Visitor Experience Supervisor

Job Overview

Salary: £29,258 per annum

Contract type:
Permanent

Band: D / Executive Officer

Closing date:
Tuesday 14th July 2026 at midnight

As the living, growing home of our national story, The National Archives is a special place to work. We’re an institution nearly 200 years old with a collection spanning 1,000 years of history. We’ve set ourselves the challenge of becoming the 21st Century national archive – a different kind of cultural and heritage institution:
Inclusive, Entrepreneurial, Disruptive. We won’t become this overnight. It will take time, focus, effort and daring. That’s where you come in. Because we can’t do this without you.

Our collection is one of the largest in the world, containing over 11 million historical government and public records. From Domesday Book to modern government papers and digital files, we hold paper and parchment, digital records and websites, photographs, posters, maps drawings and paintings. Taking an audience‑focused approach we want to give even more people the opportunity to engage with our collections, whether they visit our site at Kew or online.

The National Archives has embarked on an ambitious and exciting transformation programme to inspire the public with new ways of using and experiencing our collection. We have made a strong start with our flourishing ’What’s On’ programme offering a range of events and exhibitions. We are now poised to take things to the next level, developing our public programming strategy, building our capability, professionalising our delivery, and re‑imagining our public spaces  have developed our first Visitor Experience Strategy, in which you will be a key player in supporting the implementation of improvements and changes.

Reporting to the Visitor Experience Manager, and working closely with colleagues across The National Archives, you will be a key member of a small but growing team, to support the daily delivery of a consistently high quality visitor experience to all TNA audiences. This role includes direct support of events and activities, which will require some working outside normal office hours.

You will supervise a team of our Visitor Experience Assistants onsite, and will work with a range of stakeholders to deliver an excellent experience for our visitors. The successful candidate will be an expert problem‑solver with skills in customer service and organisation. The standard working pattern for this role is Tuesday and Thursday until 7pm, plus one other weekday, Saturday and Sunday every week.

This is a full time post. However, requests for part-time working, flexible working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department. This role requires on site presence and is not suitable for home working.

Interview:
Interviews will be held on‑site at The National Archives, week commencing 3rd August 2026. Candidates invited to interview will be asked to prepare a response to a scenario question, and will also take a short tour of our building.

Personal Statement:
We ask all applicants to submit work history details and a personal statement of about 800 words. Selection for interview will be based on the ‘essential’ requirements as listed below so please ensure that your application demonstrates in detail how you meet these requirements. If we receive a large number of applications candidates will initially be assessed on the first criteria only (Evidence of successful supervision of a diverse group of staff and volunteers in a service delivery environment).

• Evidence of successful supervision of a diverse group of staff and volunteers in a service delivery environment.
• Good organisational skills, ability to work under pressure and to competing priorities and deadlines.
• Excellent customer care/service skills, understanding the needs of diverse visitors.
• Very good written and oral communication skills and experience of engaging with a variety of stakeholders and service partners.
• The ability to operate within diverse networks to support service delivery.
• A ‘can do’ attitude to delivering high quality services, and responding to challenging…