Natalija Polenec (graduated at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana) is a museum curator, since November 2020 a director of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Her previous  working assignments were: a director of the Technical Museum of Slovenia (from October 2014 to March 2020); a director of the Tourist Board Kranj where she has successfully developed destination products (2006-2014); Public Relations Officer at the scientific Institute Jožef Štefan, working in various fields – communications, event management, management of IJS Gallery, editorial and others (1994 – 2006),  and  at  the beginning of her working career she was a NOTAM officer (Notice to Air Man) at the Civil Aviation Authority of Slovenia.

She is the member of the Association of Museums of Slovenia, from 2016 the board member of  ICOM CIMUSET (ICOM  International Council of Museums International Committee for Technical Museums) and member of the Committee for the Golden Bee Award (June 2021 – June 2025).