Born-Digital Archivist, IS-1420-11
Application Deadline: 2 November 2026
Department: Archives of American Art
Employment Type: Full Time
Location: Washington, DC
Reporting To: Darren Milligan
Compensation: $85,447 - $111,087 / year
Description
OPEN DATE: October 19, 2026
CLOSING DATE: November 2, 2026 (This job will close once 150 applications are received which may be sooner than the closing date.)
POSITION TYPE: Trust Fund
APPOINTMENT TYPE: Temporary, NTE 5 years
SCHEDULE: Full-Time
DUTY LOCATION: Washington, DC
Position sensitivity and risk:
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Who May Apply:Open to all qualified applicants
What are Trust Fund Positions?
Trust Fund positions are unique to the Smithsonian. They are paid for from a variety of sources, including the Smithsonian endowment, revenue from our business activities, donations, grants and contracts. Trust employees are not part of the civil service, nor does trust fund employment lead to Federal status. The salary ranges for trust positions are generally the same as for federal positions and in many cases trust and federal employees work side by side. Trust employees have their own benefit program, which may include Health, Dental & Vision Insurance, Life Insurance, Transit/Commuter Benefits, Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance, Annual and Sick Leave, Family Friendly Leave, 403b Retirement Plan, Discounts for Smithsonian Memberships, Museum Stores and Restaurants, Credit Union, Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center (Child Care), Flexible Spending Account (Health & Dependent Care).
Conditions of Employment
- Pass Pre-employment Background Check and Subsequent Background Investigation for position designated.
- Complete a Probationary Period.
- Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer.
- The position is open to all candidates eligible to work in the United States. Proof of eligibility to work in U.S. is not required to apply.
- Applicants must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.
OVERVIEW
This position is located in the Digital Operations and Strategy Department at the Archives of American Art, part of the Smithsonian Institution’s Office of the Under Secretary for Museums and Culture. The Archives collects, preserves, and makes available primary source materials documenting the history of American art and artists. With a collection of more than 30 million items, the Archives is the largest and most widely used resource in the world on the history of American art.
The Born-Digital Archivist performs professional archival work supporting the acquisition, accessioning, preservation, technical review, documentation, and access of born-digital collections. Born-digital materials are created and maintained originally in digital form rather than digitized from physical or analog sources. Examples include documents, images, audiovisual recordings, databases, websites, email, and other complex digital resources.
The Born-Digital Archivist combines hands-on archival work with collaboration across the Archives to strengthen the care and accessibility of born-digital collections.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The Born-Digital Archivist performs professional archival work supporting the acquisition, transfer, accessioning, stabilization, documentation, and lifecycle management of born-digital materials.
- Performs transfer preparation, ingest, stabilization, documentation, and initial management of born-digital files and associated metadata.
- Works with donors, creators, curators, archivists, and institutional partners to gather context, support secure transfer, and document born-digital materials.
- Uses appropriate tools and methods to inventory, characterize, validate, and document email, databases, audiovisual media, websites, and other complex digital resources.
- Maintains documentation supporting authenticity, integrity, provenance, and chain of custody, including available information about AI-generated or AI-assisted content when present.
Provides born-digital expertise for the processing, description, access, and use of archival materials in collaboration with Archives staff.
- Provides technical and archival information that supports arrangement, processing, description, preservation, access planning, and researcher use.
- Collaborates with processing, reference, curatorial, and technical staff to prepare and deliver born-digital collections through approved online and other access environments.
- Identifies privacy, rights, preservation, technical, ethical, and access issues and recommends appropriate handling, referral, or escalation.
Applies digital preservation practices to support the integrity, authenticity, and long-term accessibility of born-digital collections.
- Applies digital preservation standards and practices to assigned materials, including file characterization, fixity checking, metadata capture, and storage preparation, and uses digital preservation tools and systems to support normalization, migration, validation, storage, and documentation activities.
- Identifies risks related to media condition, format obsolescence, system dependencies, incomplete metadata, and other technical factors.
- Recommends appropriate steps to mitigate identified preservation and access risks.
Contributes to the testing, documentation, and refinement of born-digital tools, methods, and workflows.
- Tests tools and methods used to acquire, manage, preserve, document, describe, and provide access to born-digital materials.
- Documents workflows, procedures, decision points, and technical findings.
- Recommends improvements in reliability, efficiency, scalability, and consistency.
Collaborates with colleagues and external stakeholders to strengthen born-digital archival practice and share knowledge.
- Contributes to internal guidance, training materials, templates, presentations, publications, convenings, and other knowledge-sharing activities.
- Participates in professional communities and collaborative initiatives related to born-digital archival work.
- Provides information and guidance on established born-digital archival procedures, tools, and workflows to staff, donors, researchers, and partners, as appropriate.
QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
Applicants must meet the basic qualification requirements for the Archivist Series, 1420, through one of the following paths: a bachelor’s degree in archival science; a bachelor’s degree with a major that includes 18 semester hours in archival science, history, and/or political science or government, plus 12 semester hours in one or any combination of archival science, history, American civilization, economics, political science, public administration, or government; or a combination of education and experience that includes at least 30 semester hours of the coursework described above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
For this position, “archival science” may include coursework in archival studies and archives and records management; library and information science, information management, computer science, and related information sciences; digital curation, digital humanities, data curation, research data management, and digital preservation; museum studies and public history; or media preservation and audiovisual archiving. Coursework in these or closely related fields must be substantially relevant to archival principles, methods, appraisal, preservation, access, stewardship, metadata, digital forensics, or lifecycle management of archival or digital materials. Qualifying semester hours may combine undergraduate and graduate coursework.
Professional experience must have been in archival science or a directly related field, such as history, and must have involved the collection, appraisal, analysis, or synthesis of information with artistic, historical, or archival value.
In addition to meeting the basic qualification requirements above, applicants must have the professional knowledge and experience required to perform archival work with born-digital collections, including:
- Knowledge of archival principles, theories, standards, and practices for appraisal, accessioning, arrangement, description, preservation, reference, and access.
- Knowledge of digital preservation principles, standards, and lifecycle practices for transfer, ingest, characterization, storage preparation, preservation documentation, technical review, and access support.
- Knowledge of digital archival tools, systems, metadata practices, and workflows used to acquire, manage, preserve, document, describe, and provide access to born-digital materials.
- Skill in analyzing technically and contextually complex materials, identifying archival and preservation risks, adapting established methods, and recommending appropriate actions.
- Knowledge of legal and ethical considerations affecting born-digital collections, including authenticity, integrity, intellectual property, privacy, access restrictions, and researcher use.
- Skill in collaborating with archivists, curators, reference staff, technical specialists, donors, researchers, institutional partners, and other stakeholders.
- Skill in documenting workflows and technical decisions and communicating born-digital procedures, tools, and practices through guidance, training, presentations, publications, and other knowledge-sharing activities.
Education completed outside the United States must be deemed equivalent to higher education programs of U.S. Institutions by an organization that specializes in the interpretation of foreign educational credentials. This documentation is the responsibility of the applicant and should be included as part of your application package.
Any false statement in your application may result in rejection of your application and may also result in termination after employment begins.
Join us in "Inspiring Generations through Knowledge and Discovery."
Required Application Materials
Required application materials include a resume and a cover letter describing the applicant’s experience with born-digital archival work, digital preservation, and collaborative archival projects, along with any additional materials specified by Smithsonian Human Resources.
Resumes should include a description of your paid and non-paid work experience that is related to this job; starting and ending dates of job (month and year); and average number of hours worked per week.
What To Expect Next: Once the vacancy announcement closes, a review of your resume will be compared against the qualification and experience requirements related to this job. After review of applicant resumes is complete, qualified candidates will be referred to the hiring manager.
Relocation expenses are not paid.
The Smithsonian Institution provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation should contact Shanese Whaley (
WhaleySL@si.edu). Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. To learn more, please review the Smithsonian’s
Accommodation Procedures.
The Smithsonian Institution is an
Equal Opportunity Employer. To review The Smithsonian's EEO program information, please click the following:
https://www.si.edu/oeo 
