What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Associate, Visitor Experience position at Milken Institute?
About The Milken Institute
The Milken Institute is a globally minded, publicly supported, non-partisan, and nonprofit think tank headquartered in Santa Monica, with offices in Washington, DC, New York, London, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore. For the past three decades, the Milken Institute has served as a catalyst for practical, scalable solutions to global challenges by connecting human, financial, and educational resources to those who need them. Guided by a conviction that the best ideas, under-resourced, cannot succeed, we conduct research and analysis and convene top experts, innovators, and influencers from different backgrounds and competing viewpoints. We leverage this expertise and insight to construct programs and policy initiatives. These activities are designed to help people build meaningful lives, in which they can experience health and well-being, pursue effective education and gainful employment, and access the resources required to create ever-expanding opportunities for themselves and their broader communities.
The Milken Institute’s events and programmatic activities, involve the exchange of ideas with leaders from around the world. The Institute hosts more than 200 events each year, with our annual flagship event, Global Conference, bringing together 4,500 participants from around the world, featuring more than 900 speakers throughout 200 sessions over the course of the event.
About
About the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream
The Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream (MCAAD) at the Milken Institute is looking for a seasoned visitor experience professional to join the operations team as Senior Associate of Visitor Experience. This position will support our visitor services operations for the Visitor Center opening in 2025.
Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream (MCAAD), the newest center within the Institute, is catalyzing this work by building a new type of cultural center in the heart of Washington, DC. At MCAAD we celebrate the ideal of the American Dream and explore the ongoing challenges people face in pursuing opportunity, through exhibitions and programs. To accomplish this, we focus on four pillars of the American Dream: education, health, finance, and entrepreneurship. MCAAD’s physical home, with a planned opening in 2025, is a remarkable renovation of several 120-year-old historic bank buildings, including Riggs Bank, known as the “Bank of Presidents.” The Center’s main halls are in the National Register of Historic Places, and our stewardship of the property—along with adjacent buildings on 15th St NW—will showcase and honor the history of these buildings while adapting them for use as a modern cultural center with immersive exhibition galleries. There will also be a state-of-the-art theater, events and lecture spaces, a holodeck experience, store and an atrium with café. The six-building complex featuring nearly 300,000 square feet of space will also include a conference center, recording and broadcast studios, and the Washington, D.C., headquarters of five centers of the Milken Institute.
About The Position
WE are a dynamic, collaborative, and motivated team working to reopen the soaring halls of the Riggs Bank buildings as a place to imagine, explore, and expand the American Dream.
YOU are an accomplished visitor experience professional with a passion for providing stellar visitor service. You are skilled at organizing, coordinating, and communicating the multiple facets of making a cultural space work every day.
Working under the supervision of the Associate Director of Visitor Experience, the Senior Associate for Visitor Experience will serve a key role in implementing visitor experience operations to welcome visitors to our 70,000 square feet of exhibition space. This role is responsible for overseeing daily visitor-facing functions and team members as a floor manager. As a key member of the front of house team, this position plays a crucial role in cross departmental coordination to ensure smooth daily operations.
MCAAD, like the American Dream, is ever evolving. Once operational, this position will take a crucial role in ensuring the smooth day-to-day operation of our visitor experience team .
Responsibilities
Gallery Guide Floor Manager
We work in a professional office in Washington, DC, adjacent to our public Visitor Center opening in 2025. The position requires the incumbent to be present in the Visitor Center regularly, though some desk work and meeting attendance will be required. This role will require periods of standing and moving through the MCAAD campus. Once the Visitor Center is open, it is expected that this position will be onsite 40 hours per week with a work schedule that includes both weekend days (i.e. Wednesday to Sunday or Thursday to Monday). Some evenings and holidays may be required. This schedule is subject to change.
Note
The statements herein are intended to describe the overall nature and level of work being performed by employees and are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. Furthermore, they do not establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of the employer.
We are interested in qualified candidates who are eligible to work in the United States. Please note, we are not sponsoring visas at this time, being authorized to work in the U.S. is a precondition of employment.
Please submit resume and cover letter illustrating how your experience and skills will contribute to the department and any unique qualities you bring to the position. If applying via Indeed, please upload your resume and any supporting documentation as one attachment. Any application that does not include both a resume and cover letter will be rejected. If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability, contact our Human Resources department to ask for an accommodation or an alternative application process.
Our Culture
The Milken Institute is proud to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, disability or status as a veteran.
Every person at the Milken Institute is treated with respect, supported with resources and training, and exposed to a broad range of experiences. We foster a space for growth with opportunities to share knowledge and passion with both clients and colleagues. We are committed to building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive. Our leadership is actively involved in our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and fostering a culture that creates opportunities for everyone.
Benefits
The Milken Institute is a globally minded, publicly supported, non-partisan, and nonprofit think tank headquartered in Santa Monica, with offices in Washington, DC, New York, London, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore. For the past three decades, the Milken Institute has served as a catalyst for practical, scalable solutions to global challenges by connecting human, financial, and educational resources to those who need them. Guided by a conviction that the best ideas, under-resourced, cannot succeed, we conduct research and analysis and convene top experts, innovators, and influencers from different backgrounds and competing viewpoints. We leverage this expertise and insight to construct programs and policy initiatives. These activities are designed to help people build meaningful lives, in which they can experience health and well-being, pursue effective education and gainful employment, and access the resources required to create ever-expanding opportunities for themselves and their broader communities.
The Milken Institute’s events and programmatic activities, involve the exchange of ideas with leaders from around the world. The Institute hosts more than 200 events each year, with our annual flagship event, Global Conference, bringing together 4,500 participants from around the world, featuring more than 900 speakers throughout 200 sessions over the course of the event.
About
About the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream
The Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream (MCAAD) at the Milken Institute is looking for a seasoned visitor experience professional to join the operations team as Senior Associate of Visitor Experience. This position will support our visitor services operations for the Visitor Center opening in 2025.
Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream (MCAAD), the newest center within the Institute, is catalyzing this work by building a new type of cultural center in the heart of Washington, DC. At MCAAD we celebrate the ideal of the American Dream and explore the ongoing challenges people face in pursuing opportunity, through exhibitions and programs. To accomplish this, we focus on four pillars of the American Dream: education, health, finance, and entrepreneurship. MCAAD’s physical home, with a planned opening in 2025, is a remarkable renovation of several 120-year-old historic bank buildings, including Riggs Bank, known as the “Bank of Presidents.” The Center’s main halls are in the National Register of Historic Places, and our stewardship of the property—along with adjacent buildings on 15th St NW—will showcase and honor the history of these buildings while adapting them for use as a modern cultural center with immersive exhibition galleries. There will also be a state-of-the-art theater, events and lecture spaces, a holodeck experience, store and an atrium with café. The six-building complex featuring nearly 300,000 square feet of space will also include a conference center, recording and broadcast studios, and the Washington, D.C., headquarters of five centers of the Milken Institute.
About The Position
WE are a dynamic, collaborative, and motivated team working to reopen the soaring halls of the Riggs Bank buildings as a place to imagine, explore, and expand the American Dream.
YOU are an accomplished visitor experience professional with a passion for providing stellar visitor service. You are skilled at organizing, coordinating, and communicating the multiple facets of making a cultural space work every day.
Working under the supervision of the Associate Director of Visitor Experience, the Senior Associate for Visitor Experience will serve a key role in implementing visitor experience operations to welcome visitors to our 70,000 square feet of exhibition space. This role is responsible for overseeing daily visitor-facing functions and team members as a floor manager. As a key member of the front of house team, this position plays a crucial role in cross departmental coordination to ensure smooth daily operations.
MCAAD, like the American Dream, is ever evolving. Once operational, this position will take a crucial role in ensuring the smooth day-to-day operation of our visitor experience team .
Responsibilities
Gallery Guide Floor Manager
- Serve as the primary floor manager for the Gallery Guide team and visitor experience operations
- Execute Gallery Guide daily post rotation schedule
- Serve as point of contact for Gallery Guide notes, concerns, and attendance and troubleshoots and resolves day-of staffing needs
- Lead opening team huddles with notes for the day ahead and closing team huddles to collect any notes, metrics, concerns, or celebrations
- Supervise Gallery Guides and observes visitor experience throughout MCAAD
- Communicate clear expectations and hold Gallery Guide team accountable to a high level of service
- Offer helpful and constructive feedback to Gallery Guide team and its individual members as needed
- Assist in training and onboarding new Gallery Guides, as well as team professional development
- Record notes from the floor and any tour or program attendance numbers in the Daily Log.
- Respond to visitors requiring assistance. Resolve routine concerns or escalate any serious matters to Associate Director of Visitor Experience or Director of Visitor Experience
- Execute operational protocols in response to building, weather, or other exterior circumstances
- Recommend ways to iterate and improve front of house operations and implement approved changes
- Report building needs or exhibition maintenance promptly to appropriate staff
- With supervisor, coordinate across building and Center operational departments to address time-sensitive and routine operational issues
- Provide administrative support for ticketing and scheduling
- Manage visitor experience spaces, materials, and equipment
- Model welcoming and friendly visitor service in visitor interactions
- Facilitate gallery talks, tours, and other visitor engagement activities
- Respond to visitors requiring assistance. Resolve routine concerns or escalate any serious matters to Associate Director of Visitor Experience or Director of Visitor Experience
- Other duties may develop
- The ideal candidate has a healthy sense of humor, doesn’t shy away from a challenge, and isn’t afraid to break the mold. Thrives in a highly collaborative environment while taking ownership of own duties.
- You will thrive in this role if you are the kind of person who has a track record of positive team management, providing outstanding customer service, understands best operational practices, does not shy away from difficult conversations, and is passionate about offering best-in-class experiences.
- Must have at least 5 years of experience in visitor service, executing front of house teams and daily operations, at a museum, history center, science center, or public-facing cultural organization, with some team management experience.
- A high level of adaptability to support the changing needs of visitors, groups, and the organization.
- Strong interpersonal, organizational, and logistics skills are required.
- MCAAD’s topical focus means a background and special interest in its mission and pillars is beneficial: health and science, education and learning, finance, entrepreneurship, plus unique aspects of the American journey (U.S. history, immigration, aspiration and inspiration, advocacy, democracy, civic engagement, community development, and more).
- The ability to quickly develop positive working relationships, support colleagues, be flexible, and thrive in a fast-paced, fun and creative environment is a must.
We work in a professional office in Washington, DC, adjacent to our public Visitor Center opening in 2025. The position requires the incumbent to be present in the Visitor Center regularly, though some desk work and meeting attendance will be required. This role will require periods of standing and moving through the MCAAD campus. Once the Visitor Center is open, it is expected that this position will be onsite 40 hours per week with a work schedule that includes both weekend days (i.e. Wednesday to Sunday or Thursday to Monday). Some evenings and holidays may be required. This schedule is subject to change.
Note
The statements herein are intended to describe the overall nature and level of work being performed by employees and are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. Furthermore, they do not establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of the employer.
We are interested in qualified candidates who are eligible to work in the United States. Please note, we are not sponsoring visas at this time, being authorized to work in the U.S. is a precondition of employment.
Please submit resume and cover letter illustrating how your experience and skills will contribute to the department and any unique qualities you bring to the position. If applying via Indeed, please upload your resume and any supporting documentation as one attachment. Any application that does not include both a resume and cover letter will be rejected. If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability, contact our Human Resources department to ask for an accommodation or an alternative application process.
Our Culture
The Milken Institute is proud to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, disability or status as a veteran.
Every person at the Milken Institute is treated with respect, supported with resources and training, and exposed to a broad range of experiences. We foster a space for growth with opportunities to share knowledge and passion with both clients and colleagues. We are committed to building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive. Our leadership is actively involved in our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and fostering a culture that creates opportunities for everyone.
Benefits
- Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
- Retirement Plan - 403b (5% match)
- Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
- Paid Time Off (Personal, Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
- Family Leave (Maternity & Paternity)
- Fertility Support
- Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
- Flexible Spending Account (FSAs)
- Pet Insurance Discount
- Training & Development:
- LinkedIn Learning – over 15,000 self-guided classes offered
- Annual Mentor Program
- Wellness Resources:
- Employee Assistance Program
- CALM app membership
Salary : $75,000 - $85,000
