Site Director - Ohio History Center & Ohio Village

Position: Site Director

Status: Full time, Permanent

Location: Ohio History Center & Ohio Village

Salary: $76,960-87,360 per year

Benefits: Full Benefits including medical, dental, vision insurance, paid time off and holiday, public retirement pension

 

Summary:

The Site Director for the Ohio History Center Campus serves as the on-site leader responsible for public-facing operations, staff leadership, visitor experience delivery, operational readiness, and campus management across Ohio History Connection's museum and outdoor history campus. The campus consists of the Ohio History Center, Ohio Village, Collections Care Center, and the Ohio Showcase building at the Ohio Expo Center, and includes a mix of approximately fifteen full-time and part-time staff. This position ensures the Campus is Open Ready - prepared to welcome the public and staff safely, confidently, accessibly, and effectively whenever conditions allow - and consistently delivers excellent experiences through strong coordination of staff, facilities, interpretation, safety, accessibility, events, and visitor services. The Site Director communicates site needs, risks, priorities, and opportunities to division leadership and works collaboratively across OHC departments to support high-quality experiences for visitors, school groups, program participants, community partners, and event audiences.

 

Essential Functions:

Campus Operations & Open Ready (35%) Lead daily operations for the Ohio History Center Campus, ensuring the site is prepared to welcome visitors and staff safely, confidently, accessibly, and effectively. Monitor campus readiness, including staffing, visitor flow, public spaces, operational supplies, weather-related adjustments, and coordination with facilities, security, and visitor-facing teams. Identify and communicate operational risks, barriers, or resource needs that affect visitor experience, staff effectiveness, or site readiness. Make timely operational decisions within established policies and delegated authority, including decisions related to staffing deployment, visitor flow, weather response, public access, event readiness, and immediate safety concerns. Serve as the primary on-site leader during emergencies, closures, significant incidents, or unexpected disruptions.   Staff Leadership & Team Culture (20%) Establish operational expectations and priorities for the campus and ensure staff are aligned around visitor experience, safety, accountability, and service standards. Build a positive, accountable, service-oriented team culture with clear expectations for communication, decision-making, visitor service, and daily operations. Supervise assigned staff, including Assistant Site Superintendent, Interpretive Supervisor and custodial staff, providing coaching, performance feedback, and professional development.   Visitor Experience & Experience Quality (15%) Maintain accountability for the operational quality, accessibility, and consistency of the visitor experience across the Ohio History Center Campus, ensuring that staffing, facilities, visitor flow, safety, communication, and daily readiness support high-quality public experiences. Partner with the Interpretive Supervisor and Public Engagement, American Indian Relations, Collections, Exhibits, and other content-area teams as needed to support accurate, respectful, and engaging visitor experiences. Ensure campus operations support delivery of high-quality visitor experiences. Monitor visitor feedback, observations, and operational data to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.   Campus Stewardship & Cross-Functional Coordination (20%) Oversee custodial and campus support functions to ensure the Ohio History Center campus remains clean, welcoming, functional, and professional for visitors, staff, volunteers, and partners. Serve as the primary site-level point of coordination for operational issues involving facilities, security, events, programs, visitor services, marketing, and other OHC departments. Convene appropriate partners to resolve operational issues, clarify responsibilities, and ensure timely follow-through. Partner with Facilities and Security to identify and address issues affecting building operations, accessibility, visitor experience, and workplace functionality.   Administration, Budget & Planning (10%) Prepare and submit required operational plans, reports, and records. Use data, staff feedback, and visitor experience observations to improve operations and inform planning. Prepare and monitor site operating budget, track expenditures and variances, approve purchases within delegated authority, and communicate emerging resource needs.

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in museum studies, history, public history, education, interpretation, park management, nonprofit management, or a related field.
• Five to seven years of progressively responsible experience in museum, historic site, cultural, park, visitor experience, or public-facing operations; or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• Minimum three years supervisory experience required.
• Demonstrated responsibility for a complex operation, budget, events, safety, and cross-functional coordination.

 

Desired Skills & Experience:

• Experience supervising frontline or visitor-facing teams.
• Experience coordinating operations across multiple departments or functions.
• Experience with historic sites, museums, parks, cultural organizations, or informal learning environments.
• Experience supporting accessibility, safety, visitor services, and public programs.
• Experience using visitor feedback, operational data, or staff input to improve public experiences.
• Experience preparing, monitoring, or managing operating budgets.

 

Required Competencies:

• Demonstrates a commitment to providing high-quality experiences for visitors, partners, volunteers, and community members while balancing operational realities and organizational priorities.
• Builds productive relationships across teams and effectively influences outcomes through collaboration, communication, and trust.
• Understands how operational decisions affect visitor experience, staff capacity, resource stewardship, safety, and organizational goals.
• Can locate and use resources to get things done, orchestrates multiple activities at once to accomplish a goal, uses resources effectively and efficiently, and arranges information in a useful manner.
• Assumes accountability of role and responsibilities; anticipates the needs of others.
• Able to process information in a consistent manner, simultaneously displaying adaptability when necessary.
• Engages and collaborates with a variety of internal and external colleagues and stakeholders, taking ownership of the process when appropriate.
• Sound judgement and the ability to make reasonable decisions in the absence of direction.

 

Work Environment:

Ability to work flexible hours, including evenings and weekends. Mix of indoor office and museum work and outdoor visitor interaction work. Frequent walking across large campus; use of stairs and movement across uneven surfaces. Extended periods of standing during events and public operations.

Physical Demands: Ability to tolerate cold, heat, and rain. Able to lift typical office items and boxes weighing 25 pounds or less.

 

Application Instructions:

Submit application through Ohio History Connection careers website: https://www.applicantpro.com/openings/ohiohistory/jobs. For questions or accommodations requests, please email [email protected] or call 614-297-2500.

 

EOE Statement

Ohio History Connection will recruit, hire and maintain a diverse workforce allowing for the inclusion of every employee's unique value, contribution and potential. OHC is committed not only to the principle of equal employment opportunity but also to the letter and spirit of the law. OHC, as an equal opportunity employer, does not discriminate in its employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy and/or related conditions, national origin, ethnicity, age, veteran status, genetic information, medical condition, physical or mental disability, or on any other basis protected by federal, state or local law. OHC ensures that equal employment opportunity applies to all areas of employment including hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer, recruitment, selection, discipline, termination, compensation, benefits and training.

 

ADA Compliance

Ohio History Connection is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, OHC will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact the Human Resources Department at 614-297-2390 or by email at [email protected].

Ohio History Connection is an equal opportunity employer.

All prospective employees are required to undergo a fingerprint background check processed by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation & Identification (BCI) in accordance with the Volunteer Children's Act. Additionally, prospective employees will also submit to a drug test. Both will occur after the offer of employment is accepted. The results of the background check and drug test are not immediate disqualifiers to employment and are reviewed in accordance with Ohio History Connection policies and procedures. Inquiries must be directed to the Human Resources Director at 614-297-2390 or via email at [email protected].