Exhibit Project Manager

Liberty Science Center; Jersey City (NJ); On-site; USD 65,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plans

Commuter benefits

Paid vacation

Flexible PTO

LSC Family Membership

Job summary

Liberty Science Center is seeking an Exhibitions Project Manager in Jersey City to oversee logistics, teams, and timelines for physical exhibition installations. You will track budgets, contracts, licensing, and approvals while coordinating communication across internal departments and external vendors.

You will lead cross-disciplinary teams on new and renewing exhibitions, ensuring on-time delivery within budget and contributing to institutional initiatives.

Qualifications

• Experience managing multiple projects concurrently.
• Strong leadership and collaborative work skills.
• Experience with budgets and contracts.
• Excellent communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate cross-team exhibit projects to meet schedule and budget.
• Oversee all stages: development, production, installation, and post opening.
• Review bid packages and contracts with vendors.
• Manage project schedules and meeting agendas.
• Track budgets and process invoices.
• Maintain exhibition documentation including contracts and licenses.
• Review design drawings and coordination documents.
• Ensure quality control through production.
• Develop deliverables for staff and external partners.
• Document standards and processes for PM best practices.
• Collaborate with Liberty Science Center staff across divisions.
• Support additional exhibition development and admin tasks.

Skills

Project management

Leadership

External partnerships

Problem solving

Communication

Team management

Budget management

Digital PM tools

Multimedia production knowledge

Education

BA/BS degree

PM certification

Tools

MS Word

Acrobat

PowerPoint

Excel

Job description

The Role

As Exhibitions Project Manager at Liberty Science Center (LSC), you oversee the logistics, teams, and timelines of physical exhibition installations. This includes tracking budgets, contracts, licensing, and the approval process, as well as coordinating communication within and among internal departments and external vendors and partners. Responsibilities include collaborating effectively across teams to oversee new projects and renew existing exhibitions and contributing to the coordination of other institutional initiatives. The Exhibitions Project Manager reports to the Vice President of Exhibitions.

What You’ll Bring

You are someone who finds satisfaction in creating systems to create and maintain order, are highly organized, and an adept multi-tasker, able to adeptly track the moving parts of multiple projects of varying scales. You are an especially strong communicator, with interpersonal skills that support relationship building and cross-disciplinary collaboration. You are able to focus on the details and set priorities as you keep the bigger picture and mission-driven goals in mind. You are a skilled creative problem solver and able to diplomatically diffuse points of tension that invariably arise in the execution of complex projects. Your sense of humor, perspective, and flexibility make you a valuable member of a collaborative team.

What You’ll Do

These key responsibilities will be dynamic and essential functions:

• Work closely with project teams including content developers, designers, media specialists, and contractors to bring multi-faceted exhibit projects to fruition on schedule and within budget.
• Oversee details and logistics for all phases of exhibition development, production, fabrication, installation and post opening to ongoing and upcoming special exhibitions, temporary installations, traveling installations, and other digital and physical exhibition projects.
• Participate in review of bid packages and contracts for project vendors (fabrication, multimedia, etc.).
• Coordinate project schedules, meeting agendas, and workflow for internal and external teams.
• Track project budget and process invoices.
• Manage and maintain exhibition project documentation which includes contract management, licensing, and the approval process.
• Review exhibition design drawings and consultant coordination documents which may include data, lighting, electrical, and architectural coordination.
• Oversee quality control through production.
• Develop deliverables for staff, designers, fabricators, media producers, and other external vendors and partners.
• Help produce and document standards and processes for project management best practices applicable across a range of projects.
• Work closely with other Liberty Science Center staff as part of a cross-divisional exhibition team.
• Support other exhibition development, research, administrative, and project management responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience of organization and project management across multiple simultaneous projects.
• Leadership that supports a collaborative work environment.
• Experience managing external partnerships or contractors.
• Innovative problem solving.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated success as a project manager of a creative or technical team.
• Experience with budget management.
• Fluency with digital project management tools and software, including MS Word, Acrobat, PowerPoint and Excel.
• Knowledge of new technology, multimedia and film production is a plus.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong exhibition coordination, production, or project management experience in a museum, science center, or related context.
• Minimum of 5 to 8 years relevant professional experience.
• BA/BS (MA/MS preferred) degree in science, math, engineering, science education, social sciences or a field related to informal teaching and learning.
• Certification in project management.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This position manages design staff, interns, freelancers and external vendors.

Classification and Schedule

This is a regular full‑time exempt position and is benefits eligible. All FT employees must be available to work a schedule that takes LSC business needs into consideration.

Physical & Environmental Demands

• Prolonged Sedentary Work: sit and use a computer for extended periods to research, write, and other administrative work.
• Continuous Mobility: frequent walking, standing, bending, and stooping across large galleries or outdoor installation spaces.
• Repetitive Motion: substantial and continuous movements of the wrists, hands, and fingers for extensive keyboarding and mouse operation.
• Fine Motor Skills: high manual dexterity to handle fragile artifacts, mount graphics, use hand tools, and operate digital media tech.
• Visual Acuity: excellent close vision and color perception to evaluate lighting, proofread gallery text, and verify object placement, as well as to read blueprints or architectural drawings and to use a computer monitor for extended periods.
• Varying Environments: navigating hard gallery floors, construction zones, or outdoor sites.
• Environmental Tolerance: ability to work safely around dust, noise, and active heavy equipment.
• Phase-Based Stamina: extended hours and high physical activity during tight installation deadlines.

Work Location

Liberty Science Center is located in a beautiful state park in Jersey City, New Jersey, with easy access to free parking, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, and the NJ Path train. LSC is a pleasant 15 minute commute from lower Manhattan.

Compensation & Benefits

The budgeted compensation for this position is $65,000–$75,000. The final salary is commensurate with abilities, education, certifications, and experience.

• A range of excellent health, dental, and vision insurance options.
• Flexible spending accounts for healthcare and dependent care.
• Life and disability coverage.
• 2 Retirement Savings Plans.
• 3–4 weeks of paid vacation (level dependent).
• 6 days of flexible paid time off.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Commuter benefits for parking and transit.
• LSC Family Membership.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Liberty Science Center is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and innovative environment with the best employees. We provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, military service, marital status, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.