A cover letter is required for an application to be considered for this position
The Director of Campus and Museum Engagement works across the organization and in collaboration with partner organizations to develop, define, and implement engagement strategies for all ages to activate the Equity Action Framework and fully realize the impacts outlined by the Future Learning Framework. In doing so, this position ensures the safe, fun, and consistent operation of areas in the museum and on campus; nurtures creative and experimental engagement approaches; defines and supports systems for developing and implementing new engagement opportunities; and provides ongoing support and direction to staff activating the strategies.
This position utilizes the Culturally Relevant Toolkit and the Future Learning Framework to lead the Museum Engagement Team through planning, delivering, and iterating approaches that span a variety of formats, including in-person program delivery, developing and facilitating rotating experiences, and digital-media based learning to achieve organizational goals and outcomes.
Essential Job Responsibilities
- Educational Leadership:
- Collaborates with senior leadership to lead strategic planning and implementation of OMSI initiatives aligning with our 5-year plan, 20-year vision, Future Learning Framework, the Equity Action Framework (EAF), and the Culturally Relevant Experiences toolkit to achieve Key Outcome Indicators;
- Develops and implements strategies to achieve the museum engagement division experiences and learning goals, financial goals, operational goals, and associated metrics/ Key Outcome Indicators;
- Evaluates current practices and stays current with professional standards, education theory, techniques, and technologies to meet the needs of diverse audiences, and plan for changing needs of the staff and the public;
- Collaborates with the VP of Learning Experience to plan for, spend, and track divisional budgets to ensure short- and long-term requirements are met through labor planning, forecasting, and reforecasting. Budgets include: Museum Engagement (~$1m) and restricted project funds ($10k to $250k);
- Serves as a conceptual lead and/or a project PI, co-PI, or director for federal awards. Serves as the point-of-contact for communication with program officers and grants management, with an emphasis on fulfilling grant-specific requirements, responsibilities, and reporting;
- Provides input and expertise to select, plan, and implement Featured Exhibits;
- Provides leadership for ongoing and strategic fundraising efforts with the Development team to support institutional and individual giving portfolios and goals.
- Museum Engagement Leadership:
- Aligns and shapes Museum Engagement team goals and objectives and ensures adequate resources and support systems;
- Provides ongoing development opportunities and support for staff with an emphasis on continual engagement with informal education and museum best practices, scientific knowledge, safe behaviors for learners, and operational efficiency practices;
- Establishes, communicates, and directs clear priorities and expectations so that staff can implement thematic experiences and activate engagement areas;
- Works with leadership to identify and test long term engagement opportunities based on organizational priorities;
- Advises and supports museum engagement staff in the creation and documentation of learning experiences in support of transparency, collaboration, evaluation, succession planning, and dissemination;
- Collaborates with partners and colleagues (internal and external) to ensure participation and opportunity for input to inform museum engagement strategy and plans;
- Campus and Museum Programming Leadership:
- Provides staff direction for developing, implementing, and iterating annual engagement plans for new, fun, interactive learning experiences that rotate and change throughout the year;
- Provides direction and support for systems that ensure safe, consistent program operation and delivery;
- Provides input and expertise to select, plan, and implement Featured Exhibits;
- Collaborates with Program Sales, Outreach, and other internal departments, and communicates with stakeholders to resolve emergent and rising issues;
- Leads team to identify content gaps, demands, and opportunities for ongoing improvement to existing experiences and expanding the reach and impact of engagement offerings;
- Manages projects and partnerships to ensure efficiencies and connect complementary work.
- Community Partner Stewardship:
- Collaborates across OMSI to identify, cultivate, and steward opportunities for mutually beneficial partnerships that support community partners' and OMSI's goals. Leads with an emphasis on BIPoC led/serving community members and organizations;
- Provides leadership to ensure partners collaborate with key project teams to develop, refine, and implement strategies for achieving impacts;
- Creates, manages, and systemizes codesign processes that encourage internal staff and external community partner collaboration, with an emphasis on culturally responsive and inclusive content creation.
- Collaborates with the Development department to identify and align fundraising goals and strategies with engagement approaches and strategies.
- Personnel Management:
- Directs and manages the Museum Education Leadership team (5 staff members);
- Oversees the management and support for additional coordinators (~4 staff members), science educators (~15-20 staff members), and regular volunteers (~250-300 staff);
- Utilizes principles of equity and inclusion to manage staff and provide mentorship and coaching to enhance individual and organizational knowledge and capabilities;
- Fosters a collaborative team environment, with an emphasis on creating high quality science programming guest experiences;
- Continuously identifies and assesses skill and knowledge needs, and allocates future personnel and external resources to meet the needs of strategic initiatives and projects;
- Prepares and facilitates the development and implementation of staff workplans, and provides regular 1-on-1s, check-ins, regular team meetings, and performance reviews.
Working Conditions
- This position is exempt, paid salaried;
- This position is regular full-time scheduled for 40 hours/week;
- Requires working onsite at the museum location;
- Requires occasional travel outside of the Portland Metro area;
- Scheduled to work from Monday-Friday from 9:00am-5:30pm. Requires working on holidays that fall in the work week and occasional Monday and evening events.
- Physical Demands: 50% sitting, 40% standing, 10% lifting/carrying/pushing up to 25 lbs;
- You must be fully vaccinated and boosted for COVID-19 or qualify for an accommodation under the ADA for medical or religious reasons.
- Vision Demands include:
- Close vision (clear vision at 20 inches of less)
- Distance vision (clear vision at 20 feet or more)
- Depth and perception (three dimensional vision, ability to judge distance and spatial relationships)
- Ability to adjust focus (ability to adjust the eyes to bring an object into sharp focus)
- Environmental Demands include:
- Outdoor weather conditions
- Fumes or airborne particles
- Ability to bend and stoop to and from floor level multiple times a day
- Ability to clean vertical and horizontal surfaces at a variety of heights
- Safely navigating around obstacles (children, toys, etc) on floor surfaces
- Engaging with a variety of sensory materials, including water, sand, slime, playdough, and more
- Noise Levels include:
- Very quiet (examples: forest trail, isolation booth for hearing test)
- Quiet (examples: library, private office)
- Moderate (examples: business office with computers and printers, light traffic)
- Loud (examples: metal can manufacturing department, large earth-moving equipment)
Secondary Job Responsibilities
Secondary responsibilities include-but are not limited to-the following:
- Contributes to and/or participates in process improvements for projects and initiatives;
- Collaborates with the Exhibit Experiences team to maintain integrity and appearance of OMSI's exhibits on a daily basis;
- Ensures current visitor study practices are adhered to;
- Helps shape and align policies for volunteer participation and support Museum Education and Teen Science Alliance with Volunteer Engagement staff;
- Provides temporary supervision and support for hall/lab volunteers in the following areas, as needed:
- Turbine Hall (Chemistry Lab, Physics Lab, Innovation Stations, and Teen Tech Center)
- Natural Sciences Hall (Life and Paleontology Labs)
- Featured Exhibits Hall
Knowledge/Skills/Abilities
REQUIREMENTS:
- Business Practices:
- Demonstrated and excellent interpersonal, written, and presentation communication skills;
- Ability to work effectively with people of diverse backgrounds and talents in professional, education, research, and evaluation settings;
- Excellent organizational, strategic planning, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with an emphasis on exercising initiative and good judgment while adhering to confidentiality, protocol, and community agreements;
- Demonstrated ability to effectively pivot between individual and team-based work on multiple, simultaneous, and diverse tasks;
- Effective time management skills, with an emphasis on managing and tracking multiple projects-often with overlapping and time-sensitive deadlines.
- Principles and Practices of Informal Learning Environments and Participant Behavior:
- Demonstrated understanding of learning philosophy;
- Ability to interact with visitors and provide customer service in a culturally responsive manner;
- Developed knowledge of diversity, equity, and inclusion principles in an informal learning environment;
- Demonstrated understanding of museum experiences (e.g. exhibits, programs, cyber);
- Demonstrated understanding of current best practices and philosophies for developing and delivering science, technology, engineering, art, and math learning experiences.
- Engagement Practices:
- Working knowledge of science process skills;
- Ability to create and present engaging content with diverse populations of learners in culturally responsive ways;
- Ability to interact with visitors and provide customer service in a culturally responsive manner;
- Ability to conceptualize and explain high-level, big-picture ideas and strategies, then apply them at a tangible, operational level in service of learners.
- Strategic Expertise:
- Ability to lead or co-lead and contribute to the process design for new experiences with the ability to work effectively with multiple departments;
- Ability to translate scientific and educational research into personal and departmental practices, in support of short and long term strategic priorities.
- Supervision and Leadership:
- Ability to model and support a positive team dynamic with an emphasis on coaching and mentoring paid and unpaid staff using asset-based feedback;
- Ability to conceptualize and explain high-level, big-picture ideas and strategies, then apply them at a tangible, operational level in service of staff, colleagues, and learners;
- Ability to manage six-figure annual budgets, estimate labor time and costs for projects, and manage employee and vendor workloads across multiple and simultaneous projects;
- Ability to establish, maintain, and support professional relationships with community, industry, and institutional giving partners.
- Lab Safety Skills:
- Knowledge of or ability to learn safe chemical handling, use, and storage practices;
- Familiarity with using or ability to learn how to use Safety Data Sheets;
- Ability to safely use hand tools for basic repair and maintenance.
PREFERENCES:
- Knowledge of general science processes and concepts;
- Proficient or native fluency in a second language (non-English).
Education & Work Experience
REQUIREMENTS:
- Minimum of 8 years experience with the following:
- Demonstrated project management experience, with an emphasis on staff supervision, multiple project management, resourceful problem-solving and adaptability, process improvements, and budget responsibility;
- Experience leading teams in designing programmatic elements and/or interactive experiences, with a focus on multi-sensory, experiential learning;
- Demonstrated experience working in a fast-paced collaborative environment with stringent and overlapping deadlines;
- Demonstrated experience working in a public-facing, customer service environment;
- Examples of effective communication with a variety of internal and external stakeholders in a work environment, as well as fostering strong and lasting community partnerships and relationships;
- Experience working effectively with people of diverse backgrounds and talents in professional work environments, with an emphasis on collaborative projects and deliverables.
- Minimum of 5 years experience with supervising and supporting the professional growth and development of staff and/or volunteers.
PREFERENCES:
- Master's degree with a concentration in any of the following: Museum Studies, Education, Management, Early Childhood Education, Natural Sciences, in a science field, or similar;
- Experience working with volunteers;
- Experience leading projects with programmatic elements or interactive exhibits.
Additional Requirements/Preferences; Including Licenses and Certifications
REQUIREMENTS:
- Pre-employment checks, such as criminal background checks and reference checks.
PREFERENCES:
- Certification in Human Subjects Research, including knowledge of federal regulations for protecting research subjects, informed consent, and research with vulnerable populations.
Benefits and Perks at OMSI
- Multiple health plans (OMSI pays 86% of employee premiums)
- 403(b) retirement with employer match eligibility
- 2 weeks of vacation per year
- 2 weeks of sick time per year
- 12 personal / cultural days (PTO) per year
- Free annual OMSI Family Membership
- Reciprocal Employee Attractions Pass (REAP)
- Inclusion-centered professional development opportunities
- Employee-led rewards and recognition program
- Discounts on summer programs for employee's children