Visitor Experience Manager
South Street Seaport Museum
Organization Description:
The South Street Seaport Museum—a fifty-four year-old cultural institution dedicated to telling the story of the rise of the New York port—engages visitors through interactive experiences with its fleet of historic ships, historic buildings and galleries, 19th-century letterpress shops, and large collection of artifacts. The Museum provides visitors the opportunity to appreciate the contributions of the Port of New York to the city, state, nation, and world, and to understand the current role of New York Harbor as a natural resource and a gateway to the world.
Position Description:
As Visitor Experience Manager, you will oversee the staff and operations that welcome visitors to the museum, telling the story of the rise of New York as a port city, and its critical role in the development of the United States. The Visitor Experience Manager makes sure our daily operations are smooth and also is constantly looking for new ways to improve and deepen the visitors’ experience and also to support the Visitor Experience staff. Museum visitors engage at multiple modes across our campus, including our fleet of historic ships, a ground-floor gallery on Fulton Street, and several locations on Water Street. You will manage the Visitor Experience Associates and operations, including scheduling, interacting through guest scheduling software, and managing some daily retail operations, as well as taking a lead in staff training, visitor engagement, data collection and analysis, and communication. You will also serve in a public Visitor Experience role. Visitor Experience is the face of the South Street Seaport Museum and the Visitor Experience staff you manage is responsible for welcoming guests to the Museum’s indoor and outdoor spaces with energy, enthusiasm, and knowledge, encouraging visitor engagement, answering guest questions, leading guided tours, assisting with retail operations, and helping guests follow safety protocols.
Reports to:
Senior Director of Programs and Education
Job Requirements & Responsibilities:
The essential functions include, but are not limited to, the following:
– Manage Visitor Experience staff, working directly with Associates and also through Visitor Experience Supervisors. Duties include hiring, scheduling (on a weekly and daily basis), training, communication, payroll management, and support. Create community among VX staff, and inspire them to do their best work as part of a team.
– Set up and conduct the daily Museum Visitors operation, including planning each day’s physical, technology, and staffing set up, rotations, and logistics, as well as end-of-day close-out and reporting.
– Working with senior program staff, design the guest visit, including layouts, tour schedules, engagement activity opportunities, personnel deployment, and traffic flows. Have a creative vision for what the guest experience will look like, and help manage staff and resources to make it happen.
– Working with Program, Education, Waterfront, Collections, and other departments, create and implement opportunities for visitor engagement
– Help design and implement a staff training and tracking program, including developing and leading individual training sessions, and also ongoing training and support training as needed. Develop and manage staff training materials. Conduct morning and afternoon musters that support communication, training, and staff cohesiveness.
– Participate in the Museum’s evolving cultural responsiveness and commitment to telling diverse stories and reaching diverse audiences, and supporting the VX team in this effort.
– Maintain and report a variety of data, including visitorship and customer service, and proactively work to design and collect new data that will help us evaluate and improve our work.
– Serve as daily interface support for any ticketing or donation software we use during the guests’ day, including setting up and managing ticketing and calendaring updates.
– Work with senior staff to support retail operation, including scheduling and supervising VX retail staff and managing open and close of retail business day
– Handle customer service and other issues that are elevated to you, and work with staff to make sure that customer service issues are elevated promptly as necessary.
– Maintain daily communication as needed with Waterfront, Collections, and other departments
– Serve some shifts in a Visitor Experience role
Candidate Qualifications:
Professional Qualifications* (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)
– Bachelor’s degree in museum studies, history, education, arts, sciences, communications, or a related field, or similar combination of academic and practical work experience
– 2+ years experience in guest engagement, preferably in a cultural institution and/or non-profit organization.
– 2+ years experience managing a public-facing team in a professional setting, preferably in a cultural or education setting
– Demonstrated experience in presenting information in an engaging way
– Demonstrated interest in maritime and/or New York City history.
– Excellent spoken and written communication skills
– Fluency with Microsoft Suite and Google Suite environments, especially with spreadsheet and data applications
– Experience with admin functions in Peek, OvationTix, Showclix, ACME, or similar ticketing and CMS software
– Knowledge of inquiry-based learning and Best Practices for museum and public engagement
* Non-traditional applicants and/or those with suitable alternatives to the above criteria are encouraged to apply. The Seaport Museum strongly encourages applications from members of groups underrepresented in careers related to museums; we seek to foster a collaborative and respectful work environment with a staff as diverse as New York City and our audience.
Personal Qualifications
– Excellent management, organizational, and logistical skills.
– Ability to work collaboratively and to communicate clearly with staff at all levels, as well as with the public
– Empathy for needs of fellow staff and of the public; ability to be an effective and inspirational leader and to kindly and thoughtfully support others and lead positive, productive and enriching trainings and debriefing sessions
– Ability to take initiative and to think creatively and proactively regarding all aspects of the Visitor Experience department
– Attention to detail and follow-through; ability to plan and execute projects professionally
– Flexibility, positive outlook, and team focus. A problem solving mentality
– An outgoing personality with the ability to communicate well in public settings.
– Professional and personable demeanor.
– Ability to look at your work critically and reflectively and desire to continually improve practice
– Commitment to diversity and expanding cultural responsiveness, and working with a diverse population,
– Available to work weekend, holiday, and evening hours as needed.
Desirable but not required:
– Masters’ Degree in an applicable field
– Second language proficiency, particularly in Spanish or a Chinese language
Physical Demands and Work Environment
– The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.
– Physical Demands: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; and talk or hear. The employee is regularly required to stand for an hour or more, walk, climb stairs and ladders, and reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.
– Work Environment: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly exposed to outside weather conditions. Must be able to work outdoors in very hot and/or inclement weather.
– COVID-19 protocols: In the interest of providing and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace, South Street Seaport Museum has implemented a mandatory vaccination policy requiring COVID-19 vaccination for all employees. For purposes of this policy, “vaccinated” is defined as having received a full course plus booster of either the Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, or Pfizer COVD-19.
Position Type:
Full-Time
Union Status:
Non-Union
FLSA Status:
Non-Exempt
Schedule:
Generally Tuesdays – Saturdays from 9am-5pm, but occasional evening hours and/or other weekend work may be required.
Salary or Compensation:
$45,000- $50,000
Organization or Project Website:
seany.org
Application Info:
Email cover letter with resume with “Visitor Experience Manager” in the subject line to: careers@seany.org. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered. No phone calls, please. Position is open until filled, with priority to applications received by March 4.