3544 Curator III, Museum Affairs Program Manager (164121)

Curator III Museum Affairs Program Manager (SFO) (164121)

Recruitment: PEX-3544-164121

Permanent-Exempt. This position is exempt from Civil Service Commission rules pursuant to the City and County of San Francisco, Charter Section 10.104, and incumbents serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer.

Specific information regarding this recruitment process is listed below:

• Application Opening: 3/16/26
• Application Deadline: This job announcement may close at any time but not before 3/27/26 at 5:00 p.m. PT; interested applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.
• Salary Range: $104,728- $127,374
• Fill Type: Permanent Exempt (PEX)
• Hours: Full-time
• Recruitment ID: PEX-3544-164121
• Appointment Type: Permanent Exempt, Category 14: This position is excluded by the Charter from the competitive Civil Service examination process and shall serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer. 

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is a world-class, award-winning airport that served more than 54 million guests in Fiscal Year 2025. SFO offers non-stop flights to 60+ international cities on over 40 international carriers. The Bay Area's largest airport also connects non-stop with 80+ U.S. cities on 10 domestic airlines.

As an enterprise department of the City & County of San Francisco, SFO has a workforce of approximately 1,900 City employees. In Fiscal 2021, SFO generated more than 28,000 direct jobs and $6.1B in business activity. 

SFO is more than an airport —we are a dynamic organization where employees collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders to support global travel, economic development, and public service. We are recognized as a leader in safety, environmental sustainability, and forward-thinking infrastructure, and continue to be at the forefront of transforming the travel experience.

Our Vision, Mission, and Core Values shape our culture and operations as we continue to build a supportive, purpose-driven workplace where all employees can thrive.  Our mission is to deliver an airport experience where people and our planet come first.

Learn more about careers at SFO at flysfo.com, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Bluesky and Threads.

Established in 1980 by the Airport Commission, SFO Museum’s mission is to delight, engage, and inspire a global audience with programming on a broad range of subjects; to collect, preserve, interpret, and share the history of commercial aviation; and to enrich the public experience at San Francisco International Airport. The Museum has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 1999 and retains the distinction of being the only accredited museum in an airport. The Museum operates more than twenty-five sites throughout the Airport terminals, including fourteen galleries that exhibit a rotating schedule of art, history, photography, science, and cultural exhibitions. Among the sites is the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, which houses a permanent collection of more than 150,000 objects related to the history of commercial aviation. For additional information about SFO Museum, please visit www.sfomuseum.org.

As a team member of SFO, you will embrace SFO’s core values and SFO’s Racial Equity Action Plan.

3544 Curator III, Museum Affairs Program Manager

Under the general direction of the Assistant Director of Museum Affairs, the 3544 Museum Affairs Program Manager supports colleagues in a wide variety of activities including exhibition scheduling and task management, resource and budget management, stakeholder communication, coordination of all aspects of Museum projects, and public engagement oversight. Projects include over 15 annual exhibition rotations, public art maintenance, public engagement, aviation collection acquisition, and special projects related to the Airport. This position works with all levels of Museum and Airport staff and has regular communication with outside individuals and organizations to support the Museum’s goals.

Essential functions and duties include:

1. Develop and maintain all exhibition timelines using project management software; communicate timelines, schedules, milestones, dependencies, and deadlines to staff; meet regularly with Assistant Director, Exhibitions, and Director and Chief Curator to manage the advance three-year exhibition calendar; coordinate monthly exhibition planning meetings.  
2. Supervise the Associate Curator of Public Engagement, including reviewing and editing social media contents; supporting the various public programming initiatives, conducting research on collections and exhibitions; facilitating opportunities for enhancing educational activities. 
3. Collaborate alongside key staff members to determine how Airport special project objectives interact with the Museum's goals; serve as a key point of contact across Museum teams and external stakeholders; develop schedules, track progress, budgets, and deadlines, and communicate regularly with stakeholders pertaining to the Museum’s involvement in Airport special projects.
4. Coordinate regularly with the Museum Public Art staff to review schedules, budgets, meeting agendas, tracking documents, and other materials; participate in regular meetings with San Francisco Arts Commission regarding ongoing maintenance of public art.
5. Meet regularly with the Museum’s Collection team to ensure that all aspects and communication of the various projects are thoroughly communicated and documented in concurrence with the exhibition calendar.  
6. Partner with Museum administrative staff to prepare contracts, documents, and Commission packages; liaise as-needed with Deputy City Attorneys. 
7. Perform other job-related duties consistent with the 3544 Curator III classification. 

Minimum Qualifications:

Every application is reviewed to ensure that you meet the minimum qualifications as listed in the job ad. Please review our articles on Employment Application and Minimum Qualifications and Verification of Experience and/or Education for considerations taken when reviewing applications. 

1. Education: Possession of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major course work in the fine arts, art history, decorative arts, design, history, library science, museum studies, natural history, science, technology, or other closely related disciplines;

AND

1. Experience: Five (5) years of museum experience.

Applicants must meet the minimum qualification by the final filing date unless otherwise noted.

One year full-time employment is equivalent to 2,000 hours (2,000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a 40 hour work week). Any overtime hours that you work above 40 hours per week are not included in the calculation to determine full-time employment.

Desirable Qualifications: 

The stated desirable qualifications may be used to identify job finalists at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring:

1. Experience in managing complex exhibition or program schedules and coordinating multidisciplinary teams.
2. Experience in using project management software and museum-specific databases, such as Smartsheet, Claris FileMaker, and Microsoft Office Suite.
3. Ability to navigate complex civic or municipal environments, including coordinating across multiple agencies and external stakeholders.
4. Experience in developing and monitoring program budgets, processing invoices, and managing external funding sources.
5. Knowledge of effective verbal and written communication practices and the ability to manage a high-volume workload with a calm, detail-oriented approach.

Verification:
Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements.

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco. All work experience, education, training and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application.

Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility, disqualification or may lead to lower scores.

Selection Procedures:

The selection process will include evaluation of applications in relation to minimum requirements.  Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement to the interview.  Depending on the number of applicants, the Department may establish and implement additional screening mechanisms to comparatively evaluate the qualifications of candidates.  If this becomes necessary, only those applicants whose qualifications most closely meet the needs of the Department will be invited for an interview.

Note: Applicants who meet the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed to advance through all steps in the selection process.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Security Clearance: Candidates for employment with the San Francisco Airport Commission are required to undergo a criminal history check, including FBI fingerprints, and Security Threat Assessment in order to determine eligibility for security clearance and may be required to undergo drug/alcohol screening. Per Civil Service Commission Rule Section 110.9.1, every applicant for an examination must possess and maintain the qualifications required by law and by the examination announcement for the examination. Failure to obtain and maintain security clearance may be basis for termination from employment with the Airport Commission.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About the Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

How to Apply:

All job applications for the City and County of San Francisco must be submitted through our online portal. Please visit https://careers.sf.gov/ to begin your application process. No other methods of application will be accepted.

• Select the “I’m Interested” button and follow the instructions on the screen.

Computers are available for the public (9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday) to file online applications in the lobby of the Department of Human Resources at 1 South Van Ness Avenue, 4th Floor and at the City Career Center at City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 110.

Ensure your application information is accurate, as changes may not be possible after submission. Your first and last name must match your legal ID for verification, and preferred names can be included in parentheses. Use your personal email address, not a shared or work email, to avoid unfixable issues.

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Upon successful submission, applicants will receive a confirmation email from [email protected]. Keep this email for your records. If you do not receive it, your application was not submitted successfully.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.

Recruitment Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the Ben Cen via email at [email protected].

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.