Curatorial Assistant

Posted: 14/07/2025
- Closing Date: 20/07/2025
- Salary: $66,823.00 - $74,307.00
- Job Type: Temporary
- Location: Canberra
- Job Category: Arts, Culture

**About the National Film and Sound Archive**

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is Australia’s audiovisual archive, telling the national story by collecting, preserving and sharing audiovisual media, the cultural experience platforms of our time. The collection itself dates back to 1935, making it one of the world’s oldest audiovisual collections. It is also one of the country’s most used cultural collections, with around 125 million views of collection content each year. The NFSA is in a period of significant change. Following increased Government investment, the institution is in a process of digital transformation, establishing the NFSA as Australia’s most dynamic and valued cultural organisation. We are rebuilding our curatorial workforce and developing the NFSA’s capacity to digitise our collection at scale - to preserve it for the future, to make sure it can be discovered, and to share it with all Australians.

We continue to work on developing a stable, secure and future-proof workforce across our four physical sites based in Canberra and Mitchell in the ACT as well as in Sydney and Melbourne.

We are also undergoing a program of business improvement for many of our corporate systems to improve efficiency and reduce manual handling. We are an ambitious organisation, and we aim to be an employer of choice within the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) sector, providing exciting and challenging work, as well as favourable employment conditions and unique development opportunities for our staff.

**Cultural Values**

We are an equal opportunity employer, embracing a diverse range of applicants such as veterans, and people who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, LGBTQIA community members, individuals with disabilities and/or health conditions, as well as those from varied faith and cultural backgrounds. At the NFSA we prioritise the development of a safe, inclusive, and high-performance 88538 - APS3 Curatorial Assistant 2culture through shared actions and behaviours that align with our strategy and direction. This empowers our employees to effectively contribute to our goals.

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia is committed to ensuring a child-safe and child-friendly environment. All employees are expected to demonstrate a commitment to, and support for these principles in theory and practice.

**About the Team**

The Cultural Connections section is part of the Cultural & Accessioning branch and are focussed on telling the national story through flagship programs such as NFSA Restores and Sounds of Australia as well as building relationships with festivals, national collecting institutions, FIAF, DFAT and other cultural organisations. The team will work with other areas of the agency to achieve positive public and industry facing outcomes.

**The Opportunity**

The Curatorial Assistant plays a key role in providing essential administrative and logístical assistance to a range of high-profile projects, including NFSA Restores and Sounds of Australia. Reporting to the Curator, this position supports collection research, data quality, media format identification, and digital file management to ensure smooth project delivery.
- Please note: This recruitment process is intended to fill both current and future vacancies. While the position on offer is non-ongoing, a merit pool of suitable applicants may be established to fill similar non-ongoing positions within the next 18-months._

Under general direction, this position is responsible for delivering the following functions:

- Provide administrative assistance for a range of projects including collection research, media formats, data quality and profiling the collection.
- Undertake a range of project logistics tasks, including preparing and delivering digital files via FTP platforms, and performing other logístical duties as required.
- Conduct research and maintain accurate and up-to-date records in accordance with organisational requirements.
- Prepare and draft invoice payments accurately to ensure timely processing and financial compliance in support of project activities.
- Undertake a range of accessioning tasks, including born-digital materials according to the NFSA’s standards and guidelines, as well as digital ingest tasks.
- Provide accurate and detailed collection descriptions, including identification of media formats and collection condition information as part of the accessioning process.

**Selection Criteria**
- Demonstrated knowledge of the principles of collection description, handling, and control of collection materials in an archive, museum, or library environment, ideally with reference to audiovisual materials.
- Experience in research and accurate record keeping combined with demonstrated administrative problem-sol