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Public Programs Coordinator

Smithsonian Institution

Washington, DCFull-time$71–92K/yrPosted 1 day ago

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At a glance

Compensation
$71–92K/yr
Location
Washington, DC
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

The Public Programs Coordinator develops and delivers community-centered programs connecting audiences with the Anacostia Community Museum’s exhibitions, collections, and stories. The role supports outreach program planning and implementation, drafts preliminary budgets and resource requirements, coordinates administrative and logistical arrangements for programs and events, and tracks expenditures, attendance, evaluations, and outcomes for reporting to supervisors and museum management.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Program DevelopmentProgram ImplementationMarketing and CommunicationsPerformance Data AnalysisProgram ManagementBudgetingStaffingOral CommunicationWritten CommunicationData Synthesis

Qualifications

1 Year Specialized ExperienceMaster's or Equivalent Graduate Degree or 2 Years Graduate Education or LL.B. Or J.D.

Benefits

Paid Time Off
Medical Insurance
401(k) Match

Full job description

Summary

The Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. This position is located in the External Affairs Department, Anacostia Community Museum (ACM), Under Secretary of Museum and Culture, Smithsonian Institution (SI).

Duties

The Public Programs Coordinator is responsible for developing and delivering engaging, community centered programs that connect audiences to the museum's exhibition, collections, and stories. In this position, you will: Participate in planning activities, public program development and project implementation of outreach programs. Draft preliminary budgets, staffing extramural participants, and material resource requirements. Provide administrative and logistical planning for the museum's public programs and special events. Track program expenditures, attendance, evaluations, outcomes, and prepares reports for supervisors and museum management. Requirements

Conditions of Employment Qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions on OPM website. Qualifications

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal Service. For this position, specialized experience is defined as developing and implementing marketing and communications initiatives within a museum, cultural, or historical organization, as well as collecting, analyzing, and reporting performance data to evaluate the effectiveness of outreach, marketing, and communication strategies. Your resume must be no more than two (2) pages and should clearly demonstrate how your experience aligns with the responsibilities and specialized experience required for this position. Do not copy language directly from the vacancy announcement, as you will be deemed ineligible for consideration. Instead, provide detailed, descriptive information about your actual experience. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week. OR master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D., if related

Education

There is no basic education requirement. How You Will Be Evaluated

Applicants for this position may be evaluated in multiple stages. The first stage is an evaluation of your responses to the online multiple-choice questions that assess your experience, education, and/or training for the job-related competencies below: Ability to create, implement and manage innovative programs for families, adults, and seniors. Ability to appropriately understand and plan available resources for budgeting and staffing requirements. Ability to effectively communicate orally. Ability to effectively write to various audiences including internal and external stakeholders. Ability to appropriately synthesize data to leadership and stakeholders. Applicants who meet or exceed minimum qualifications will be assigned to one of three category groups based on job-related criteria: Best Category - Meets the minimum qualification requirements and excels in most of the job related competencies above. Better Category - Meets the minimum qualification requirements and satisfies most of the job related competencies above. Good Category - Meets the minimum qualification requirements, but does not satisfy most of the job related competencies above to a substantive degree. This category rating process does not add veterans' preference points or apply the "rule of three", but protects the rights of veterans by placing them ahead of non-preference eligibles within each category. A selecting official may make selections from the highest quality category (Best Category) provided no preference eligible in that category is passed over to select a non-preference eligible in that category unless the requirements of 5 U.S.C. 3317(b) or 3318(b) are satisfied. Preference eligibles who meet minimum qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent must be listed in the highest quality category, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-9 grade level or higher. Applicants who have not submitted a resume in the USAjobs system and/or have not answered all of the vacancy questions will not be considered for this position. Important Note: Your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses to the occupational questionnaire or other assessment tool for consistency. If a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than is supported by your resume, you will be assigned a rating commensurate to your described experience. Your resume should provide sufficient information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed. You may preview questions for this vacancy. Benefits

The Smithsonian offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, vacation and sick leave, holidays, health/life insurance, accident insurance, and excellent retirement program options. Please see Benefits at https://www.si.edu/OHR/benefits for a complete description. Flexible Spending Accounts - https://www.fsafeds.com/ Health Insurance - http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/index.asp Leave - http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/index.asp Life Insurance - http://www.opm.gov/insure/life/index.asp Long Term Care Insurance - http://www.ltcfeds.com Retirement Program - https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/ Other Information

This position is included in the bargaining unit. Recruitment Incentive: Recruitment incentive(s) may be authorized for this position. However, approval for incentives are contingent upon various availability. If authorized, certain incentives will require the incumbent to sign a service agreement to remain in the Federal government for a certain time period. Note: This statement does not imply nor guarantee an incentive will be offered and paid. Selections may be made for vacancies across the Smithsonian Institution (SI). By applying to this position, you agree to allow your application and other personal information to be shared with one or more SI hiring officials for employment consideration for same/similar positions within the location(s) identified in this announcement.

How this job compares

Set against the 1,304 open Program Coordinator jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 4, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$71–92K/yr
  • US median$60–73K/yr382 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $81K, is 22% above the US median midpoint ($67K) — in the middle half of Program Coordinator salary ranges across the US.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 16 open Program Coordinator jobs in Washington, D.C. and 1,304 across the US. 2% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Experience
This posting asks for at least 1 year of experience; Program Coordinator postings that state a minimum ask for 2 years at the median (814 postings).
Education
287 of the 1,304 open Program Coordinator jobs (22%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 4, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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