Vice President of Marketing

Job description

Position Summary The Skirball Cultural Center seeks a strategic, creative, collaborative, and visitor-focused Vice President of Marketing to lead the institution’s efforts to build awareness, deepen engagement, strengthen its brand and reputation, and create an exceptional experience for everyone who encounters the Skirball. This is a new position absorbing some existing functions, but designed to bring new emphasis and resources to raising the Skirball’s profile regionally and nationally as a model for Jewish community engagement and the positive impact of Skirball’s cultural content in a diverse and plural democratic society. Reporting to the Executive Vice President and serving as a member of the senior leadership team, the Vice President provides strategic oversight of marketing, communications, social media and digital content, graphic design and brand identity, public and media relations, visitor experience, admissions and box office, and retail operations. The position encompasses both how the Skirball reaches people and how people experience the Skirball once they engage. The Vice President develops and implements integrated strategies that increase attendance and participation, expand and diversify audiences, strengthen loyalty and retention, advance earned revenue, and elevate the Skirball’s visibility and influence in Los Angeles and beyond. The position works closely with leaders across the institution—including the Museum, Education, Programs, Development, Hospitality and Community Events, and Operations—to ensure that the Skirball presents a compelling, welcoming, and consistent experience at every audience touchpoint. The Vice President is an active institutional partner—not simply a service provider to other departments—and brings audience, brand, communications, and visitor perspectives into strategic planning and decision-making. The position oversees leaders and teams responsible for implementing the work described below, providing strategic direction, setting priorities and goals, allocating resources, and evaluating results. At the heart of the position is the Skirball’s commitment to welcoming the stranger. The Vice President ensures that communications, marketing, brand expression, customer service, digital experiences, admissions, retail, and community relationships reflect the institution’s mission, Jewish values, and American democratic ideals. Range: $175,000-$185,000 Essential Responsibilities Strategy, Leadership, and Operations Provide strategic leadership for marketing the Skirball’s brand and content. Provide supervision and oversight for departments managing visitor experience and retail operations, aligning these functions with Skirball’s mission and institutional priorities. Develop and implement annual and multi-year strategies, goals, priorities, budgets, and performance measures across the portfolio. Lead and develop the staff responsible for these functions, establishing clear expectations, fostering collaboration, and supporting professional growth and accountability. Serve as a strategic advisor and thought partner to the Executive Vice President, Chief of Staff, and senior leadership on institutional positioning, reputation, audience engagement, and emerging opportunities and challenges. Integrate strategies and priorities across departments, ensuring coordinated approaches to exhibitions, programs, education, development, hospitality, community events, and other institutional initiatives. Oversee external agencies, consultants, creative partners, vendors, and other resources, ensuring effective project management, quality, and responsible use of resources. Marketing and Promotion Provide strategic direction for integrated marketing and promotional strategies that build awareness, increase attendance, diversify audiences, strengthen loyalty, and advance institutional revenue goals. Oversee campaigns promoting exhibitions, programs, events, memberships, retail, community initiatives, and other offerings across paid, shared, digital, and social media. Guide audience development strategies informed by audience research, market trends, visitor insights, segmentation, and performance data. Establish goals and measures for marketing effectiveness, using analytics and evaluation to optimize campaigns, channels, investments, and outcomes. Ensure marketing efforts consistently communicate Skirball’s distinctive identity, value, and relevance to current and prospective audiences. Direct the development of compelling promotional content and partnerships that extend Skirball’s reach, visibility, and engagement across Los Angeles and beyond. Communications and Media Relations Provide strategic leadership for institutional communications, public relations, publicity, and media relations, strengthening Skirball’s visibility, reputation, and influence. Oversee owned and earned media, including the website, email communications, publications, editorial content, media outreach, and other institutional channels. Serve as a senior writer, editor, and communications advisor on high-priority institutional initiatives, executive communications, public statements, and organizational messaging. Steward Skirball’s written and visual brand identity, ensuring consistent standards across communications, marketing, publications, advertising, signage, digital platforms, and the visitor experience. Oversee visual communications and creative resources, including graphic design, photography, videography, and other commissioned content, to ensure a compelling and cohesive public presence. Visitor Experience Supervise and support the Visitor Experience department, ensuring that every point of contact reflects Skirball’s commitment to being a place of welcome for all communities and generations. Oversee admissions and box office strategy, including pricing, policies, ticketing procedures, customer service, and operational goals. Use visitor feedback, attendance data, research, and frontline insights to identify opportunities and continuously improve the visitor journey. Partner across departments to ensure exhibitions, programs, facilities, hospitality, retail, communications, and other visitor-facing functions operate as an integrated experience. · Provide strategic direction to the teams responsible for frontline visitor services, ensuring strong service standards, training, communication, and accountability. Retail Operations and Merchandising Supervise and support the team managing Audrey’s Museum Store, in partnership with the Director of Visitor Experience, with responsibility for its contribution to visitor experience, earned revenue, and institutional goals. Guide merchandising strategies that connect the store’s offerings to Skirball’s exhibitions, programs, collections, Jewish identity, holidays, and mission. Integrate retail marketing, communications, visual presentation, and promotions with broader institutional campaigns and the visitor experience. Community and Civic Engagement Supervise and collaborate with employees and departments managing community outreach and engagement. Support Community and Civic Engagement efforts as a pipeline for institutional reach and impact, and new audience development. Ensure community perspectives, needs, and experiences inform institutional communications, marketing, programming, visitor experience, and strategic planning. Qualifications and Experience Required Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, business, arts administration, museum studies, or a related field, or equivalent experience. 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in communications, marketing, audience engagement, visitor experience, or related fields, including significant senior leadership experience. Demonstrated success developing and implementing integrated communications, marketing, and audience strategies. Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and managing significant budgets and resources. Proven ability to develop and strengthen an institutional brand and organizational reputation. Strong experience across digital marketing, social media, content strategy, audience development, analytics, and traditional communications. Demonstrated success using audience research, data, and performance metrics to inform strategy and decision-making. Excellent writing, editing, verbal communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills. Experience working effectively with executive leadership and across organizational departments. Strong project management, priority-setting, analytical, and decision-making skills. Experience managing external agencies, contractors, vendors, and creative partners. Demonstrated commitment to creating welcoming and inclusive experiences for diverse audiences. Ability to operate strategically while remaining sufficiently hands-on to guide execution, solve problems, and support the team when needed. Preferred Experience in a museum, cultural institution, performing arts organization, higher education institution, or other mission-driven nonprofit. Experience overseeing visitor experience, admissions/box office, retail, or other earned-revenue functions. Experience with CRM, ticketing/admissions, email marketing, web analytics, marketing automation, and digital content platforms. Experience with brand identity and creative/design teams. Spanish-language proficiency. Knowledge of or demonstrated affinity for Jewish culture, history, values, and/or the Skirball’s mission. About the Skirball Cultural Center The Skirball Cultural Center is a place of meeting guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality. The Skirball welcomes people of all communities and generations to participate in cultural experiences that celebrate discovery and hope, foster human connections, and call upon us to help build a more just society. Since its founding, the Skirball Cultural Center has established itself as one of the world’s most dynamic Jewish cultural institutions and among the leading cultural venues in Los Angeles. Its offerings encompass museum exhibitions, education, public programs, onsite dining, retail, and other opportunities for cultural engagement.