Associate Director, Retail & Visitor Experience at The Museum of the City of New York

Job Title: Associate Director, Retail & Visitor Experience

Job Status: Full-time

Location: New York, NY

Salary: $70,000 – $80,000

Description

Museum of the City of New York

Associate Director, Retail & Visitor Experience

The Museum of the City of New York celebrates and interprets the city, educating the public about its distinctive character, especially its heritage of diversity, opportunity, and perpetual transformation. Founded in 1923 as a private, nonprofit corporation, the Museum connects the past, present, and future of New York City. It serves the people of New York and visitors from around the world through exhibitions, school and public programs, publications, and collections.

The Museum of the City of New York is searching for a new Associate Director to lead the Visitor Experience & Retail Departments. The ideal candidate will have proven experience in museum retail and team leadership. The position oversees a large staff; including several full-time managers, part-time employees and volunteers. Experience in team management, mentorship and training is a must. The Associate Director will oversee all in-store and online shop operations including budgeting, buying, merchandising, product development, artist collaborations and licensing. A successful candidate will have a background in buying and merchandising as well as strong communications skills and the ability to work closely with a team. This role laisses with many other departments including teams from our education, marketing, development, facilities and public programming departments to ensure a positive and engaging visitor experience is had by our many diverse visitors.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Budgeting: Develop departmental budgets for Visitor Experience & Retail Departments. Account for and assign all purchases for both teams. Create budgets for staffing, merchandise and marketing initiatives.

Shop Buyer/Product Development:

  • Purchase mission driven wholesale product for resale in the stores, create brand partnerships, collaborations and manage new custom product development.
  • Develop a buying strategy that reflects top performing categories and includes apparel, books, gift, jewelry, home, accessories and stationary products.
  • Create Purchase Orders and use our POS system (Shopify) to track spending.
  • Stay current with regard to museum retail trends.
  • Attend annual trade shows. Meet with vendors to refresh shop selection.
  • Participate in our local chapter and national MSA (Museum Store Association).

Visual Merchandising:

  • Design shop layouts that attract visitors, drive traffic to key displays and encourage full shop circulation.
  • Rotate displays and merchandising to reflect current exhibition and seasonal selections in order to create a fresh and engaging retail environment for visitors.
  • Increase sales by creating displays that highlight affordable museum bestsellers like socks, keychains and other lower price point souvenirs that we sell in high volume.
  • Train staff to maintain the merchandizing displays.

Marketing & Promotions:

  • Collaborate with the marketing team to create content for all promotions, sales, advertisements and eblasts to communicate in-store and online marketing efforts.
  • Update the website to advertise promotions and new exhibitions.
  • Set up sales in the POS system and create signage for in store promotions.
  • Oversee photoshoots for online and in-store promotions.

Reporting: Create and analyze daily, weekly and annual reports to understand shop sales and trends. Use this information to maintain and increase our average and per capita dollar amount spent by visitors.

Visitor Experience Staff Management: Oversee the Visitor Experience Team led by our Manager of Visitor Experience including assist in the hiring and cross training of new staff their roles a both shop and admissions systems and roles.

Inventory Management: Maintain stock of bestselling items (by season and by exhibition) & predict the inventory needs of the shop to maintain even stock levels and capitalize on trade discounts. Oversee Assistant Manager who handles receiving, inventory and accounting for the department. Lead annual inventory processes. Plan and pull stock for seasonal sales to push out old, dead stock that we accumulate when an exhibition closes.

Ecommerce Store: Manage, refine and grow the online store operation. Oversee order fulfillment and the part-time staff that handles this departmental function.

Website: Overall website management and artistic direction. Refreshed product seasonally and in conjunction with exhibition rotation. Create content and messaging; including writing copy adding high res images for new items to appear on our website.

Leadership: Oversee daily operations for the Visitor Experience and Retail teams by setting priorities and workflow. Hire and train mid-level and entry level managers and staff. Represent these departments in senior staff meetings and within the museum. Collaborate with other department on large scale initiates, operations, scheduling and staffing.

A successful candidate will have:

  • Proven experience developing a successful buying strategy and creating merchandise displays.
  • 5+ years of Buying Experience in a similar field.
  • 10+ years of Management and Leadership experience in Not-for-profits.
  • Museum experience required.
  • High level of accuracy and attention to detail.
  • Excellent communication skills; comfortable interfacing with the public.
  • Dependability, reliability, and a strong work ethic.
  • Fouryear college degree preferred or related professional experience.

Physical Requirements & Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This job is very physical, three full days a week, if not more. This job involves moving and lifting very heavy boxes, carts, and objects. 40-50% of time is spent on the floor, on your feet, in the shops merchandising and replenishing displays. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl; talk or hear; taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color and peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus. On occasion the employee may be required to work outside events with weather conditions including heat and cold. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

In accordance with NYC Executive Order 225 proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required. Reasonable accommodations may be made upon request in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local law.

BENEFITS

The salary range for this position is $70,000-$80,000. Excellent benefits package, including a defined benefit pension plan as well as a 401K savings plan.

Your employment relationship with the Museum qualifies you for free or discounted admissions to other participating cultural institutions.

HOW TO APPLY

Please email your resume and cover letter to the Museum of the City of New York Attention: Human Resources Department to jobs@mcny.og. To be considered, please include Associate Director, Retail & Visitor Experience within the subject line of your email.

The Museum of the City of New York is committed to fostering a collaborative and respectful work environment with a staff as diverse as New York City and the audiences who are curious about learning more about its history and engaging in contemporary urban issues. Our staff members are dedicated to working towards a common goal: creating the most dynamic and inspiring city museum in the world.

The Museum of the City of New York is an equal opportunity employer. As such, the museum provides equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants without unlawful discrimination with respect to age, citizenship status, color, creed, disability, ethnicity, gender identification, marital status, military status or veteran, national origin, political association, political/personal convictions, predisposing genetic characteristics, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, geographic location, philosophies, or any other classification protected by federal, state or local laws, in all employment decisions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, promotion, demotion, transfer, lay-off, and termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment. All employment-related decisions are based solely on relevant criteria including training, experience, and suitability.