Community Engagement Manager

Department: Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Appointment Type and Duration: Regular, Ongoing
Salary: $55,000 - $58,000 per year
Compensation Band: OS-OA06-Fiscal Year 2024-2025
FTE: 1.0

Application Review Begins

May 27, 2025; position open until filled

Special Instructions to Applicants

Please include a cover letter describing your qualifications and your interest in the position along with a current resume.

Department Summary

As an essential partner in the University’s educational, research, and public service mission, the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History (MNCH) enhances knowledges of Earth’s environments and cultures, inspiring stewardship of our collective past, present, and future.

The museum is a center of interdisciplinary research and education, serving the State of Oregon, the University of Oregon, Native American Tribes, the research community, K-12 students and teachers, and the wider public in Oregon and beyond.
An established major engine of archaeological research in the American West, the museum’s Archaeological Research Division works across the state on dozens of archaeological projects each year. The MNCH is also the State of Oregon’s official repository for publicly owned collections and is home to hundreds of thousands of ethnographic and archaeological objects, fossils, and biological specimens from Oregon and around the world.

The museum annually welcomes more than 30,000 visitors and serves another 20,000 Oregonians through its statewide educational programs. A winner of the 2018 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the museum is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, distinguishing it as one of the very best museums in the nation.

The Museum employs a staff of approximately 40 faculty, researchers, classified, administrative, and student employees across several facilities on the University of Oregon, Eugene campus. Annual expenditures are about $3 million, from dozens of funding sources and allocated among a variety of projects across four museum divisions.

Position Summary

Reporting to the Associate Director, the Community Engagement Manager oversees all aspects of public interaction at the museum and builds audiences through strategic relationship and trust-building with community groups, with attention to those who have not been traditionally welcomed at the museum. This position is tasked with expanding the museum’s accessibility and engagement; growing audiences and revenue (through visitorship, volunteering, membership, sales, donations, etc.) and working closely with the museum’s central administrative unit to ensure health and safety in the museum’s physical spaces as well as the sense of welcoming and belonging. This position oversees the Visitor Experience team, which includes two staff members, student employees, and volunteers. The position’s primary work occurs in the museum’s headquarters building at 1680 East 15th Avenue, but the position also participates in meetings, events, and programs throughout the community.

Minimum Requirements

• Three years of experience in public-facing customer service
• Three years of experience in lead work or supervision that includes training, assigning work, and providing feedback

Professional Competencies

• Effective communication skills with the ability to communicate in a variety of modalities to diverse audiences
• Knowledge of membership programs, including stewarding donors and stakeholders
• Ability to advance equity and inclusion through practice and policy development
• Strong customer service and leadership skills
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to manage multiple tasks and simultaneous demands
• Confidential record-keeping and managing constituent information
• Ability to assign work and supervise staff, students, and volunteers
• Proficiency in basic software programs (Word, Excel, Teams, etc) or ability to learn them quickly

Preferred Qualifications

• Five years of experience working with the public
• Experience in higher education
• Experience or completion of courses or training in communication, business planning, supervision, event management, and working with confidential documents.
• Experience in a museum or similar culture or science center
• Five years of growing experience in supervisor and leadership

FLSA Exempt: Yes

All offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

The University of Ore