Job description
We are seeking an experienced Archival Specialist to join our records management team in San Francisco. This role focuses on physical and digital archives, metadata curation, and long-term preservation. You will partner with historians, IT, and legal to ensure secure, accessible, and compliant records for years to come.
As a key member of our archival program, you will drive best practices in preservation, cataloging, and metadata management to support institutional memory and research.
Responsibility
- Manage and organize physical and digital archival collections, ensuring accurate cataloging and accessible retrieval.
- Develop and implement metadata schemas (MODS, Dublin Core) and controlled vocabularies for consistency.
- Lead digitization projects, including backlog assessment, quality control, and metadata capture.
- Ensure long-term digital preservation using trusted formats, bit-level preservation, and storage best practices.
- Audit and improve records retention schedules in alignment with regulatory requirements.
- Collaborate with IT and stakeholders to implement archival tooling, migration plans, and access policies.
- Provide training and guidance on records management to staff and end-users.
Qualification
- Bachelor’s degree in Library Science, Archives, Information Management, or a related field; Master’s preferred.
- 3+ years of professional archival experience, with demonstrated digital preservation work.
- Strong knowledge of metadata standards (MARC, Dublin Core, MODS) and archival systems (LMS, DAMS, EAD).
- Experience with digitization workflows, OCR, and quality control processes.
- Familiarity with file formats, data integrity checks, and backup strategies.
- Excellent organizational skills, attention to detail, and customer service orientation.
- Strong communication skills and ability to work cross-functionally in a fast-paced environment.