Head of Digital Collections Initiatives

Head Of Digital Collections Initiatives

Under the guidance of the Director of Collections, the Head of Digital Collections Initiatives leads strategy for the Museum's digital collections ecosystem, coordinating cross-departmental efforts, and overseeing the development of systems, integrations, standards, and workflows that advance the Museum's digital transformation.

The position manages and coordinates all aspects of the Digital Collections Initiatives unit, including the areas of digitization, digital asset management, and rights and reproductions, generating institutional revenue, managing the unit budget and supporting digital access to collections for internal and external audiences. The role ensures that the museum's digital assets are responsibly managed, widely accessible, and leveraged to support research, exhibits and public engagement.

This position works closely with Collections, Curation and Exhibitions, IT, Communications, Education, and Institutional Advancement to align digital initiatives with institutional priorities, secure philanthropic support and strengthen the museum's role as a leading research institution.

Essential functions include managing the day-to-day operations of the Digital Collections Initiatives unit, leading strategic planning and governance of the museum's digital collections ecosystem, serving as project manager for digital collections initiatives, overseeing and supporting the planning, implementation, and optimization of collections-related digital systems, overseeing the Museum's Rights and Reproductions program, advising the Director of Collections in developing annual departmental goals, objectives, and budget, collaborating with IT and internal stakeholders to ensure systems integration, scalability, and long-term sustainability, leading the development, implementation, documentation and improvement of cross-departmental workflows for collections-related digitization, digital asset management, digital preservation and digital access, establishing and maintaining technical standards, quality assurance practices, and governance for image capture, metadata creation, digital preservation, and digital asset management, developing an institutional digitization strategy and priorities that support collections stewardship, exhibitions, digital scholarship, community outreach, and revenue-generating opportunities, overseeing digitization initiatives, coordinating priorities, resources, staff, and external vendors to ensure projects are completed efficiently and in accordance with established standards, expanding public access to digitized collections through user-friendly digital platforms and improved discovery tools, developing and implementing processes for collecting and analyzing internal and external user feedback and metrics to evaluate performance and inform continuous improvements to the digital collections ecosystem, participating in institutional committees and working groups to represent digital collections priorities, advocating for digital transformation across the institution and promoting best practices, monitoring emerging technologies, standards, and best practices related to digital collections management, digital preservation, and cultural heritage technologies, recommending solutions that are practical and sustainable, developing and maintaining strategic partnerships with technology providers, academic institutions, funding organizations, community groups and peer museums to advance digital initiatives and promote public awareness of the collection, fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and service-oriented culture within the Digital Collections Initiatives unit and across the Museum, and performing other duties as assigned.

Qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in library and information science, museum studies, digital humanities, archival studies, or related field required. Advanced degree preferred. Minimum 5 years of progressively responsible experience managing digital collections, digital asset management, or digital initiatives within a museum, archives, library, or cultural heritage institution. Demonstrated success leading complex, multi-year digital projects involving multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.

Experience supervising staff and leading cross-departmental teams and initiatives. Experience developing and improving workflows, policies, and standards for digitization, digital asset management, metadata, and digital access. Experience overseeing or implementing digital collections systems, including Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS), Collections Management Systems (CMS), and/or digital discovery platforms. Working knowledge of Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS), Collections Management Systems (CMS), and digital collections platforms.

Knowledge of metadata standards and frameworks such as Dublin Core, MODS, or VRA. Familiarity with digital preservation standards, practices and tools (e.g., OAIS, FADGI).…