Summary

We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England have a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Business Manager in our National Specialist Services Department. This role is a maternity cover.

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 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 National Specialist Services Department in Policy and Evidence Group delivers evidence‑based R&D, advice and technical services. We help set standards and provide specialist technical services and strategic leadership on all aspects of the investigation, scientific study, care, repair and maintenance of the historic environment, whether built or buried. We advise local authorities, owners and, through our current Shared Services Agreement, the English Heritage Trust.

As our Business Manager (National Specialist Services Department) you will lead, manage, direct and coordinate the Business Support Team to ensure they contribute effectively and efficiently in supporting the work of the three National Specialist Services Teams, taking a proactive role in service delivery. As a member of the Departmental Leadership Team, you will take responsibility for workflow and performance monitoring, and support the Director in budget monitoring. You will ensure a responsive and high-quality administration and support service is provided to the Departmental Leadership Team and help the three Departmental teams develop an appropriately streamlined approach to programme oversight.

Who we are looking for

• Experience of managing and motivating a small team.

• Demonstrable experience of office administration and organisation

• Experience of performance management

• Excellent organisation skills and ability to deal effectively with conflicting priorities.

• Ability to work constructively as part of a team.

• Knowledge of the context of historic environment investigation and conservation work

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 just won the Gold Award from MIND, 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 want 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.

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Provisional interview dates: 19th June 2025

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

https://cms.historicengland.org.uk/media/oibnmdqu/business-manager-national-specialist-services-department.odt