Digital Preservation Archivist

Salary: £32,952 - £38,613 per annum

The BFI is looking for a Digital Preservation Archivist to join the BFI’s Data & Digital Preservation department on a fixed term basis until 31 March 2026.

This position is part of the BFI’s newly launched Our Screen Heritage project, which will bring the BFI National Archive, the UK’s national collection of moving image, up-to-date by acquiring and preserving the story of moving image in the digital/online era and reflecting the diversity and richness of contemporary Britain today.

The Digital Preservation Archivist will focus on developing, implementing, maintaining and documenting the digital preservation and access workflows and policies for born digital document archives collected via acquisitions from Special Collections Archivists or Special Collections Digital Archivists.

Fixed Term Contract: until 31 March 2026

Key responsibilities include:

• Work with Special Collections Archivists and collections donors, to create a shared understanding of the digital materials in scope for collecting, and design effective digital preservation workflows for those materials
• Contribute to the development of digital preservation workflows for born-digital document archives, carry out quality assurance, and test new or proposed workflows
• Contribute to the selection and implementation of relevant digital preservation metadata standards and capture/create metadata in line with those standards
• Undertake transfer of data from various physical devices – such as computer hard drives, optical disks, flash drives – with attention to digital preservation principles to ensure lossless transfer, and in compliance with BFI National Archive cybersecurity policies

We are looking for candidates who have:

• Experience working in a digital preservation context with born digital material in current and legacy digital formats
• Experience of transferring data from physical devices – such as computer hard drives, optical disks, flash drives – and cloud-based data storage solutions, for the purpose of long term digital preservation
• Proven ability to create digital preservation workflows for born digital document archives
• Knowledge of digital preservation standards including technical requirements, and experience of implementing those in good practice digital preservation workflows

A full list of responsibilities and minimum requirements can be found in the job description.

About the BFI

We are a cultural charity, a National Lottery distributor, and the UK’s lead organisation for film and the moving image. We believe society needs stories. Film, television and the moving image bring them to life, helping us connect and understand each other better. We share the stories of yesterday, search for the stories of today, and shape the stories of tomorrow.

At the BFI you’ll enjoy benefits such as excellent support for working parents, 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays and additional paid time off at Christmas), tickets to BFI festivals and events plus many others.

We support diversity and inclusion, and as an organisation recognise that we need to address under representation within our teams. As such we strongly welcome and encourage applicants from our under-represented groups; who identify as D/deaf and disabled and/or are Black and Global Majority. We guarantee a first interview to our under-represented groups who meet our minimum requirements.

Further information

Further details about the role, the BFI and our benefits can be obtained by visiting our website.

First interviews will be held on Tuesday 4 June 2024
Second interviews will be held on Tuesday 11 June 2024

The closing date for this position is 20/05/2024 at 23:59