Visitor Experience and Store Manager - Full Time

We are seeking an enthusiastic, bright, personable leader to manage the visitor experience, group sales and community tours, and the 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. Join the Museum during our pivotal period of growth, outreach, major exhibitions, and increased regional and national visibility.

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; manages group sales and tours to cultivate tourism, hospitality and conference communities; supervises the Visitor Services Representatives; and manages the P&L, buying, merchandising, and retail activity and staff in the new Museum Store.

The breakdown of responsibilities can be found below:

Visitor Experience (40%)

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.

Group Sales and Group Tours (20%)

This position will initiate, develop, and manage a group sales and group tours program designed to expand the Museum’s reach among visitors, tourists, conference attendees, community groups, and cultural travelers. The Manager will define group tour offerings in partnership with internal stakeholders and will serve as the primary lead for cultivating relationships with Santa Barbara’s tourism, hospitality, and conference communities.

Responsibilities include identifying and sourcing new group tour customers; building relationships with local hotels, travel and tourism organizations, tour operators, travel agents, conference planners, and other potential partners; coordinating group reservations and tour logistics; and ensuring a high-quality experience for all group visitors. The Manager will oversee the operational execution of group tours in collaboration with Visitor Services staff, the docent program, Education, Membership, and other Museum departments as needed.

The position will also track group sales activity, identify opportunities for growth, and help establish systems and processes that support a consistent, professional, and welcoming group visitor experience.

Museum Store (40%)

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.

Required Qualifications

Candidates should have a BA degree or equivalent combination of education and experience, with a minimum of 3 to 5 years of related managerial experience in visitor services, retail, hospitality, tourism, cultural institutions, customer service, or a related field.

Required qualifications include:

• Experience managing staff, schedules, customer service standards, and day-to-day public-facing operations.
• Experience managing a physical retail store, including sales goals, inventory, merchandising, vendor relationships, and P&L responsibilities.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with visitors, staff, vendors, members, donors, and community partners.
• Demonstrated ability to lead a team, foster professionalism, resolve visitor issues, and maintain a high standard of service.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple priorities across visitor services, retail, ticketing, events, and group tours.
• Comfort with sales, customer engagement, and revenue-generating activities, including membership sales, store sales, event ticketing, and group sales.
• Proficiency with Shopify or similar POS and inventory management systems.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and common digital tools such as Canva or Photoshop, WeTransfer, iCloud, Dropbox, Faire, or other online wholesale platforms
• Ability to work a flexible schedule, including some evenings, weekends, and holidays as needed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in a museum, cultural institution, hospitality, tourism, retail, or guest experience environment.
• Experience developing or managing group sales, tours, visitor programs, hospitality partnerships, or tourism-related offerings.
• Demonstrated success motivating and supervising frontline staff in a public-facing environment.
• Experience training staff to communicate clearly and confidently about institutional offerings, programs, exhibitions, products, or services.
• Strong visual merchandising skills and an eye for creating an engaging retail environment
• Experience sourcing, buying, or developing custom merchandise related to exhibitions, seasons, themes, or institutional brand identity.
• Familiarity with Santa Barbara’s tourism, hospitality, hotel, travel, or conference community.
• Ability to collaborate across departments and build strong internal systems for communication, scheduling, and visitor experience.
• Interest in art, museums, design, education, or cultural programming.

Other Information

• The position reports to the Director of Marketing and Communications.
• Schedule: Exempt status, non-remote, some evenings, weekend or holidays may be scheduled. Ability to adjust schedule to flex hours to support evening or weekend events.
• Compensation DOE: $ 70,304 to 73,750.00
• Full Time Status provides competitive and comprehensive benefits offerings including eligibility for medical, dental, vision, pre-tax savings, long term disability, life insurance plans, and more. Accrued vacation up to 15 days in first two years of service, 64 hours of paid sick leave reissued annually, and 13 paid holidays (14 on Federal election years). 403b eligibility with a Museum match up to 5% of your earnings after a year of service, and SB BikeSpot membership. Located 90 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, and set between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Santa Barbara has a vibrant, walkable downtown and nearby higher education institutions, including UC Santa Barbara.
• Successful background check is required and ability to complete occasional offsite visits and/or errands using reliable transportation. Ability to perform merchandising tasks and lift 25 lbs. occasionally.

Please submit your SBMA Application, resume, cover letter, and three professional references to: hr@sbma.net.

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.