Head, Metadata Strategy - Getty Research Institute

Location: Los Angeles, CA
Salary: $120,000-$130,000, with some flexibility based on the candidate’s background and experience
Employment Term: Full-time
Employer Contact: Matt Bunting, Storbeck Search, GRIhead@storbecksearch.com

About Getty Research Institute

The GRI plays a premier role among cultural heritage institutions, with one of the largest art libraries in the world, and extensive and growing archival collections. These resources serve an international community of researchers and provide avenues for the creation of new advanced knowledge about the visual arts, construed in the broadest terms. The GRI is a frontrunner in field-wide innovations in the history of art, information studies, and provenance research, and is positioned on the forefront of digital art history. The GRI is dedicated to developing and fostering professional and technological capacities in the world of libraries, archives, and museums.

The GRI’s chief purpose is to cultivate advanced knowledge of art and its varied histories. The GRI provides field-wide leadership through its research, exhibition, and publication programs, and facilitates scholarship through its Scholars Program, digital resources, and the Getty Library and Special Collections, the largest art history library in the world. The GRI is driven by eight key objectives:

• Welcome local, national, and international visitors to our library, collections, exhibitions, and facilities
• Contribute to an inclusive, nuanced, and global understanding of art and its histories
• Collect, preserve, create, share, and provide access to resources about art
• Exchange knowledge with diverse communities about the histories of art and cultural heritage
• Sustain the relevance of the humanities, art history, and related areas of study
• Develop and foster professional and technological capacities in the world of libraries, archives, and museums
• Promote an ethos of collaboration through sustainable activities and practices
• Serve as a local and global resource for scholars and researchers

The Role of the Head of Metadata Strategy

The Getty Research Institute (GRI) seeks nominations and applications for a creative, collaborative, and experimental manager to serve as the inaugural Head of Metadata Strategy. This position is an excellent opportunity for a thoughtful, pragmatic, and technologically-savvy administrator who – in conjunction with the Head of Special Collections Management, the position to whom the Head reports – will work across the GRI on born digital content, digitized content, and various metadata projects and systems, among other future-forward endeavors.

The inaugural Head of Metadata Strategy will manage and oversee a new team devoted to metadata operations at GRI. The candidate who will fill this new role will work across divisions and programs to assess current metadata practices, steer the development of a durable vision for institutional, cross-department metadata standards, and assist staff in the library, special collections, institutional archives, and research departments to implement them. As such, the role will require up-to-date expertise in metadata management, awareness of current and evolving schema for published, unpublished, and born-digital materials, excellent diplomatic and communication skills, a willingness to think creatively and strategically, demonstrated ability to navigate fluidly across administrative domains, and a dedication to excellence in the area of librarianship and information science.

As a key priority, the GRI has committed to engaging in a new institutional approach to metadata strategy. The Head of Metadata Strategy will direct a new metadata strategy section within Special Collections Management. This section will consolidate a shared body of expertise and play a shaping role in steering metadata strategy across the GRI and in partnership with Getty Digital, while also providing dedicated assistance for the management of digital and digitized content, metadata issues, technical concerns, and our evolution to linked data.

This position will work in collaboration with a Metadata Council, which is currently in formation. This Council will involve representation across GRI and coordinate with other Getty programs.

Contact Information

The targeted hiring range for this position is $120,000-$130,000 annually, with some flexibility based on the candidate’s background and experience. The Getty also offers a generous benefits package.

For best consideration, we ask that you please click the link here: https://talent-profile.dsgco.com/search/v2/21637 to submit your materials and apply. Please send nominations and queries in confidence to GRIhead@storbecksearch.com.

The Getty is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship or immigration status, color, disability, ethnicity, familial status, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other protected status.