Jobs

Head of Exhibitions & Design | Full time | 35 hours | Permanent
Full Time Salary: £64,762 – £73,428
Hours: 35 hours per week | Monday – Friday
Location: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | Hybrid | Occasional national and international travel

National Museums Scotland is one of the leading museum groups in Europe with one of the largest and most diverse collections in the world.

As an organisation our values are Creative, Inclusive, Collaborative and Forward-thinking.

We are looking for an experienced and collaborative leader with a passion for creating exceptional audience experiences to join our Exhibitions & Design team.

Benefits of joining us as our Head of Exhibitions & Design include:

Annually alongside your salary, National Museums Scotland contributes 28.97% of this towards you being a member of the Civil Service Pension Scheme
A generous annual leave of 28.5 days – rising to 33.5 after 5 years, plus an additional 8 paid days public holidays
Free access to national (and international) museums and exhibitions
A range of wellbeing benefits including Employee Assistance Programme 24/7
Access to all the above and more from day one of employment.

About the Head of Exhibitions & Design role:

In this role, you will lead National Museums Scotland’s exhibitions and design activity, working with colleagues across the organisation to create inspiring, audience-focused experiences that bring Scotland’s National Collection to life. Through strategic leadership, creative collaboration and excellent project delivery, you will help shape how millions of visitors engage with our museums, collections and stories.

As Head of Exhibitions & Design at National Museums Scotland you will:

Be responsible for the development, planning and delivery of a strategically driven, engaging and coordinated programme of world class exhibitions and their touring
Take overall responsibility for a programme of investments in our permanent displays coordinating a series of capital investments and refreshment projects.
Be responsible for the delivery of high quality and effective interpretation of visitor content outputs across National Museum Scotland sites.
Lead and maintain high standards of design quality, consistency and coherence across National Museum Scotland sites, including exhibitions, permanent displays, brand development, and communication channels

Skills and experience we’re looking for in our Head of Exhibitions & Design:

Significant experience of managing high profile exhibition and permanent display projects in a museum, visitor attraction or heritage attraction environment
Experience of dealing with a diverse range of people management issues, commensurate with senior manager-level responsibilities
Proven ability to provide strategic leadership and direction for complex exhibition, design and visitor-focused programmes
Ability to champion innovation, creativity and continuous improvement while maintaining organisational standard.
Please be sure to view relevant attachments for this role (available on our Careers Portal: careers.nms.ac.uk) for full details of the position.

The expected closing date for this role is 16/11/2026 (16 NOVEMBER 2026).
The Selection Event is likely to take place either WC 23/11/2026 or W/C 07/12/2026 (7 DECEMBER 2026).

Application Deadline: Monday 16/11/2026