Senior Exhibition Designer

About SFMOMA

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States and a thriving cultural center for the Bay Area. We cannot imagine life without art; it inspires and connects us every day. Now more than ever, these connections matter and are aligned with our values.

Inclusive: We strive to be a museum of many voices in dialogue.  

Passionate: We believe working with art is more than a job or trusteeship - it's a way of life.  

Brave: We are committed to approaching our work with courage and a sense of adventure, always ready to explore new perspectives.

Empathic: We aim to act like a person, not an institution. 

SFMOMA is a place for the infinitely curious to explore, support, and experience the art of our time. We believe that modern and contemporary art can influence the way we think, view the world, and embrace the many voices and perspectives around us. We aspire to foster an environment that elicits joy, nurtures a sense of belonging and purpose—where difference is seen as a strength, and every one is appreciated for their whole self.

Schedule: Full Time, 35 hours/week, at least three days working onsite

Reporting to the Design Director, the Senior Exhibition Designer is a leading member of SFMOMA’s award-winning Design Studio department. Through high level specialization and knowledge, the Senior Exhibition Designer develops creative design strategies from concept to completion, applying a finely tuned spatial sense while demonstrating imaginative problem-solving skills and stylistic breadth. The Senior Exhibition Designer shapes strategies and workflows to translate the institution’s vision into engaging exhibitions, installations, and capital projects. Collaborating with curators, conservators, and construction managers, the Senior Exhibition Designer oversees and advances design systems, methods, policies, and procedures throughout all project stages.

From concept to implementation, the Senior Exhibition Designer's approach should be holistic, inspiring, and centered on human experience.  They must love a challenge, have an eye for detail, work well in a team, and successfully balance aesthetics, innovation, sustainability, consistency, and versatility. They should have the breadth of experience and expertise to manage a wide range of design methods and exhibition complexities.

Success looks like at:

First 30 days: Learn as much as you can about the team, department, and organization. Familiarize yourself with our physical spaces, workflows, and systems. Take advantage of our regular department meetings to ask questions. Understand how your job fits in the department, division, and organization.

First quarter: Build relationships within the department and across the organization. Identify opportunities to make the most impact without trying to bite off more than you can chew.

First year: Track progress on your key goals and objectives. Understand how the systems you create impact the department and the rest of the organization. In collaboration with the Design Director, define long term goals and opportunities for growth. 

Responsibilities & Duties

• Team Responsibilities
• Encourage and contribute to an inclusive, rewarding, and inspiring workplace, where innovation, discovery, and constant learning cultivate a deep sense of belonging and shared sense of responsibility within the Design Studio.   
• Build and foster a culture of safety, inclusivity, and equity that supports the personal and professional growth of individuals.    
• Nurture collaboration and partnership across teams with fluid communication and respect for the diverse range of expertise that are essential to an art museum.    
• Support effective and efficient communication and workflows and prioritizes activities.
• Model empathy and understanding, communicates clearly, and can motivate employees to change practices and behaviors to meet the needs of colleagues, teams, and projects.    
• Show dedication to the museum’s strategic focus of making programming that engages visitors and inspires them to return and recommend the museum to their family and friends. 
• Support the museum’s strategic focus with processes and guardrails to ensure we move towards the same goals and pivot away from activities that do not support the strategy. 
• Work collaboratively with Design Studio Leaders, and colleagues across the museum to ensure that the department’s operations align with internal and external needs and expectations.   
• Foster a creative community of collaborators around the institution.
• Recruit, develop and motivate talent to do culturally relevant design work.
• Design Strategy and Leadership
• Provide leadership within your area of exhibition design expertise to inform and develop systems and strategies that can be implemented by the entire department.  
• Conceptualize and design large-scale experiential-built environments and complex art display solutions through a wide range of visualization, rendering techniques, construction/fabrication drawings and other specifications to be used by in house or outside fabricators. 
• Work to increase audience engagement and build new and diverse audiences by proactively supporting SFMOMA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals. 
• Demonstrate an ability to carry concepts through a series of related projects and/or subsequent iterations from preliminary space planning and budgeting exercises through concept, schematic, and design development phases in collaboration with curators and other internal and external stakeholders culminating in a cohesive built environment experience. 
• Lead design efforts on ongoing projects as needed, overseeing in-house designers as well as outside contractors and, serving as a point of contact to pertaining departments. Supervise designers and interns when necessary.
•  Administration Responsibilities
• Work closely with artists and various internal stakeholders in the rotation, production, and implementation of art displays and exhibition design as it relates to the needs and safety of the artworks and the safety of our visitors.  
• Lead exhibition design meetings with multi-stakeholder departments to align on the scope and schedule for individual projects; communicate deadlines, schedules, and production information to all necessary museum departments; attend project meetings as a representative of the SFMOMA Design Studio. 
• Establish and manage production and budget parameters for design projects with internal clients. Budgeting, bidding, scheduling, and invoicing from early conceptual phase to implementation and on-time delivery and installation. 
• Maintain quality assurance of all exhibition design in close collaboration with Facility, Installation Construction and Fabrication teams to make sure finish product meets museum quality standards.  
• Oversee the management of outside consultants when need arises or budget allows; these include fabricators, architects, artists, designers, and new media technology providers. 
• Develop sustainable and creative exhibition design strategies, considering the full cycle of materials and their long-term costs and implications not only for the museum but also the environment.  
• Manage, maintain, and update standard operating processes for exhibition design and gallery display. Ensure that departmental practices remain up to date with current or latest design technology and in accordance with design industry standards and best practices as it pertains to accessibility, visitor experience and flow in the galleries as well as city code regulations. Consult with the Design Director on possible new recommendations.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Qualifications & Skills

• Undergraduate degree in architecture, museum studies, exhibition design or related field, or equivalent work experience.  
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in exhibition design or architectural practice including work on exhibition projects or buildings, preferably in a museum or contemporary art setting. 
• Understanding of exhibition fabrication and construction. Experience producing concepts and detailed drawing packages at all levels (concept, schematic, design development, visual alignment, prototype, bidding, and construction) for exhibition design projects. 
• Knowledge of construction phasing, techniques, fabrication skills and material selection. 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. Record of building trusting relationships with internal clients and external vendors. 
• Ability to take initiative, work independently and collaboratively. 
• Excellent organization and time management skills. Ability to manage time appropriately, prioritizing projects within a moderate to heavy workload. 
• Strong understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion principles, human centered design, and accessibility standards. 
• Thorough knowledge of PC software applications (AutoCAD, Sketch Up, Adobe Creative Suite, and Microsoft Suite). Experience with Revit and Rhino a plus.  
• Must know how to scan and manipulate images, creative ability to make 3-D models/ representations from 2-D images. 

$79,004 - $95,614 a year

Benefits: PTO, Medical, Dental, Vision, Flexible Spending Accounts, Pet Insurance, Life and AD&D Coverage, Disability Insurance, Mental Health and Wellness Benefits, Discount Programs, Pre-Tax Commuter Benefits, 403(b) Retirement Savings Plan, SFMOMA Membership, and more