Vice President of Visitor Experience & Earned Revenue

National Museum of Wildlife Art; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

National Museum of Wildlife Art is seeking a senior leader to unite experiences, marketing, and earned revenue into a sustainable growth model. The Vice President will shape the organization’s strategy, champion audience growth, and oversee exhibits, programs, and visitor experiences across physical and digital platforms.

This executive directs an integrated approach to storytelling, audience engagement, and revenue performance, working with a diverse leadership team to advance long-term

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum of ten years of senior leadership experience with visitor-focused strategies and earned revenue growth.
• Experience presenting to Boards or senior governance bodies is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide executive leadership for the vision, development, and lifecycle of exhibits, programs, and experiences.
• Serve as Executive Sponsor for the Experience strategy, ensuring inclusive and engaging experiences across platforms.
• Lead revenue growth strategies across admissions, retail, events, and premium experiences while ensuring mission impact.

Skills

Strategic planning

Executive communication

Data-informed decisions

Cross-functional leadership

People leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, finance, sales, communications, or related field

Job description

The Vice President of Visitor Experience & Earned Revenue is a senior executive leader responsible for shaping and advancing the Museum’s overall growth strategy by integrating creative experience design, audience development, marketing, and communications, and earned revenue into a unified and sustainable growth model.

This role holds direct accountability for earned revenue performance and attendance growth and serves as Executive Sponsor for the Museum’s Experience strategy. The Vice President ensures that exhibits, programs, events, and visitor-facing experiences reflect compelling storytelling, creative excellence, and emotional resonance. These efforts drive repeat visitation, deepen audience connection, and strengthen long-term relevance.

As the enterprise leader over creative exhibit design, marketing, and communications, and earned revenue functions, this role aligns strong director-level expertise into a cohesive, high-performing system. The Vice President establishes shared strategic priorities, resolves tradeoffs, and ensures these areas operate as an integrated growth engine.

As a member of the Executive Team, this role partners across the organization and serves as the Museum’s Board-level subject-matter expert on audience growth, experience performance, and earned revenue sustainability.

Essential Duties, & Responsibilities

Following is a summary of the essential functions for this job. Other duties may be performed both major and minor, which are not mentioned below. Specific activities may change from time to time. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential job duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions.

Experience, Exhibitions, & Creative Strategy

• Provide executive leadership for the vision, development, and lifecycle of permanent, temporary, and traveling exhibits, as well as visitor-facing programs and experiences.
• Serve as Executive Sponsor for the Museum’s Experience strategy, ensuring compelling, inclusive, and emotionally engaging experiences across physical and digital platforms.
• Champion creative excellence and storytelling as primary drivers of visitor connection, relevance, and repeat visitation – ensuring experiences tell clear, human-centered stories of aerospace innovation.
• Partner with Curatorial, Collections, Education, and Operations leadership to align content, creative direction, audience appeal, and operational feasibility.
• Advance an Experience Master Plan, aligned with the Campus Plan, which reflects audience behavior and experience design best practices.
• Apply financial discipline and audience insight to experience investments, ensuring alignment with audience growth, inclusion, earned revenue performance, and long-term sustainability goals.

Earned Revenue Strategy & Growth

• Hold organization-level accountability for earned revenue performance, approximately $12M annually, ensuring sustainable growth aligned with mission and long-term financial health.
• Define and oversee a comprehensive earned revenue strategy across admissions, retail, simulators, private events, premium experiences, and related revenue streams.
• Establish strategic frameworks for pricing, product mix, portfolio management, and revenue optimization while balancing access, mission impact, and financial return.
• Partner with Finance to align multi-year forecasts, capital investments, and revenue targets with institutional strategy.
• Evaluate and prioritize growth opportunities, partnerships, and business models based on financial return, strategic value, operational feasibility, and audience impact.

Marketing, Communications & Audience Development

• Define and oversee the Museum’s integrated marketing, communications, public relations, and digital strategies, ensuring brand clarity, emotional resonance, and measurable contribution to audience growth and earned revenue.
• Establish and oversee a cohesive brand, storytelling, and communications strategy across all channels, ensuring consistent positioning, emotional resonance, and measurable contribution to audience growth and earned revenue.
• Provide executive oversight of content strategy and audience communications to ensure alignment with visitor experience and institutional priorities.
• Allocate resources and guide internal teams and external partners to maximize return on marketing investment.
• Build and evolve internal marketing capabilities aligned with growth and experience objectives.

Data, Analytics & Decision-Making

• Champion the development and use of visitor, attendance, and revenue data to inform strategy, investment decisions, and performance evaluation.
• Advance data maturity by establishing clear performance frameworks, measurement practices, and audience research capabilities to inform strategic decisions.
• Establish clear performance metrics and dashboards to track marketing effectiveness, visitor behavior, experience performance, and earned revenue outcomes.
• Foster a culture of learning and experimentation grounded in data and evidence.

Executive Leadership & Board Engagement

• Serve as a key member of the Executive Team, contributing to enterprise-wide strategy, planning, and decision-making.
• Establish shared strategic priorities and resolve tradeoffs across experience development, marketing, and earned revenue to drive cohesive institutional growth.
• Serve as the Museum’s executive subject-matter expert on audience growth, experience performance, and earned revenue sustainability.
• Inform campus planning and long-term capacity strategy by providing insights on audience demand, earned revenue potential, and visitor behavior to support data-driven decisions about space, programming, and infrastructure.
• Support and engage with the Board of Trustees and relevant committees, including presenting earned revenue results, visitor trends, experience initiatives, risks, and opportunities.
• Represent the Museum publicly, including media engagements, community partnerships, and speaking opportunities, as appropriate and in coordination with the CEO.

People Leadership & Culture

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing leadership team, providing clarity of priorities, accountability, and support for innovation.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, experimentation, learning, and shared ownership of results.
• Advance the Museum’s commitment to equity, inclusion, and belonging through audience-centered leadership and inclusive experiences.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, finance, sales, communications, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred. A combination of education and relevant experience may be considered in lieu of degree.
• Minimum of ten (10) years of senior leadership experience with direct responsibility for visitor-focused strategies, audience development, and earned revenue growth.
• Demonstrated success leading revenue-driven marketing, experience, and growth strategies in attractions, cultural institutions, performing arts, entertainment, hospitality, or similar visitor-centered organizations.
• Experience presenting to Boards or senior governance bodies on financial and strategic performance strongly preferred.

Knowledge

• Creative direction and storytelling leadership in cultural, entertainment, or mission-driven organizations.
• Earned revenue models in visitor-centered organizations.
• Consumer and visitor behavior, demand generation, and pricing strategies.
• Marketing, communications, and digital engagement channels.
• Experience design principles and lifecycle management for exhibits and programs.
• Financial concepts including forecasting, ROI, and performance measurement.
• Use of qualitative and quantitative research to inform decision-making.

Skills

• Strategic planning and execution.
• Financial information analysis and analytical reasoning.
• Data-informed decision-making.
• Executive communication and presentation.
• Cross-functional collaboration and influence.
• People leadership, coaching, and team development.
• Change leadership and organizational alignment.

Abilities

• Ability to evaluate and guide creative concepts and narrative development at an executive level.
• Ability to own and deliver complex, multi-dimensional outcomes.
• Ability to lead through influence rather than direct control.
• Ability to balance creativity with discipline and financial stewardship.
• Ability to operate effectively amid ambiguity, risk, and evolving priorities.
• Ability to engage credibly with senior leaders, Boards, and external stakeholders.

Core Competencies

• Strategic Leadership: Sets clear direction, makes tradeoffs, and aligns people and resources to achieve outcomes.
• Audience-Centered Thinking: Designs and champions experiences grounded in audience needs, behaviors, and inclusion.
• Creative & Experience Leadership: Elevates storytelling, design quality, and emotional resonance while aligning with institutional strategy.
• Revenue & Business Acumen: Understands financial drivers and uses them to inform strategy and decisions.
• Data & Learning Orientation: Uses data, testing, and learning to improve decisions and outcomes.
• Collaboration & Influence: Builds trust, aligns diverse stakeholders, and drives progress through partnership.
• Change & Innovation Leadership: Leads transformation thoughtfully, balancing innovation with risk management.
• Equity & Inclusion Leadership: Advances inclusive practices and experiences that reflect and welcome diverse communities.

License & Certification

• None