Head of General Archives

The Head of General Archives leads the preservation of the ICRC’s institutional memory, overseeing the digital transformation of archives to manage both analogue and born-digital records. This role involves strategic leadership, managing a team, and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to ensure long-term preservation and accessibility of archival records.

Responsibilities

• Organizes, supervises and promotes the Unit’s work on managing institutional records for long-term preservation
• Develops strategies, policies, guidelines and procedures for acquiring, describing, and preserving classified archives according to institutional policies and professional standards
• Is part of the Safeguarding Archives programme Steering Committee (senior user) and has business lead role for several programme deliverables
• Manages the initiated transition from the international ISAD(G) to Records in Context (RiC) archival description standard
• Manages the ongoing development of the ICRC ontology and fosters internal knowledge and understanding about its role as an institutional data framework
• Ensures classified archives are made available internally to inform present decision- and policy making through analysis and research
• Manages a team of 13 staff members in conformity with ICRC's People Leadership and Management principles
• Is responsible for formulating the Unit’s annual objectives and budgetary requirements, monitoring budget spending and assessing performance
• Contributes to the development and implementation of Division and Department vision and strategies and fosters synergies and collaboration across the division and beyond
• Leads the archives digital transformation to develop the capabilities, processes and systems enabling the ICRC to archive and preserve born-digital records based on a holistic approach for managing the information life cycle and in close collaboration with internal stakeholders and business partners (Information Governance, T&I, etc.)
• Manages the implementation of a new digital preservation system (DPS) based on the open archival information system (OAIS) / ISO 14721 standard to ensure the acquisition and long-term preservation of archival records originating from a large number of ICRC business processes and applications
• Builds the data management foundations for the development of semantic search capabilities, including through the ICRC ontology and transition to RiC
• Manages the development of automated archival acquisition processes, scalable to the variety of ICRC business applications
• Keeps abreast of digital preservation technologies, practices and strategies
• Is responsible for the continued evolution of archival practices services and contributes to the institution’s ambition to archive born-digital information

Requirements

• University degree in archiving, information management, information technology or related field
• 12+ years of relevant professional experience, including strategic planning, service delivery and project management
• Strong understanding of core archival principles – provenance; metadata and descriptive standards, accessioning, acquisition, appraisal
• Strong knowledge of digital preservation strategies and systems
• Technical expertise in the preservation and metadata management of digital archival records
• Solid understanding of digital technologies, artificial intelligence
• Knowledge of data science, concepts and principles, including semantic search, ontology, linked data, and RDF
• Full computer proficiency
• Fluency in English and French
• Professional experience in the ICRC, familiarity with its work, functioning and culture is a strong advantage

Skills

• Archival Principles
• Metadata Management
• Digital Preservation
• Strategic Planning
• Project Management
• Service Delivery
• Digital Technologies
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data Science Concepts
• Semantic Search
• Ontology
• Linked Data
• RDF
• Preservation of Digital Records
• Information Management
• Information Technology
• Computer Proficiency

Languages

English, French