If you have any additional needs that we should be aware of to support you with your application, please provide details to bmrecruit@britishmuseum.org.
Right to Work: The British Museum holds a Skilled Worker sponsor licence. Applicants are responsible for determining whether the advertised salary and role meet current UKVI sponsorship requirements and for ensuring they have, or can obtain, the appropriate right to work in the UK. The Museum cannot provide immigration advice, and eligibility should be checked before submitting an application.
The Museum also adheres to the HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) for pre-employment screening of Civil Servants.
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