Senior Manager, Operations

Senior Manager, Operations

The Senior Manager, Operations oversees the Museum's daily operations, ensuring a seamless, safe, and efficient environment for staff, visitors, partners, and vendors. Serving as a central point of coordination across departments and the primary liaison for external partners, you will help maintain the Museum's high standards of safety, service, and operational excellence. You will be responsible for safeguarding the Museum's people, property, and reputation while supporting a world-class visitor experience. You will ensure that operational procedures, protocols, and systems align with the Museum's unique role as a multi-faceted cultural institution and community hub.

What You'll Do

• Oversee and manage the day-to-day operations of the Museum, ensuring smooth and efficient functioning across all public and non-public spaces.
• Oversee security operations and staff, ensuring preparedness, resilience, and compliance with all safety regulations, and anticipating and mitigating threats to staff, visitors, collections, and facilities.
• Partner directly with the Senior Director, Guest Experience to align operational priorities with visitor experience standards and organizational goals.
• Serve as a primary liaison between departments (e.g., Curatorial, Guest Services, Events, Programming, Security, and Production, etc.) to coordinate operational needs and resolve issues.
• Liaise with law enforcement, fire, life safety, and emergency management agencies.
• Act as the main point of contact for all external vendors, including our landlord (LA LIVE), janitorial, engineering, HVAC, security, and other contracted services to ensure reliability, sustainability, and visitor and staff comfort.
• Plan, maintain, and execute preventive and emergency maintenance programs for the Museum's structural, electrical, IT, and plumbing systems.
• Manage vendor relationships, including contract negotiations, performance standards, scheduling, and issue resolution.
• Ensure the Museum environment is clean, safe, fully operational and compliant at all times, proactively addressing safety, facilities, or service concerns.
• Monitor and improve operational workflows to enhance safety, efficiency, and the overall visitor experience.
• Support the planning and installation of exhibitions, installations, events, and public programs from an operational perspective.
• Partner with department heads to ensure compliance with safety regulations and emergency preparedness protocols.
• Track and manage operational budgets, vendor costs, and resource allocation.
• Oversee opening and closing procedures, ensuring adherence to established protocols.
• Respond to and manage operational incidents or emergencies, coordinating cross-functional teams as needed.
• Develop and maintain operational documentation, including SOPs, vendor agreements, and internal communications.
• Lead cross-functional meetings to ensure alignment on priorities, timelines, and operational readiness.
• Perform additional duties as assigned by senior leadership.

Skills & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in related field preferred.
• 7+ years of operations management experience, preferably in a museum, cultural institution, or high-traffic public venue.
• 3 to 5+ years of experience leading and supervising teams, including security personnel, within a fast-paced, customer-facing, or public venue environment.
• Experience managing vendors and service contracts (janitorial, maintenance, security, etc.).
• Experience developing and implementing operational processes and improvements.
• Knowledge of facility operations, OSHA, safety standards, technology, and regulatory compliance.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel) and operations/project management tools.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to build relationships across all levels of the organization and with external partners.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with senior leadership and influence cross-functional teams.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities and complex operations in a dynamic environment.
• Excellent organizational, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to remain calm and effective in high-pressure or rapidly changing situations.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to operational excellence.
• Flexibility to work evenings, weekends, and holidays as needed.

Physical Demands for Certain Roles

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required walk and stand for extended periods and move throughout various Museum spaces. Work may involve both office-based responsibilities and on-the-floor operational oversight. Occasional lifting or coordination of physical setup for events or installations.

Salary and Benefits

The starting salary for this position is $83,800 to $93,000 per year, benchmarked against industry standards. Salaries for positions required to be in specific geographic locations reflect the corresponding labor market. The actual offer extended will depend on the candidate's experience, qualifications, and the role's requirements and will include our comprehensive benefits package (with medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401k match, generous paid time off, and more). Click here for an overview of our company benefits.

Explore our career opportunities to join a team that values creativity, innovation, and diversity.

About The Recording Academy and Its Affiliates

GRAMMY MUSEUM

The GRAMMY Museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating and exploring music from yesterday and today to inspire the music of tomorrow through music preservation, education, exhibitions, and public programming and aims to create a world in which shared love of music sparks curiosity, creativity, and community. Programs include GRAMMY in the Schools education programs that are offered year-round for students, teachers, and schools throughout the United States.

RECORDING ACADEMY

The Recording Academy represents the voices of performers, songwriters, producers, engineers, and all music professionals. Dedicated to ensuring the recording arts remain a thriving part of our shared cultural heritage, the Academy honors music's history while investing in its future through the GRAMMY Museum, advocates on behalf of music creators, supports music people in times of need through MusiCares, and celebrates artistic excellence through the GRAMMY Awards—music's only peer-recognized accolade and highest achievement. As the world's leading society of music professionals, we work year-round to foster a more inspiring world for creators.

LATIN RECORDING ACADEMY

The Latin Recording Academy is an international, membership-based organization comprised of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking recording artists, musicians, songwriters, producers and other creative and technical recording professionals. The organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for Latin music and its makers. In addition to producing the Latin GRAMMY Awards to honor excellence in the recorded arts and sciences, The Latin Recording Academy provides educational and outreach programs for the Latin music community either directly or through its Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation.

LATIN GRAMMY CULTURAL FOUNDATION

The Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation is a charitable organization established by the Latin Recording Academy in 2014. The organization is dedicated to creating opportunities for the next generation of Latin music creators through scholarships, educational programs, grants, and access to creators and industry executives.

MUSICARES

A friend and ally of the music community, MusiCares was established by the Recording Academy to safeguard the health and well-being of all music people. A four-star charity and safety net in times of need, MusiCares offers confidential preventative, recovery, and emergency programs to address financial, medical, and personal health issues. Through the generosity of our donors and volunteer professionals, our dedicated team works across the country to ensure the music community has the resources and support it needs.

Equal Opportunity

The Recording Academy, its affiliates, and the music industry have a strong culture of inclusion and respect for everyone. The Recording Academy makes intentional, courageous, and principled decisions for stronger business outcomes and ensures that all creators and professionals live and work in a fair and safe environment. It is the Recording Academy's policy to provide equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. The Recording Academy does not discriminate on the basis of race (nor traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to hair texture and protective hairstyles), color, religion (including religious dress and grooming), creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions), national origin, ancestry, age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, family care status, military or veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law. The Recording Academy will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in an undue hardship to the Recording Academy. This policy governs all aspects of employment, including selection, job assignment, compensation, promotion, discipline, termination, access to benefits