Director, Visitor Services
4 days ago
Los Angeles
Job DescriptionABOUT THE LUCAS MUSEUM OF NARRATIVE ARTOpening in September 2026, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is dedicated to illustrated storytelling. Founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the museum’s collection features works by artists including Norman Rockwell, Kadir Nelson, Jessie Willcox Smith, N. C. Wyeth, Beatrix Potter, Judith F. Baca, Frida Kahlo, and Maxfield Parrish; as well as comic art legends such as Winsor McCay, Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, and R. Crumb; and photographers Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Dorothea Lange. The Museum also houses the Lucas Archives, containing models, props, concept art, and costumes from Lucas’s filmmaking career. Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD with a landscape by Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA, the Museum is in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, on an 11-acre campus that includes new green space and a 300,000-square-foot building with galleries, two theaters, a library, restaurant, café, retail store, and community spaces. POSITION SUMMARY The Lucas Museum is sharply focused on creating a superior level of visitor enjoyment and experience for all our onsite visitors. The Director of Visitor Services has a key leadership role in achieving this objective. On a day-to-day basis, the Director of Visitor Services is responsible for the overall management of the museum's Visitor Services department including hiring, training, and supervising frontline staff; preparing weekly schedules; conducting daily briefings with frontline staff; managing daily floor operations; maintaining exceptional standards of customer service; ensuring all publicly accessible spaces are impeccably clean; managing onsite ticketing and queuing; and aiding visitors in navigating their visits. The Director of Visitor Services will work closely with the Learning and Engagement, Volunteer, Accessibility, and Security departments to provide integrated workflows that address all visitor and institutional needs. On a strategic level, the Director of Visitor Services will work across departments to push for continuous improvement, building on data, experimentation, and engagement with staff and visitors. The Lucas Museum strives to be a leader in the field for innovative and equitable visitor engagement and this position will use both qualitative and quantitative lenses to assess these efforts. The Director will lead a cross-departmental team of stakeholders to make continuous improvements to visitor experience, driven by feedback and data. Additionally, this position will liaise with external partners across Exposition Park to align visitor-facing efforts. The Director of Visitor Services will be the point person responsible for promptly reviewing visitor feedback as the lead of a cross-departmental team with the goal of spotting and resolving issues and identifying opportunities. The Director of Visitor Services will also be a key member of the team that analyzes attendance data. The Director of Visitor Services will have a pivotal role in driving earned revenues in support of the Museum’s mission through a concerted effort to sell tickets, memberships, programming, and other offerings.RESPONSIBILITIES • PRE-OPENING, • With a cross-departmental team of colleagues, develop the procedures for all aspects of interactions with visitors, including ticketing, membership sales, queuing, visitor flow, group visit procedures, information distribution, and more, • Participate in the creation of the museum’s CRM and POS systems, • Develop training curriculum for all frontline staff, • Participate in development of attendance tracking and reporting systems, visitor experience and visitor feedback reporting, and visitor surveying, • Establish goals, standards of performance, and standard operating procedures which promote a consistently superior visitor experience, • Work with HR to create a bespoke training program that produces best of class interactions with visitors and drives sales, • Work with HR to identify the skills that will best serve the museum, and implement a program to hire people with those skills, • Develop and manage departmental operating budget, • POST-OPENING, • Oversee the daily operations of the visitor services department, including ticketing, queuing, visitor flow, group visit procedures, information distribution, hiring/training/supervising, scheduling, and more, • A major portion of the Visitor Services operation will be driving membership through sales and through an enhanced membership experience, • Creating a culture within the staff of engagement that leads to higher sales of tickets and memberships, • Act as a liaison between administrative staff and frontline staff, • Proactively identify and develop solutions for visitor experience challenges and opportunities, • Ensure secure and accurate collection and recording of all transactions, reconcile daily transaction reports, and provide regular reports of admissions data to colleagues, • Oversee admissions operations cash handling; online, phone, and in-person ticket transactions, • Manage queues in real-time to maximize attendance and visitor experience, • Coordinate all daily visitor experience efforts with the museum’s restaurant, café, and shop; assure effective and efficient scheduling without conflict, • Work closely with security to support a program of preparedness and rapid response that spots and deescalates issues, • Work closely with Food & Beverage and the Retail store to ensure close cooperation and a superior customer service experience, • Handle any visitor escalations that cannot be settled at the floor staff level, • Develop and implement new programs and initiatives to improve the visitor experience, • Use data, experimentation, and visitor feedback to continuously improve the visitor experience, • Continuously refine hiring and training practices, • Mentor and provide feedback to staff in a contemporaneous and effective manner, • Work closely with colleagues in Expo Park to coordinate activities across multiple venues, • Stay up to date with industry trends and best practices CORE COMPETENCIES, • Analytical Rigor: Simplifies complex problems by using critical thinking to evaluate problems, gathering information, incorporating multiple perspectives, understanding causes, and identifying best-possible solutions. Invests time in planning, discovery, and reflection to drive better decisions and more efficient implementations. Adopts an audience-centric approach, understanding the needs of the audience and incorporating them, as appropriate, into the decision., • Courageous Communication: Intentionally works well with others both on the team and cross-functionally to achieve individual, team, department, or organizational goals. Values diverse input and working with others as a way to achieve the best output possible., • Collaborative Excellence: Displays courage when handling difficult conversations and genuinely and intentionally communicates. Relays key messages effectively, targeted to specific audiences. Identifies others' communication styles and perspectives, adjusting language and approach accordingly. Employs active listening to understand, rather than reply. Asks for, integrates, and values feedback from team, peers, and leaders., • Adaptive Resilience: Thrives and grows in a rapidly changing and complex environment. Displays flexibility, activates networks, and adopts a continuous growth mindset to learn from mistakes and bounce back from adversity., • Inclusive Interaction: Actively contributes to an environment in which all employees feel a sense of belonging, valued for their differences and empowered to participate and contribute freely., • Building Trust & Relationship Management, • Accountable Ownership and clearly shares information and the "why" behind decisions., • Asks for and values the opinions of others. Displays empathy when listening., • Acknowledges when trust has been broken and focuses on rebuilding., • Relates comfortably with people across levels, functions, cultures, and geographies. Identifies interpersonal and group dynamics and reacts effectively., • Accountable Ownership, • Takes ownership of outcomes, positive or negative, without blaming others within the team or cross-functionally., • Recognizes when they are not approaching a situation with accountability but instead with a blame mindset., • Takes accountability for assigned tasks and executes on deliverables in a timely manner., • Strategic Alignment & Execution, • Contributes to the organization by understanding and aligning actions with the organization's goals, core functions, needs, and values., • Seeks out and incorporates multiple perspectives, experiences, and industry trends to develop a holistic perspective. Operationalizes ideas within the business model., • Displays critical thinking when faced with a challenge by asking probing questions and looking for connections.QUALIFICATIONS, • 5+ years of experience in a leadership role at an organization that modeled a high degree of customer service and sales. Museum experience is not essential, but experience in hospitality, attractions, cultural organizations and admissions-driven institutions preferred, • Experience directly managing and motivating large numbers of hourly staff, • Experience creating and managing complicated staffing schedules for hourly staff, • Demonstrated commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging in hiring, staffing, management, training, and leaderships practices, • Ability to influence and engage direct reports and peers and create a positive work environment, • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, • Strong organizational and problem-solving skills, • Ability to work independently and as part of a team, • Innovative thinker, with a track record for translating strategic thinking into action plans and output, • Solid strategic planning, organizational, and project management skills, • Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines, • Experience with point-of-sale systems, ticketing software, and retail operations, • Ability to work a flexible schedule, including weekends and evenings, as required
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