Associate Director for Collections & Exhibitions

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 Collections & Exhibitions Department, National Portrait Gallery (NPG) at the Smithsonian Institution (SI).

Duties

The Associate Director for Collections and Exhibitions provides strategic leadership and oversight of professional and technical teams responsible for registration, art handling, exhibition design and production, museum lighting and technology, and exhibition planning and touring. In this position, you will: Collaborate with the Director and senior leadership to establish strategic priorities for collection care and exhibition development. Manage the short- and long-term planning of NPG's exhibition program, including multi-year schedules, collection rotations, touring exhibitions, and loan agreements. Provide leadership to subordinate supervisors, overseeing resource allocation, timelines, and exhibition activities to ensure projects remain on schedule and within budget. Work closely with curators, educators, designers, and other stakeholders to ensure exhibitions meet interpretive, aesthetic, and accessibility objectives. Requirements

Conditions of Employment Qualification requirements, including one year time-in-grade at the next lower grade level for promotion candidates, must be met within 30 days of the job announcement closing date. See the 'Required Documents' section for additional information. For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions viewable on OPM Website. Qualifications

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-13 level in the Federal Service. For this position, specialized experience is defined as supervising multidisciplinary staff and serving as a senior advisor for collection care, exhibition planning, and exhibition development. 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. In an effort to streamline our hiring process, SI employees whose current position of record is in the same job series (1001) and who are in a Federal competitive or excepted service appointment as this advertised position, are not required to submit a transcript with your application package. However, if selected, you will be required to provide a copy of your transcript before your start date in the position. Time-in-Grade Requirements: Under competitive merit promotion procedures, any individual who is currently holding, or who has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule position under a non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet "time-in-grade" requirements (have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade of the grade for which you are applying).

How You Will Be Evaluated

Your application will be evaluated first for the basic qualifications described above. The applications that meet the basic qualifications will be evaluated further against the following criteria: Knowledge of museum standards, practices, and methodologies for exhibition planning, development, and evaluation to advise senior leadership, align program priorities, and support institutional goals. Knowledge of multi-year exhibition scheduling, collection rotation strategies, touring exhibition logistics, and loan management requirements to evaluate exhibition proposals, anticipate operational needs, and ensure alignment with institutional priorities and audience expectations. Knowledge of management principles, team leadership, workload distribution, and performance management to direct staff, set priorities, communicate program changes, and ensure effective execution of collections and exhibition activities. Skill in communication, collaborative planning, and cross-functional coordination to partner with curators, educators, designers, conservators, and external stakeholders on exhibition development and collections-related initiatives. 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 detailed 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 not 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.