Research Assistant in Digital Heritage Documentation (Fixed Term)


Company:	Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science, University of Cambridge
Salary:	£33,002 to £35,608 a year
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	Cambridge
Working pattern:	On-site
Job type:	Temporary
Posting date:	22 Oct 2026
Closing date:	20 Nov 2026

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Summary

The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research invites applications for a fixed-term Research Assistant in Digital Heritage Documentation, generously supported by Arcadia (https://www.arcadiafund.org.uk).

The post holder will be employed on the Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments (MAEASaM) project and will join a team of researchers based in Cambridge. The project aims to identify, document and share knowledge of endangered archaeological sites across twelve African countries, using a combination of remote sensing, historical map analysis, records-based research supported by ground-verification, and in-country assessments of the nature, extent and likelihood of threats to these heritage sites. The documentation is carried out in collaboration with in-country authorities, who are responsible for national heritage management and who guide the project on principles of data-sharing through an Open Access Arches database (https://tdb.maeasam.org/).

The role holder will be employed as part of the research community at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, which is part of the Department of Archaeology within the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science. They will support the MAEASaM project’s digital data lifecycle (data collection, entry, validation, documentation, sharing and deposition) and will routinely interact with international partners to review existing data, ontologies and vocabularies to ensure that the MAEASaM database provides FAIR and CARE data.

The main duties of the role will involve a range of technical and data management tasks including running routine validation and quality-control checks on incoming data from project collaborators, using the project’s auditing workflows; prepare data for ingestion into the project’s Arches database and contribute to the development of database documentation and Thesauri. The role will also involve data collection and entry for the MAEASaM Arches database using a combination of remote sensing, historical map analysis, records-based research. Additional duties are likely to include carrying out basic analysis, summaries and visualisations of data; presenting progress on data tasks verbally and in writing; ensure the overall project’s compliance with the Data Management Plan. For a detailed description of responsibilities, please see the Further Particulars document.

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