Head of Workshops, Institute of Making

About us University College London (UCL)
UCL is a multi-disciplinary university with a population of over 18,000 staff and 51,000 students from 150 different countries. Degree programmes are provided in Arts and Humanities, Built Environment, Brain Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Education, Laws, Life Sciences, Mathematical & Physical Sciences, Medical Sciences, Population Health Sciences and Social and Historical Sciences. For more information see The Institute of Making The Institute of Making is a unique organisation that explores, celebrates, and investigates materials and processes through a wide range of activities.

From large-scale public events to ground-breaking academic research projects, our diverse outputs and many audiences are united by a shared passion for materials and making. On a day-to-day basis, we bring together students and staff from across UCL to provide a creative home in which to collaborate, innovate, contemplate and experience making from a wide range of disciplines. At the heart of the Institute of Making are our open-access facilities, which include multi-material workshops and the Materials Library.

The Institute of Making opened in Bloomsbury in 2013 with a workshop offering a broad range of tools and machinery for inducted members to use. The Materials Library is an ever-expanding repository of some of the most extraordinary materials on earth, including shape memory alloys and self-healing materials, as well as some of the more ordinary materials that have also changed the world, like paper, beeswax, and copper.

The Workshop and our Materials Library sit side-by-side, enabling users to experience first-hand the relationships between materials and tools that constitute processes of making. The space is also a stage for our expansive events programme and home to a multitude of research  the autumn of 2023, we opened a second Institute of Making space on the Olympic Park in Stratford.

Ten times larger than the Institute of Making Bloomsbury, the Stratford site has its own Materials Library and a suite of workshop facilities, including a large open-plan studio and multi-materials workshop. There is also a number of specialist rooms offering ceramics, CNCing, electronics, 3D printing and plastic processing, laser cutters, metalwork, textiles, and an experimental kitchen.

The Institute of Making workshop team is responsible for establishing the safe and sustainable operation of the workshops and supporting our members in using the equipment and facilities across both the Bloomsbury and Stratford sites. The team’s main duties include supervising members’ access to the space, inducting new members, conducting tool training, advising members on design, materials, and processes, supporting the delivery of events, and contributing to the friendly, welcoming, imaginative, and open-minded atmosphere of the Institute of Making.

About the role Please note, this role is open to UCL internal applicants only.

The post holder will oversee the portfolio of workshop-based activities across the entirety of the Institute of Making. They will lead a growing workshop team, including a Workshop Manager and several Workshop Technicians and Assistant Technicians, working across our Bloomsbury and Stratford sites. They will be responsible for the overall health and safety of the workshops in relation to equipment, staff, members, protocols, and training.

They will also work closely with the Head of Events & Communications to ensure the safety of any visitor or participant in any workshop-based events.

The post-holder will be collaborating internally with other area leads, managing the workshop team, and overseeing communications with members and potential members, as well as other…