"Senior Copyright Officer"

Senior Copyright Officer

Location: Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PH

This post could be considered as a secondment opportunity.

About the role

Working within the Ashmolean Museum’s Digital Collections service, you will lead a focused project to research, verify and clear rights so that more of the Museum’s collections can be published online. You will collaborate closely with colleagues across the museum to improve rights workflows and support digitisation priorities.

Your work will include reviewing existing agreements, conducting rights holder research, undertaking risk assessments, negotiating licences within agreed budgets, improving orphan-works guidance, and ensuring rights information is accurately recorded in ResourceSpace and MuseumPlus. You will provide clear guidance to colleagues, support data cleaning and analysis, and help shape a consistent rights management culture across the Museum.

This is a full-time, fixed-term (project) post for 2 years. The role will be based onsite at the Ashmolean, but with flexibility for home working arrangements.

About You

You will have a relevant undergraduate degree or equivalent experience, with in-depth knowledge of copyright law at national and international levels and practical experience applying rights and risk management in a cultural heritage or publishing setting.

You will be confident working with digital asset management systems and comfortable undertaking precise data analysis and bulk data cleaning.

Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across teams, are essential, together with strong influencing and negotiation skills to manage licence discussions and stakeholder expectations.

What We Offer

As an employer, we genuinely care about our employees’ wellbeing and this is reflected in the range of benefits that we offer including:

• An excellent contributory pension scheme
• 38 days of annual leave
• A comprehensive range of childcare services
• Family leave schemes
• Cycle loan scheme
• Discounted bus travel and Season Ticket travel loans

More information is available at https://hr.admin.ox.ac.uk/staff-benefits

Diversity

Our staff and students come from all over the world, and we proudly promote a friendly and inclusive culture. Diversity is positively encouraged, through diverse groups and champions, as well as a number of family-friendly policies, such as the right to apply for flexible working and support for staff returning from periods of extended absence, for example, shared parental leave.

We are committed to ensuring that our recruitment processes are inclusive and accessible. If you require the job description or any other materials in an alternative format, or if you would like to request any adjustments to support you through the application or interview process, please contact the recruitment team at recruitment@glam.ox.ac.uk.

How to apply

You will be required to upload your CV and a supporting statement as part of your online application. Your supporting statement should list each of the essential and desirable selection criteria, as listed in the job description, and explain how you meet each one. CVs alone will not be considered.

We aim to provide a supportive working environment and are happy to discuss training and professional development opportunities. For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Daria Wallace, DAMS Manager (daria.wallace@ashmus.ox.ac.uk). General queries about the recruitment and application process should be directed to the GLAM Recruitment team (recruitment@glam.ox.ac.uk).

FOR SECONDMENTS: Please discuss secondments with your line manager in the first instance, as you must have their agreement that you can be released for a secondment before you submit an application https://hr.admin.ox.ac.uk/secondments

Only applications received online by 12.00 midday (GMT) on Tuesday 6 January 2026 can be considered. Interviews are expected to take place on 16 January 2026.

Salary: Starting from £35,681 per annum*

* An automatic annual increment each year will be paid up to (and not including) the discretionary range within the University of Oxford’s Grade 6 salary scale.