Archives Operations Manager/Processing Archivist

Echo Services Inc. is seeking an experienced, hands-on Archives Operations Manager to oversee the daily delivery of archival services for a large corporate collection. Based onsite at a major software company in Redmond, Washington, this role works closely with the client’s archives business owner and manages a small archives team. This position contributes directly to the work by processing, arranging, and researching physical and digital collections; preparing materials for cataloging; resolving complex collection and operational issues; and supporting the stewardship of more than 130,000 physical items. In partnership with the Corporate Archivist, this position combines archives operations, people leadership, digital asset management, AI-enabled workflows, client and contract management, and practical technology support.

Archival Processing & Collections Management

Process, arrange, and research physical and digital collection materials in accordance with the established archival standards, procedures, and priorities.

Assess collection context, provenance, and relationships to existing holdings to support accurate description, discovery, and access.

Develop processing approaches, resolve complex collection questions, and provide clear guidance to catalogers and archives staff.

Resolve collection-related issues independently where appropriate, consulting with the Corporate Archivist as needed.

Retrieve, handle, pack/unpack, move, organize, and rehouse physical materials using appropriate archival practices.

Support stewardship of the 130,000+ item physical collection, perform annual storage vault inventory and provide collection-state reporting.

Maintain preservation of collection materials through appropriate handling, housing, storage, condition assessment, and identification of items requiring stabilization or specialized conservation care.

Monitor and assess space, environmental conditions, facilities, security, and collection risks, coordinating with appropriate partners to mitigate issues and support preservation objectives.

People Leadership

Directly and indirectly manage archives staff; establish priorities, workloads and coverage.

Lead, coach, and develop employees through clear expectations, constructive feedback, performance management, and ongoing professional development.

Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and accountable team environment through effective communication, empathy, and sound decision-making.

Digital Asset Management & Digital Collections

Perform day-to-day collections processing and manage archival work within the DAM, including asset retrieval, organization, metadata management, workflow support, testing, troubleshooting, and process improvement.

Articulate archival and operational requirements, requests and business needs to the corporate Archivist, developers, and technical partners to support effective DAM and archives operations.

Resolve day-to-day collection, operational, DAM, and customer service issues independently when appropriate, applying sound professional judgment and established procedures.

AI, IT & Technology

Apply approved AI tools appropriately for research, documentation, presentations, data analysis, workflow development and process improvement.

Use sound judgment with sensitive information and AI.

Stay current with emerging archival, DAM, AI, and technology practices, and encourage ongoing learning and professional growth across the archives team.

Independently set up, configure, maintain and troubleshoot varied hardware and computer systems; learn unfamiliar systems quickly.

Client, Contract & Service Level Agreement (SLA) Management

Manage contracted services, SLA evidence, operational statistics and monthly/quarterly business reviews.

Explain performance, problems, risks and solutions to the customer.

Recognize legal, compliance, confidentiality, privacy, security, contractual and corporate-risk concerns and escalate appropriately to the corporate Archivist or Echo Services leadership.

Collaborate with corporate Archivist to assess emerging requests and determine appropriate priorities, resources, and next steps.

Provide operational and subject-matter input into the annual managed service agreement/SOW process alongside Echo Services leadership.

Help ensure services, deliverables, staffing, operational considerations, SLAs and evolving customer needs are accurately reflected in scope.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

5 years of relevant archives, library, collections, museum, information-management or related experience.

Meaningful hands-on experience processing and handling collections.

Strong research, investigation, organization, communication and problem-solving skills.

Direct people-management experience, preferably managing at least three employees.

DAM or comparable digital collections/content platform experience.

Applied AI experience or demonstrated ability and willingness to become AI fluent.

Strong client-facing communication and sound judgment concerning authority, scope, confidentiality, risk and escalation.

Strong technical self-sufficiency and ability to learn unfamiliar systems.

Ability to push/pull carts; climb platform ladders and move up to 30lbs

Benefits

Employee medical insurance split at 80% employer: 20% employee

Employer paid employee dental, vision, and long-term disability

105 annual hours of accruing PTO to start

10 paid holidays corresponding to client's holidays

2 Elective days off annually chosen by employee

Monthly stipend for use of personal device (device to be used for 2FA). All other equipment provided by Echo Services and client

401(k) program enrollment with up to 4% employer matching funds after one year of employment and 1000 hours