Visitor Experience and Store Manager - Full Time

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is one of the finest museums on the West Coast and is celebrated for the superb quality of its permanent collection. Its mission is to integrate art into the lives of people through internationally recognized exhibitions and special programs, as well as the thoughtful presentation of its permanent collection.

We are seeking an enthusiastic, bright, personable leader to manage the visitor experience and museum store at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Visitor Services is the face of SBMA, responsible for providing the highest quality guest service and ensuring the finest visitor experience for all those who come to the Museum.

This position reports directly to the Director of Marketing and Communications and oversees all aspects of the Museum’s Visitor Services activities including the administration and operations of the admission desk, ticket reservations, and onsite membership sales; supervises the Visitor Services Representatives; and manages the retail activity and staff in the new Museum Store and special pop up shop this fall for a touring Impressionism exhibition.

Visitor Experience

This position is responsible for hiring staff, training, coordinating schedules, managing event ticketing, handling issues with ticket sales, answering phone inquiries, troubleshooting visitor needs, increasing membership sales, fostering an environment of teamwork and professionalism, and ensuring a superior experience for all museum visitors. This position is also responsible for coordinating with the Membership department any ticketed programs such as regional day trips and other events, coordinating with the Education department in scheduling groups with docent tours, and staffing public events when onsite sales are needed. The Supervisor will develop and implement policies in coordination with other departments to ensure an informed and knowledgeable frontline staff with regard to exhibitions, the permanent collection, and all museum programming and events.

Museum Store

The Manager oversees all strategic buying of store merchandise in alignment with museum themes/exhibitions and is vital to the overall appearance of the Museum Store. The position sources, designs and coordinates manufacturing of custom exhibit merchandise and visuals for each story/theme/exhibition/season. Primary daily responsibilities include generating sales with a focus on increasing sales on a monthly and annual basis, incentivizing and motivating staff to drive sales, sourcing new and popular products, creating a positive shopping experience with visitors as you engage the community and act as a brand ambassador of the museum, assisting in the museum’s core values in its role of providing excellent visitor/shopper experience through customer service, strategic buying and creating dynamic themed visual merchandising. This position maintains inventory, the store website and e-commerce, as well as creates and oversees any eblasts and pop-ups.

Qualifications

Candidates should have a BA degree or equivalent with a minimum of 3 – 5 years related managerial experience. Skills needed include Shopify online and POS or similar store inventory management application Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Canva or Photoshop, Microsoft Outlook, WeTransfer, Icloud, Dropbox, Faire or other Online wholesale platforms.

• The position reports to the Director of Marketing and Communications.
• Schedule: Full Time, regular status, 40 hours per week, some evenings, weekend or holidays may be scheduled.
• Ability to adjust schedule to flex hours to support evening or weekend events.
• Compensation: $30.65/hour
• Successful background check is required.
• Submission packet: Application, resume and cover letter.

Please submit your cover letter, résumé, and SBMA Application with contact information for three professional references.

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is an Equal Opportunity Employer and committed to diversity. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is recognized for its comprehensive art collection, diverse exhibits, and a broad array of events and community activities.