Director [New York Transit Museum]

Director, New York Transit Museum

The Museum

The New York Transit Museum preserves the history of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and its predecessor agencies, dating back to the mid-19th century.  The Museum is located in a decommissioned subway station in downtown Brooklyn and also operates a Gallery Annex & Store at Grand Central Terminal.  With a staff of 50+ full and part-time personnel, and serving approximately 120,000 visitors per year at its main site, the Museum is one of New York City’s unique cultural institutions.  Exhibitions and programs at the Museum focus on the relationship between urban development and mass transit, on the art, engineering, science and social implications of public transportation, on the sustainability aspects of mass transit, and on New York’s mass transit systems as an iconic phenomenon of city life.

The Opportunity

The Director oversees all aspects of museum operations, collections, content, strategic planning, development, retail and finance, and serves as President of the Museum’s non-profit affiliate, Friends of the NY Transit Museum.  The Transit Museum is a division of, and receives generous in-kind support from the MTA.  The Museum is mandated to independently raise or earn all funds needed for personnel and programming costs.

The Director, New York Transit Museum is responsible for dynamic and creative leadership of the institution with focus on the following areas:

• Exhibitions & Programming
• Collections & Archival
• Retail and Licensing
• Administration
• Facilities

Education and Experience Requirements:

• A Bachelor’s degree in museum studies, fine arts, public or business administration, library science, history, or some combination of above. A master’s degree is preferred.
• Twelve years professional experience, with at least five years in a museum setting, non-profit or cultural institution.  Minimum five years leadership, supervisory, team building and staff management experience.
• Extensive knowledge of non-profit management, fundraising, operations and governance.

The preferred candidate will have a:

• A dynamic leadership style and proven ability to lead a challenging and diverse institution and professional staff.  Flexibility and ability to adapt to competing demands.
• Extensive practical knowledge of collections management, exhibition development, educational programming, retail management, community outreach, marketing, New York City and/or transportation history, or some combination of these skill sets.
• Demonstrated management and leadership skills in creating high performance teams and a high performance organization.
• Proven ability to develop and drive changing business plans including governance (operation of a non-profit attached to a parent organization with a competing mission); diversity (of audience, staff and trustees); strategic planning; retail and product development best practices; capital project management.

To learn more and apply: http://web.mta.info/mta/employment/ , select Jobs at “MTA Headquarters” and search by Job Title “Director, New York Transit Museum – “83638”

MTA Is an Equal Opportunity Employer.