Head of Digital Collections

Summary

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. This position is located within the Digital Collections team, department of Digital Access & Archives, Division of Public History, National Museum of American History (NMAH), Under Secretary for Museums and Culture, at the Smithsonian Institution (SI).

In this position you will lead NMAH’s efforts to grow and expand the impact of its digital collections, through planning, project management, and collaboration.

In this position, you will:

• Lead the development of the strategy for digitizing and documenting NMAH’s collection of objects and archival materials, in support of collections care and public history applications.
• Oversee a team of permanent and term staff and contractors working in photography and other forms of digitization, digital asset and data management, rights and reproductions, systems management, and cataloging.
• Formulate program goals and priorities, develop schedules and checklists, and assign tasks to subordinate staff.
• Develop and implement standards, policies, workflows, and procedures for digital collections, across the information lifecycle.
• Oversee the museum’s digital preservation, digital reformatting, and digital imaging technical specifications.
• Coordinate digitization activities across the museum (for example, 2D imaging, 3D imaging, audiovisual reformatting, and transcription); advance, resource, and directly manage selected digitization projects and partnerships.

More than one selection may be made from this announcement.

• Pass Pre-employment Background Investigation
• May need to complete a Probationary Period
• Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer
• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.
• May be required to serve an 18-month probationary period for supervisors.

Qualification requirements, including one year time-in-grade at the next lower grade level for promotion candidates, must be met within 30 days of the job announcement closing date. See the 'Required Documents' section for additional information.

For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions viewable on OPM Website.

Experience:

You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS‑13 level in the Federal Service. For this position specialized experience is defined as: developing digitization and digital access strategies for collections in a museum, archive, library, or similar setting, including evaluating approaches, identifying priorities, determining resource needs, and creating policies or procedures.

Your resume must be no more than two (2) pages and should clearly demonstrate how your experience aligns with the responsibilities and specialized experience required for this position. Do not copy language directly from the vacancy announcement, as you will be deemed ineligible for consideration. Instead, provide detailed, descriptive information about your actual experience.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, Ameri Corps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.

There is no basic education requirement for this position.