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 Dendrochronologist.

This is a Part Time, Permanent post working 18 hours a week.

This role is a job share with a current employee who works the other 0.5 FTE.

Salary

National - £39,590 - £41,761 pro-rata

Cambridge - £42,624 - £44,961 pro-rata

The location of this role is National where we offer hybrid working, you will be based in one of our following offices and from home - Newcastle, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Swindon, Bristol, Portsmouth (Fort Cumberland) and Cambridge. 

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 Scientific Dating Team provide research, support and advice to Historic England and the wider sector on the appropriate use of scientific dating techniques and the chronological modelling of archaeological sites, buildings and sediments.

You will work closely with other parts of the Investigative Science Team (Fort Cumberland Laboratories and Science Advisors), as well as Historic England’s Archaeological Investigation Team, Regions Group staff and the wider sector. Our purpose is to understand the character, date and condition of historic places, objects and materials.  We develop and promote evidence-based technical policy, standards and best practice. We also provide specialist advice and analysis to all Historic England colleagues, the English Heritage Trust (through a Shared Service agreement) and the wider heritage sector.

Overall purpose of the job:

• To maintain dendrochronological expertise and standards in England, including developing and enabling the implementation of best practice in the wider sector.

• To act as an intelligent client for Historic England, providing technical direction of the programme of dendrochronology work we fund.

• To advise, devise, and deliver programmes of dendrochronological research in support of our corporate priorities, ensuring that the techniques applied are appropriate, cost-effective, and that the highest standard of work is maintained.

• To provide advice and training on the use of dendrochronology in England.

• To sustain and enhance Historic England’s status and reputation as an expert organisation internationally.

Who we are looking for

• Significant experience of the application of dendrochronology to historic buildings and/or archaeological sites.

• Proven experience of writing reports and articles to professional standards.

• Ability to provide advice on use of dendrochronology and suitability for complementary scientific dating techniques.

• Rigorous attention to detail.

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 date: 23rd September 2025

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

https://cms.historicengland.org.uk/media/ah0dygmd/zw-dendrochronologist-jd-july-2025.odt