Senior Interpretation Planner: Exhibitions

Senior Interpretation Planner: Exhibitions

Full-time

Hybrid (at least 3 days per week on-site in Bloomsbury, London)

Permanent

£43,317 - £47,694 per annum

Application deadline: 23:59 on 6 December 2026

About the role

We are seeking an exceptional Senior Interpretation Planner: Exhibitions to lead the development of ambitious interpretation strategies for major special and temporary exhibitions. This is a rare opportunity for an experienced museum interpretation professional to influence how audiences engage with collections, stories, and ideas at one of the world's most dynamic cultural organisations.

Working at the intersection of storytelling, curatorial expertise, design, visitor insight, and community engagement, you will play a pivotal role in creating engaging, accessible, and meaningful experiences for diverse audiences. You will lead on the development and shaping of content and interpretation during initial project stages and oversee its implementation and delivery, ensuring that exhibitions are audience-focused, intellectually rigorous, emotionally engaging and creatively inspiring.

This is a diverse and varied role. You will partner closely with the curatorial and design teams to work on a broad range of special exhibitions that span the globe, from pre-historic to contemporary works and with a diverse range of 2D and 3D objects and materials. Creativity paired with the ability to partner with, inspire and influence stakeholders is paramount in this dynamic position.

About you

You'll have:

• Extensive expertise and skill in translating complex abstract ideas into engaging narratives and visitor experiences, bridging narrative, experience, and design.
• Experience working with a range of media and content assets in the creation of innovative and engaging exhibitions, from early stages of its inception to delivery.
• Significant experience writing and developing interpretive concepts and content in the museum or heritage interpretation fields.
• Strong writing and editorial skills with the ability to communicate clearly and meaningfully. Experience of writing interpretation plans, exhibit descriptions, interactive media treatments, and content and script outlines
• Experience of working with visitor research and applying audience insight to project development.
• A strong track record of working collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience managing staff, consultants, or creative teams in a similar environment.
• Excellent influencing, diplomacy, and stakeholder-management skills.
• The ability to balance multiple high-profile projects in a fast-paced environment and prioritise accordingly.
• Experience of working with a wide range of the public including young people and community groups would be advantageous in this role.

Key areas of responsibility

Interpretive Planning including:

• Develop innovative interpretation plans for special exhibitions and other key projects, and overseeing Interpretation Managers in delivering these.
• Through concept stage, shape and define the structure of exhibition or display content into strong narratives, working closely with the project teams to translate them into spatial gallery experiences .
• Work closely with project teams to develop the content and inform the exhibit design by acting as a conduit between the curatorial and design teams to establish interpretation frameworks.

People Management including:

• Lead, inspire, motivate and line-manage Interpretation Managers as well as manage the work of contracted staff.

Audience Advocacy including:

• Provide expert advice on interpretation planning to other colleagues and partners as required.
• Understand and help define each project’s target audience, championing audience-centred practice
• Translate curatorial knowledge and specialist research into meaningful emotional narrative for the public.

Benefits

At the British Museum, we believe our people are at the heart of everything we do and have designed a benefits package that goes beyond the ordinary. Our full list of benefits can be found here, but we’ve outlined some highlights below:

• Free exhibition entry for you and guests, exclusive private views, ICOM and reciprocal museum access.
• Civil Service Pension Scheme defined benefit with 28.97% employer contribution.
• 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays and 2.5 privilege days (and +5 days after 10 years).
• Peer support and allyship with five diversity networks for community.
• Learning and development through courses, mentoring and Athena as well as support for professional qualifications.
• Enhanced parental leave including maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave.
• Support for carers through Employers for Carers.

Additional details

If you have any additional needs that we should be aware of to support you with your application, please provide details to bmrecruit@britishmuseum.org.

Right to Work: The British Museum holds a Skilled Worker sponsor licence. Applicants are responsible for determining whether the advertised salary and role meet current UKVI sponsorship requirements and for ensuring they have, or can obtain, the appropriate right to work in the UK. The Museum cannot provide immigration advice, and eligibility should be checked before submitting an application.

The Museum also adheres to the HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) for pre-employment screening of Civil Servants.