Museum Director at Natural History Museum

The University of Copenhagen is looking for a Museum Director to head the largest Danish museum venture in recent times – the new Natural History Museum.

The museum is approaching the opening of its new museum building. Subsequently, future sustainable storage solutions need to be identified. These extensive tasks in the coming years will require significant involvement, presence, and time prioritization from the Museum Director. In parallel, it is also the director’s responsibility to ensure a sustainable future for the museum.

Responsibilities and Tasks of the Museum Director
With reference to the Dean of Faculty of Science (SCIENCE), the Museum Director is charged with the ongoing development of Natural History Museum to ensure that Museum continue to be recognised for their museological activities, including collections, outreach work, exhibitions, research, teaching, etc. The Museum Director is included together with the Dean, Vice Deans, the Faculty Director and the heads of department from the other departments in SCIENCE's Management Team.

The Museum Director has overall responsibility for the museum’s finances and resource allocation. It is expected that the Museum Director actively seeks external funding for all museum activities. The role of the Museum Director also involves significant communication efforts, including networking and representing the museum in various national and international contexts, leading the strategic development of the museum, and contributing to the implementation of UCP’s policies and strategies through goals and action plans.

The Museum Director is the manager of managers and has overall personnel responsibility for the museum's employees and responsibility for ensuring a good working environment. The Director continuously focuses on making the museum an attractive workplace, strengthening collaboration across the museum, including the synergy between the museum and the university.

We attach importance to the fact that the museum director, among other things:

• have top-level management experience from an internationally recognised museum or comparable organisation with extensive public activities and research tasks, and as a minimum have a PhD degree, preferably within one of the museum's disciplines
• prioritizes professional leadership and understands the importance of being a visible, engaged, and present leader who can build support through personal leadership, kindness, and integrity
• is able to create results across museums, departments, faculties, universities, cultural institutions, and other collaborative partners in the surrounding community.

Additionally, the Museum Director should be proficient in Danish/Norwegian/Swedish and English at an advanced level.

Please read the full job and personal profile for the position here, where the organization, tasks, and desired qualifications and qualities are further described.

If you have questions about the position, you can confidentially contact Dean Katrine Krogh Andersen at phone number + 45 35 33 20 10. You can also contact partner Martin Isenbecker from Genitor at phone number +45 25 65 92 31, who assists with recruitment search.

Terms and conditions of employment
As a general rule, the position of Museum Director will be on a fixed-term basis with a five-year period of employment and the possibility of an extension of up to three years. The appointment will be made in accordance with the collective agreement for academics employed by the state entered between the Ministry of Taxation and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC), as well as in accordance with the protocol covered by the collective agreement for academics employed by the state relating to heads of department and deans at universities.

For external applicants, academic assessment may be required in line with the executive order on university appointments.
The scope of any research and teaching activities will be negotiated and agreed with the Dean.

UCPH is in the process of designing a new shared administrative organisation at UCPH, which is expected to lead to changes within the next 12 - 18 months. The purpose of the administrative reform is, among other things, to strengthen cross-organisational cooperation, increase efficiency, and ensure good career paths for administrative staff members at UCPH. The reform will lead to cutbacks on administration.

Appliction
The application deadline is 17 September 2024. Applications must be received electronically via the UCPH job portal. 

The application must be accompanied by:

• your CV
• a presentation in English (max. three pages) of your vision for the museum, including how to will cooperate with museum staff and other stakeholders on the continuation of the museum development.

The University of Copenhagen seeks to reflect society and encourages applications irrespective of personal background.

The Faculty of Science at the University of Copenhagen – or SCIENCE – is Denmark's largest science research and education institution with 4,000 employees and 9,700 Bachelor and Master's students in 12 departments. The Faculty has an annual budget of DKK 3 billion. Learn more about The Faculty of Science here.