Guest Experience Manager

Guest Experience Manager

Chabot Space & Science Center unlocks the beauty and power of science for Oakland, the East Bay, and beyond. Perched on 14 acres in the redwoods above the city, Chabot is home to immersive exhibits, a state-of-the-art planetarium, the official NASA Ames Visitor Center, and the largest free public observatory in the Western United States.

Guest Experience Manager Job Summary:

A first-time family, a busload of third graders on a field trip, a member who comes every month, a couple arriving for a Friday night at the telescopes: the Guest Experience Manager makes sure every person who walks through Chabot's doors feels welcome and well taken care of. Reporting to the Director of Sales & Guest Experience, this person leads daily operations on the museum floor and the frontline team that brings Chabot's hospitality to life.

This is a job on the floor for someone who loves being where the action is and believes great service starts with a great team. You'll own the deployment of the daily schedule and supervise the Guest Experience Lead and the Guest Experience Associates. You'll also build the policies, checklists, and training that let Associates run the floor confidently. Your goal is a frontline team that knows Chabot inside and out, from programs and memberships to rentals and everything in between, so guests get answers at the first point of contact instead of a transfer. You'll share leadership of the Guest Experience Department with the Retail Operations Manager, and each of you will back up the other. You'll also partner with teams across the museum, including Museum Programs, Rentals, Facilities, Membership, and Marketing, to keep every visit running smoothly.

You'll serve as a visible leader, master organizer, and Manager-on-Duty across a five-day public schedule, plus evening programs and rentals, with one dedicated weekend day off each week. If you want to make a visit to a science center the highlight of someone's week, we'd love to hear from you.

Duties/Responsibilities:

Team Management & Daily Operations

• Lead daily museum floor operations and guest experience oversight, serving as the primary on-site operational leader and ensuring a welcoming, safe, well-organized, and well-presented museum environment. This may include during daily admission hours, as well as at evening special events, rentals, and programs.
• Oversee daily opening and closing procedures, including start-up and shut-down of the Center, delegation of operational tasks, and coordination across departments and staff to ensure the museum is ready for visitors and properly secured at close.
• Oversee staff deployment and floor coverage across Guest Experience, Science Instructors, Volunteers, Facilities, Public Programs, Rentals, and other support teams, using the institutional shared calendar to anticipate staffing and operational needs and proactively coordinate coverage.
• Create and maintain detailed daily and weekly floor plans, itineraries, staff schedules, and task assignments, serving as a central source of operational knowledge for programs, events, workshops, group reservations, staffing, and other museum activities. Conduct regular floor checks throughout the day to confirm staff placement, breaks, guest flow, and operations are running smoothly.
• Provide weekend, evening, and Manager-on-Duty (MOD) leadership as scheduled, making timely operational decisions, responding to emerging needs, and serving as the primary escalation point for staff and guests.
• Monitor daily museum presentation, cleanliness, signage, and readiness, coordinating with appropriate teams to address issues promptly and maintain consistent visitor-facing standards.
• Respond directly to guest concerns and service issues, supporting groups, reservations, accessibility needs, and other visitor needs on the museum floor and maintaining a visible, accessible leadership presence during museum hours.
• Provide on-site support for events and special programs, including guest welcome, setup and breakdown support, troubleshooting, wayfinding, and coordination with event and program teams.

Guest Experience Team Leadership, Training & Standards

• Cultivate a positive and engaged frontline staff culture. Foster a Guest Experience environment that is fun, friendly, welcoming, proactive, creative, warm, and team-oriented. Inspire staff to bring energy and genuine hospitality to every guest interaction, encourage ownership and initiative, and create a workplace where Associates feel supported, engaged, and empowered to contribute to an exceptional Chabot science experience.
• Directly supervise and develop the Guest Experience Lead, who serves as a mentor and resource for Guest Experience Associates and is empowered to lead typical day-to-day floor operations in the Floor Manager's absence, following established policies and procedures. Provide oversight of daily operations, training, performance management, and workflow coordination.
• Build, maintain, and continuously improve clear Guest Experience operating policies, procedures, SOPs, checklists, and service standards, ensuring frontline staff can perform daily operations independently, consistently, and confidently.
• Establish and reinforce customer service and hospitality standards that reflect a welcoming, inclusive, accessible, and mission-driven approach to guest engagement and aligned within the industry.
• Lead onboarding and ongoing training for Guest Experience staff and contribute to customer service and operational training for broader frontline teams across Chabot.
• Conduct regular coaching, observation, and performance feedback for frontline staff, identifying opportunities for professional growth and reinforcing expectations for service, communication, operational knowledge, and accountability.
• Delegate daily tasks and responsibilities to frontline staff, balancing operational needs with staff development and creating opportunities for Associates and Leads to build confidence and ownership. Ensure staff time is used efficiently and effectively across slower and busier periods, with a focus on serving the guest first and the broader museum holistically.

Floor Experience, Ticketing & Visitor Operations

• Own daily floor staffing and deployment, ensuring appropriate coverage for guest-facing positions, visitor needs, daily experiences, programs, and scheduled activities.
• Coordinate daily visitor-facing signage and informational materials, ensuring guests have clear, welcoming, and easy-to-understand information about the day's experiences, programs, wayfinding, and operational changes.
• Serve as the department's Salesforce/CRM, ticketing, and reservations subject-matter expert, maintaining data integrity, training staff on system use, troubleshooting issues, and identifying opportunities to improve systems and workflows.
• Maintain a comprehensive understanding of ticketing, reservations, group visits, programs, events, and daily museum operations so that Guest Experience staff can provide accurate information and resolve guest needs at the first point of contact.
• Serve as the floor reservations welcome lead and on-site resource for Group Sales, Overnights, and field trips, assisting with guest intake, wayfinding, check-in, group organization, and operational coordination.
• Ensure timely and accurate Guest Experience responses to visitor emails and voicemails, establishing clear expectations and workflows for frontline communication.

Cross-Departmental Collaboration & Museum-Wide Knowledge

• Cultivate cross-departmental knowledge to strengthen front-of-house service. Proactively collaborate with departments across Chabot to stay informed about current and upcoming programs, exhibitions, events, operational changes, visitor resources, rentals, and other museum activities.
• Translate departmental information into actionable frontline knowledge, providing regular updates, briefings, and training so Guest Experience staff can confidently answer questions and connect guests with the information and experiences they need at the first point of contact, minimizing unnecessary call transfers, forwarded emails, and referrals.
• Build an expert-level, museum-wide frontline team that understands how Chabot operates across departments and can serve as knowledgeable ambassadors for the full visitor experience rather than functioning as a point of referral.
• Coordinate proactively with departments on shared operational needs, identifying potential conflicts, staffing requirements, visitor impacts, and communication needs in advance to ensure smooth execution of programs, events, rentals, and daily museum operations.
• Work closely with the Retail Operations Manager as a secondary operational support and cross-coverage resource, maintaining sufficient knowledge to run Café, Gift Shop, and concession operations when needed.
• Serve as a Guest Experience ambassador and frontline resource for Facility Rentals & Events. Maintain a comprehensive working knowledge of Chabot’s rental offerings, event spaces, policies, and procedures so that Guest Experience Associates can confidently answer basic initial rental inquiries and make informed referrals to the Rentals team. Partner closely with Rentals to develop and implement clear floor procedures for private events, including vendor entry and access, guest arrival and wayfinding, event setup and breakdown, and adherence to Chabot policies and operational requirements.
• Coordinate and support the frontline experience of rental events. Serve as a liaison between Rentals, rental clients, vendors, Guest Experience Associates, and floor staff, helping to coordinate vendor entry and event-specific information while anticipating and resolving floor-level issues. Train and coach frontline staff on the distinct expectations of supporting private rentals versus public programs and ticketed experiences, ensuring staff can balance the needs of rental clients and vendors with those of ticketed visitors and the broader museum experience, while maintaining Chabot’s hospitality, accessibility, operational standards, and museum integrity.
• Coordinate signage, pamphlet, and other visitor-information needs with Graphics and Marketing, following established procedures and ensuring materials are accurate, timely, accessible, and aligned with wayfinding and promotional needs.
• Serve as the Guest Experience membership sales liaison, acting as the primary connection between the frontline team and Chabot's membership program. Communicate frontline membership observations and trends, helping identify barriers, opportunities, and improvements to the membership experience.
• Ensure Guest Experience Associates are knowledgeable and confident membership ambassadors, providing regular updates on membership benefits, pricing, promotions, enrollment procedures, and key talking points. Establish engagement goals and incentives in partnership with the Membership Coordinator that motivate Associates to authentically communicate the value of Chabot memberships and identify appropriate opportunities for conversion.

Systems, Administration & Departmental Organization

• Manage department records, manuals, SOPs, safety protocols, guest communication standards, filing systems, CRM updates, and administrative reporting, ensuring information is current, accessible, and maintained within the department's shared Site and appropriately communicated across the organization.
• Coordinate team calendars, schedules, task assignments, meetings, and departmental workflow with exceptional attention to detail, ensuring operational information is accurate, timely, and accessible to staff and partner departments.
• Serve as the department's project-management coordinator and systems resource, using tools such as Microsoft 365/SharePoint, institutional calendaring systems, Asana, Salesforce/ACME, and other operational platforms to improve communication, accountability, and efficiency.
• Produce and maintain regular audience, visitation, and operational reports, using available data to identify trends and inform staffing, programming, service, and operational decisions. Ensure frontline staff understand the importance of accurate data collection.
• In partnership with the Retail Operations Manager, assist with departmental purchasing and monthly expense reconciliation, ensuring spending aligns with approved budget allocations, purchases are properly documented, and departmental resources are used responsibly.

Continuous Improvement & Professional Development

• Monitor audience and visitor experience trends, including visitation patterns, dwell times, accessibility needs, recurring questions, service challenges, and guest feedback, and use this information to identify opportunities for improved guest flow, satisfaction, accessibility, and operational efficiency.
• Advocate for guest experience improvements using data-informed, well-researched, and budget-conscious recommendations, balancing visitor needs, staff capacity, institutional priorities, and available resources.
• Identify opportunities to improve operational systems, communication, training, signage, and interdepartmental workflows, proactively bringing recommendations to leadership and relevant departments.
• Maintain active professional development and engagement with visitor services, museum operations, and guest experience networks, staying current on industry practices and building relationships with Bay Area and broader museum professionals to identify ideas and opportunities that may benefit Chabot.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Proven track record of effectively leading and developing teams, with strong interpersonal and conflict resolution skills.
• Exceptional organizational abilities, with the ability to prioritize tasks, delegate responsibilities, manage multiple projects simultaneously, and proactively catch gaps before they become problems.
• Expert-level proficiency in guest services software or CRM systems (Salesforce, ACME preferred) and Microsoft SharePoint/MS Office Suite required; proficiency in project management software (Asana preferred).
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to engage diverse audiences and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated leadership abilities and extensive management skills.
• Experience with reporting, database systems, and ticketing.
• Passion for science education, innovation, and inspiring curiosity among visitors of all ages.
• Must be a comfortable public speaker.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, business administration, museum studies, or related experience.
• Minimum of 4-5 years of experience in guest services, customer experience management, or hospitality leadership within a museum, science center, or cultural institution.

Work Environment:

Must be committed to working in a diverse workforce with dignity and respect, appreciating unique backgrounds and experiences, and fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone.

Physical Requirements:

The physical requirements listed below are characteristic of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Ability to sit, stand, and walk for extended periods of time.
• Ability to lift 30 pounds.
• Ability to work indoors in environmentally controlled conditions, or outdoors in seasonal temperatures.
• Ability to work in a sometimes loud and active environment for an extended period.
• Ability to work in crowded environments.
• Flexibility to work a varied schedule, with occasional evening support for public programs and rentals, and one dedicated weekend day off.

Salary:

• This is a full-time exempt position.
• Salary Range: $74,000-$80,000.

Benefits

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience.
• Comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off.
• Opportunities for professional development and growth within the organization.
• The chance to be part of a dynamic team dedicated to inspiring curiosity and promoting scientific literacy.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, please submit to [email protected]. Include your last name and the position title in the email subject line.

• Resume
• Cover letter
• Why Chabot/this role?
• Describe your approach to building a high-performing, welcoming frontline team.
• How do you establish accountability while maintaining a positive team culture?
• A work sample showing how you organize people, information, and operations. This could be a SharePoint Site, workflow, or other MS Suite tool you built, or a document you created to manage a project or operational schedule. Examples include a staff schedule, daily floor plan, opening/closing checklist, training guide, SOP, communication plan, or run-of-show. Please remove any confidential or identifying information and include a few brief notes on how you used it and what it helped you accomplish. Samples may be submitted as screenshots, a PDF, or a shareable link.

CHABOT IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Chabot is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our employees are people with differing strengths, experiences, and backgrounds who share a passion for bringing science to the full range of our community – sparking excitement about a universe of possibilities beyond our planet. Diversity not only includes race and gender identity but also age, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, religion, and many other parts of one’s identity. All our employees’ points of view are key to our success, and inclusion is everyone’s responsibility.

Pay: $74,000.00 - $80,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 403(b)
• Dental insurance
• Employee discount
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Work Location: In person