Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity (MfN), Berlin

Our Mission: Discovering and describing life and earth - with people, through dialogue.

The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN) is an excellent and integrated research museum of the Leibniz Association with an international reputation and globally networked research infrastructure. It is active in three closely interlinked fields: collection-based research, collection development and cataloguing, and research-based public and educational work. Over the next ten years, the Museum für Naturkunde will realise its plan for the future. New laboratories and jobs for cutting-edge research will be created. At the same time, one of the world's most comprehensive natural history collections with over 30 million objects will be housed in modern collection buildings and completely digitized in the process. The implementation of the Future Plan, funded with a total of 660 million euros from the Federal Government and the State of Berlin, will only succeed with strong interdisciplinary national and international partners.

Become part of our team

Zoological taxidermist / restaurator / conservator (f/m/d)

• Work schedule: full-time (currently 39 hours and 24 minutes)
• Duration: at the earliest possible date until 31.12.2028
• Salary level: E 9b TV-L
• Code: 23/2025

Project Description

The position is based in the mammal collection of the Museum für Naturkunde (MfN). With approximately 150,000 objects, the mammal collection is the largest of its kind in Germany. It includes scientific skins, skulls, and skeletons, as well as mounted animal specimens, alcohol specimens, and a tissue and DNA collection. Many specimens are historically and scientifically unique. Due to construction work, extensive sub-collections will have to be relocated in the coming years, requiring special preservation and security measures. The position encompasses a comprehensive spectrum of preservation, preparation, and restoration methods, thus offering a diverse field of activity and considerable potential for further development at one of the world's largest natural history museums.

Your tasks

• Planning, preparing, and conducting collection moves
• Planning, and realizing of challenging preservation and restauration in the scientific collection and of unique objects like type specimens
• Planning and realizing of zoological preparation and conservation tasks for specific scientific studies
• Development and testing of new methods, techniques, and materials in preservation, restauration, and preparation to achieve a long-term preservation and expansion of an extensive research collection
• Passing on knowledge in training activities

Your profile

• University or equivalent degree – bachelor/master/diploma - in zoological taxidermist/preparator, restaurateur, or conservator. Candidates who can demonstrate equivalent skills and experience gained through years of professional work will also be considered
• Thorough, comprehensive specialist knowledge and practical experience in established preservation and methods
• Specialist knowledge and practical experience in the restoration and repair of historical specimens
• Specialist knowledge of the anatomy and morphology of vertebrates
• Specialist knowledge about dealing with natural history collections, including their use, standards and laws
• Manual skills and physical resilience
• Very good language skills, especially German and English

In addition, we expect

• Initiative and independence
• Communication skills and the ability to work in a team
• A strong sense of responsibility when dealing with fragile, historically valuable collection specimens
• Constant reliability in dealing with documentation, databases and digital records of data relating to specimens in the collection

We offer you

• exciting working environment in an attractive research museum with varied tasks in a dynamic and future-orientated market
• very good public transport connections in the centre of Berlin
• extensive further training opportunities on a personal and professional level
• flexible working hours and a wide range of options for balancing work and family life (e.g. flexitime or individual part-time models)
• depending on the job, mobile working is possible for up to 60 per cent of individual working hours
• remuneration according to TV-L with company pension scheme (VBL), special annual payment and capital-forming benefits
• employer subsidy for the "VBB Firmenticket” (company ticket) or "Deutschlandticket Job” (Germany ticket job)
• employee events, company health management and German and English language courses
• 30 days' holiday plus 24 December and 31 December off

Special notes

In support of equal rights applications from qualified women are particularly welcome. Handicapped individuals will be given preference in cases of identical qualifications.

We look forward to receiving your application with the usual documents (cover letter, curriculum vitae, certificates) by 12.08.2025, preferably via our online application portal.

For information on the application procedure, please contact recruiting@mfn.berlin.

Further information

Privacy Policy

By sending your application, you provide us with your information for the purpose of processing your application by the Museum für Naturkunde. Your data will be kept strictly confidential at all times. Once we have received your application documents, they will be entered into our database. Your data will be stored on our server. In doing so, we observe the provisions of the data protection laws.

Family Policy

The Museum für Naturkunde has set itself the goal of promoting a work-life balance and has been awarded the certificate berufundfamilie audit of berufundfamilie gGmbH - an initiative of the Hertie Foundation.

Further information can be found under: