Summary

Historic England is the public organisation that brings new life to heritage to build a better future for every place and everyone.

Historic England has a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Head of Sector Resilience

This is a full time, permanent contract.

The location of this role is either York, Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Cambridge, Swindon, Bristol, or Portsmouth, inclusive with hybrid working. Please note there is some travel to Historic England office locations for team meetings and travel for sector meetings.

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive defined benefit pension scheme to which we make 28.97% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here.

What you will be doing

The Head of Sector Resilience will lead the development of Historic England’s policy and programme work to improve the resilience of the heritage sector in England, so that it is equipped with the knowledge, skills, infrastructure and resources required to allow heritage to fulfil its potential as a driver of good growth and good places.

You will be responsible for establishing collaborative partnerships with relevant government departments, local government representative organisations and key sector bodes to shape and build a strong awareness of current and future policy changes and heritage sector and local government needs, to provide strategic direction for Historic England’s contribution to the delivery of the Heritage Sector Resilience Plan, including the performance of local government heritage services.

You will lead engagement and negotiation with the members of the Historic Environment Forum (especially the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the National Trust, Historic Houses and The Heritage Alliance), the Local Government Association, and other heritage sector and industry bodies to ensure Historic England’s support offer is highly collaborative and complements wider support available.

You will also provide strategic direction for Historic England’s national capacity building grants programme and identify and maximise opportunities to access additional funding to grow the availability of financial support where possible.

Who we are looking for

• Awareness of important current issues associated with building capacity and sector resilience in local government and the wider heritage sector

• An understanding of the current and emerging planning policy and fiscal landscape and other government agendas such as devolution and targeted tax reliefs

• Experience of influencing public policy and programmes

• Experience of gathering evidence and using insight to inform the development of public policy and/or financial intervention strategies

• Experience of building effective partnerships and managing strategic relationships

• Experience of nurturing and developing a high performing team

Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having won the Gold Award from MIND for workplace wellbeing in seven consecutive years, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England wants all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries. 

At Historic England we use a hiring system called Applied. Applied is a behavioural science-backed recruitment platform that reduces bias, improves quality of hire and increases diversity. We do not use CV application for the majority of our hiring processes. You will answer a selection of questions that allow our hiring teams to test your skills and suitability for the role.

At Historic England, we value the expertise and individuality each candidate brings and want to hear about this in your own words. If you require the use or AI tools or other resources to support your application, we ask that all information is factually accurate, original, and reflects your own experience. To best represent yourself, we encourage you to write in your own words and use AI-generated content only as inspiration—not as direct input.

Provisional interview dates: 17th September 2026.

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description:

https://cms.historicengland.org.uk/media/g2zpjmtr/pe-head-of-sector-resilience-jun-2026.odt