About the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

Since its founding in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. We are committed to fostering a collaborative and respectful work environment with a staff as diverse as the audiences we engage. Our staff members are art lovers who are passionate about working toward a common goal: creating the most dynamic and inspiring art museum in the world.

At The Met, every staff member – from security officers to researchers to scientists and beyond – lives by our core values of respect, inclusivity, collaboration, excellence, and integrity. 

Respect: Engage one another with collegiality, empathy, and kindness, always.

Inclusivity: Ensure that all are and feel welcome and valued.

Collaboration: Reach across boundaries to exchange ideas and work together toward our shared mission.

Excellence: Lead the cultural world in quality and expertise—and inspire curiosity and creativity.

Integrity: Hold ourselves to the highest moral standards, admit when we fall short, and then evolve. 

GENERAL STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES:
Provides advanced analytical support and scientific research and analysis toward the improvement of the Museum’s understanding, methods, and strategies to prevent degradation of collections due to environmental factors. This work will be performed in the Preventive Conservation Science Laboratory under the supervision of the Environmental Research Scientist. Environmental factors include but are not limited to the off-gassing of materials used to store, display, or transport collections, pollutants, temperature, humidity, particulates, vibration, and light.
Initial focus will be to improve the field’s methods for establishing whether display, storage, and transport materials are acceptable for use near art collections using advanced analytical liquid and gas phase chromatographic technics such as gas chromatography mass spectrometry and ion chromatography. In addition, x-ray diffraction, x-ray fluorescence, infrared, and UV-visible spectroscopy will be utilized.

Note: Please include cover letter with your application

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES:

• Evaluates commercially available display, storage, and construction materials for compatibility with artwork using established and novel advanced analytical techniques and protocols including but not limited to volatile organic chemical analysis and material degradation analysis.

• Plans, conducts, and documents, environmental testing to promote the preservation of the collection. Environmental testing includes the evaluation of temperature, humidity, light, dust, pollution, and vibration levels.

• Establishes and implements sensor calibration protocols for analytical and environmental test equipment.

• Develops, maintains, and utilizes databases and guidance documents to document and disseminate test results, advising the Museum on best preventive conservation science practices.

• Collaborates with Registrar, Design, Construction, Conservation, Exhibitions, and Curatorial departments to develop, research, and advise on improving the Museum’s environment.

• Performs literature reviews on related topics using scientific and conservation literature, proposing improvements to existing protocols and procedures.

• Writes progress reports, summary reports, standard operating procedures, annotated bibliographies, and publishable manuscripts on related topics and activities.

• Publishes significant findings in peer reviewed scientific literature.

• Maintain scientific equipment, update equipment standard operating procedures, and train users to operate scientific equipment.

• Supervise and collaborate with interns and fellows.

• Other duties as assigned

REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience and Skills:

• 1-3 years of experience in quantification of volatile unknowns, air quality testing, building environment monitoring, or chromatography-based testing and analysis (required).

• Experience working in museum environments, specifically, either with or in proximity of art objects (preferred).

• Strong command of both written and spoken English (required).

• Demonstrated expertise in advanced liquid or gas chromatographic analytical techniques such as GC/MS, HPLC, GPC, or LCMS (required).

• Development and implementation of testing methods and protocols for volatiles analysis, ideally the identification and quantification of unknowns.(required).

• Development and implementation of testing methods and protocols for the evaluation of degraded materials (preferred).

• Experience in photochemistry, spectroscopy, environmental chemistry, air quality monitoring, corrosion science, or preventive conservation science (required).

• Experience testing and evaluating museum environment factors such as temperature, humidity, light, dust, pollution, or vibration levels (preferred).

• Experience implementing advanced statistical analysis methods on scientific data (preferred).

• Development of process automation using modern database software and web-enabled tools (preferred).

Knowledge and Education:

• Ph.D. in analytical chemistry, materials science, related disciplines, or equivalent experience (required)

Compensation Range:

• Pay Range: $90,000 - $98,000

• The advertised pay scale reflects the good faith minimum and maximum salary range for this role. The advertised pay scale is not a promise of a particular wage for any specific employee. The specific compensation offered to a candidate may be dependent on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s experience, education, special licensing or qualifications, and other factors. 

Benefits Offerings

The Museum provides competitive compensation, and generous benefits and perks for all eligible employees. Note: Benefits Offering may differ based on Employee Status.

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• 403(b) basic retirement plan and optional matching retirement plan with an outstanding employer match
• Considerable paid time off, including annual leave, sick leave, and 13 Museum holidays
• Long-term disability coverage
• Flexible Spending Accounts & Health Savings Account (pre-tax income for eligible health care expenses)
• Commuter benefits (pre-tax income for parking or mass transit expenses)
• Free financial-planning services
• Financial assistance for relevant coursework, seminars, and training programs
• 25% discount for staff in Museum shops
• A subsidized staff cafeteria
• Access to the Museums Council pass, which grants free admission to various museums and cultural institutions

Research shows that women and people from underrepresented groups often apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We recognize that it is highly unlikely that someone meets 100% of the qualifications for a role. If much of this job description describes you, then please apply for this role.

The Met is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, The Met will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed in this process, please contact benefits@metmuseum.org.  

The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides equal opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, alienage or citizenship status, marital status or domestic partner status, genetic information, genetic predisposition or carrier status, gender identity, HIV status, military status and any other category protected by law in all employment decisions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, compensation, training and apprenticeship, promotion, upgrading, demotion, downgrading, transfer, lay-off and termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment.

Please apply though the Met Careers Site: https://metmuseum.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/metmuseumcareers/job/1000-Fifth-Avenue/Associate-Research-Scientist_JR-41132?q=research