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Jobs

Gallery Attendants
Organisation: National Galleries of Scotland
Salary: £25,420 per annum pro rata (pay award pending)
Location: Edinburgh
Part-time or Full-time and Fixed term
Salary £25,420 per annum pro rata (pay award pending)
Plus generous benefits package
On-site
About the role
We are excited to be recruiting for a number of part-time and full-time Gallery Attendants to join our friendly and dedicated team for our 2025 exhibition programme.
We’re looking for individuals with experience in visitor attractions, retail, hospitality or who bring relevant transferable skills from other roles. If you have a background in front-of-house, customer service, or any job where clear communication, and supporting others are at the heart of what you do, your skills are valuable here.
As a Gallery Attendant you’ll play a key role in consistently providing an excellent and engaging experience, ensuring visitors always have a safe and enjoyable visit while helping to keep our art secure. You will thrive in a busy environment and enjoy engaging with the public. If you have a friendly, confident personality and a passion for delivering great visitor experiences, we’d love to hear from you.
Working from a choice of 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, or 5 days per week we have roles available over the following timeframes:
May or June to mid-November 2025.
Mid-June 2025 to 31 January 2026.
July to mid-November 2025.
Please note: Applicants must be available for the full duration of the contract period. These roles are not suitable for those seeking short-term summer employment.
The difference you’ll make
In all that you do, you’ll support your colleagues by welcoming visitors, helping them enjoy their experience of the National Galleries of Scotland and making the most of their visit. Our Security and Visitor Experience team exists to enable our visitors to explore, experience and enjoy our artwork safely and securely at our various Galleries. The team’s three key responsibilities are:
– Visitor Engagement: aiming to deliver an exceptional experience to all our visitors in a welcoming, inclusive, and informative environment.
– Security: endeavouring to keep people, our buildings and works of art safe, responding effectively to risk.
– Income generation: encouraging donations, selling tickets for paying exhibitions, and signing up visitors to our Friends scheme.
– Reporting to Supervisors and Operation Managers you will:
– Be present in the galleries as the public face of the National Galleries of Scotland and look for opportunities to actively engage visitors.
– Support, implement and explain gallery rules and regulations.
– Provide invigilation cover across the galleries, safeguarding art from damage.
– Build knowledge of exhibitions and displays communicating this effectively to a diverse range of audiences.
– Maintain a high standard of presentation in the galleries calling on supervisory support when required.
– Keep up to date with current exhibitions, what’s on, general tourist information and actively promote the shops, cafés, and the benefits of the Friends scheme.
– Look after the security and safety of people, responding effectively to risk.
– Be prepared to assist in safe evacuation of our buildings in the event of any incident or emergency.
– Undertake light cleaning and occasional light lifting duties.
Who we are looking for
While an interest in art would be great it’s not essential. However, to succeed in this role you’ll need the following range of knowledge, skills, and experience and you must be:
– Passionate about offering outstanding customer care and visitor engagement in a busy gallery environment.
– An excellent communicator with superb interpersonal skills. Demonstrate the ability to talk to a wide range of people, engaging with them about the National Galleries of Scotland’s exhibitions and activities.
– Outgoing and confident working in a busy visitor environment.
– A strong team player with the ability to build good working relationships with colleagues and those in other departments to ensure the best possible visitor care is delivered.
– Able to work independently using own initiative showing a proactive, positive, and flexible approach to work.
– Willing to develop knowledge of National Galleries of Scotland’s collection, exhibitions, and activities.
– Understanding of the principles of equality and diversity in relation to visitors’ needs and have an inclusive and welcoming approach to all visitors and colleagues.
– Proficient IT skills MS Office.
– Knowledge of another language (e.g. Gaelic) is desirable but not essential.
Please apply directly via our careers portal. Applications via email will not be accepted.
The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Monday, 14 April 2025.
Application Deadline: Monday 14/04/2025