The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) seeks a Manager, Interpretation and Training to build, develop and deliver a world-class program of indoor and outdoor facilitated visitor experiences that exemplify our mission to inspire wonder, discovery and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds.

Over the past five years, the NHM has developed engaging and successful floor interpretation and training using the National Association for Interpretation (NAI) system as a foundation for creating rich programs around deep content in nature, natural and cultural history.  We are committed to building on this success, expanding our range of interpretive techniques and content areas to develop a large corpus of highly trained, engaged volunteers and staff who facilitate extraordinary visitor experiences for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.  The Manager, Interpretation and Training leads these efforts, collaborating with scholars, scientists, educators, visitors and others, providing vision and leadership for a visitor-centric floor interpretation program that delivers deep content around our core topics of nature, natural and cultural history.  The next Manager, Interpretation and Training will be responsible for developing and expanding our robust training program to allow us greatly to expand our corpus of volunteers, enrich and deepen visitor experiences of all kinds and to provide volunteers and staff with rewarding continuing training and education. The Manager, Interpretation and Training develops interpretive engagement programs, convenes teams and oversees the development, testing and implementation of tours, activities, training and programs.  S/he is responsible for supervision of Interpretation staff and for guidance, training and professional development of floor staff and volunteers.  The Manager, Interpretation and Training is directly responsible for oversight and development of tours, activity stations on the floor.  S/he collaborates with the Manager, Programs, Manager, School and Teacher Programs, staff from Research and Collections and others in the development a range of programs, possibly including exhibit and digital platform development.

The Manager, Interpretation and Training supervises paid floor staff and works closely with the Manager, Volunteers to shape a recently initiated three to five year transition from a model of a large pool of entry level floor staff and a small pool of volunteers to a large pool of floor volunteers supported by a smaller pool of more experienced education staff, each with expertise in a key area.  Manager, Interpretation and Training will develop this staffing model and help envision, oversee and manage and this transition.  

The Manager, Interpretation and Training and his or her staff participate in teams that develop both ongoing initiatives (e.g. interpretive graphics and floor activities) and strategic initiatives involving interpretation and interpretive techniques as projects develop. Such initiatives will include the development of exhibits, citizen science, performances, digital experiences, and other visitor experiences. 

The successful candidate will be an accomplished audience focused professional with a demonstrated record of collaboration with scholars, scientists, visitors, educators, evaluators and others to create extraordinary visitor experiences around deep content areas in informal and/or free choice learning settings.  S/he will be an active member of relevant professional network(s) and will be an expert in some aspect of interpretation.  S/he will bring a strong visitor focus and appreciation for and interest in serving the interests and needs of visitors and volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. 

He or she should have a clear understanding of the differences between cultural, scientific and other interpretation approaches, techniques and methods and should have a background in either cultural or scientific interpretation.  He or she must have an ability and desire to work collaboratively with experts in and hire and supervise staff with complementary backgrounds and experience.  The Manager, Interpretation and Training Programs must love working with people, have strong organizational skills, the ability to follow through consistently, be flexible and adaptable while maintaining the highest professional and visitor experience standards and will demonstrate a desire to learn, grow and excel.

This position has the following requirements:

• Graduate degree or equivalent experience in a relevant discipline such as Education, Natural Sciences, Anthropology, History or relevant discipline.  Ideally, a candidate will have an academic background in a content area (e.g. natural science, anthropology or history) with training and/or degree in interpretation, education, storytelling or related field.
• 5-10 years’ relevant experience and progressive levels of responsibility in an informal or free choice learning setting.
• Experience supervising, training and coaching interpreters as well as have excellent interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated passion for providing staff/volunteers and visitors of a wide range of ages, backgrounds and interests with a rich and rewarding experience.
• Curiosity, interest and capacity to understand and share a range of NHM content, and demonstrated ability to collaborate with a wide variety of professionals from diverse fields.
• Highly collaborative with ability to make critical and independent decisions when appropriate.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills in English.
• Excellent organizational skills with attention to detail and ability to follow through.
• Must be able to work flexible hours, including evenings, holidays and/or weekends. Standard schedule will include at least one weekend day per week.
• Must be self-motivated and goal oriented.
• Fluency in a second language ideal (e.g. Spanish). 

Salary is commensurate with experience plus excellent benefits. This is a full time, regular, exempt position.

Interested candidates please visit www.nhm.org/jobs and click the link of the position for which you are interested.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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