Senior Director, Construction & Development

Museum of Ice Cream is scaling its permanent museum footprint from five locations to ten-plus over the next three years. Los Angeles opens as our flagship. Orlando and Atlanta follow in the same calendar year. Each location is a 15,000–30,000 square foot permanent experiential venue — immersive environments, themed food and beverage, retail, and play-forward activations built to operate at high volume, day in and day out.

My role is the construction and development authority for that entire pipeline. I will transition into full ownership of the new museum opening process, build out the repeatable infrastructure, and serve as the owner’s representative across every active project. I will partner with the Head of Design and Production, who owns the creative and experiential vision, and provide the check on complexity, cost, and buildability at every stage.

This position is a construction and development leadership role, not a production or technical design role. MOIC has dedicated teams for experience design, production, and technical design; I do not manage those functions.

• Owns and manages the general contractor relationship, bid process, and contract structure on every project.
• Drives the construction timeline from lease execution through turnover and punch list.
• Ensures every work letter negotiation positions MOIC correctly before a lease is signed.
• Selects and manages the GC, subcontractor, and vendor ecosystem across all active markets.
• Coordinates with the design team from the earliest concept phase — not to constrain vision, but to price reality into it before decisions are locked.
• Serves as the internal check on design decisions that drive cost without proportionate guest experience or brand value.
• Finds cost‑effective construction and specification solutions that achieve the intended aesthetic and experiential effect.
• Lead all base construction project management for new museum openings. Own the full project timeline from site handover through construction completion, FF&E installation, and punch list.
• Manage general contractors, architects and consultants across all active projects.
• Build and maintain integrated schedules that sequence base construction, tenant improvement, experience installation, and food and beverage fit‑out.
• Track and manage budgets across all projects — flag cost risk early, drive value engineering decisions in partnership with the design team.
• Partner with the real estate and legal team to ensure every work letter captures the right landlord obligations before execution.
• Review and negotiate tenant improvement allowance structures, base building delivery conditions, and landlord work scopes.
• Identify building issues and lease terms that create downstream construction risk — access, code compliance, MEP capacity, structural limitations.
• Investigate and understand AHJ requirements related to department requirements, building permits, local code constraints and idiosyncrasies related to the MOIC occupancy demands.
• Engage with the Design and Production team at the earliest stage of each project to surface buildability and cost implications.
• Maintain a clear view of which design decisions drive meaningful guest experience or brand value and which add cost without proportionate return.
• Bring alternative construction and specification approaches that achieve the intended effect at lower cost and with less complexity.
• Flag curved walls, custom fabrication, non-standard materials, and specialty installations early — with real cost data attached.
• Own the relationship between the Museum in a Pint design standard and the actual cost model for each new build.
• Build the master construction playbook for MOIC — standardized specifications, preferred vendor lists, GC relationships by market, BOH setup protocols, and FF&E procurement guides.
• Design the model so each new location requires localization of finishes and theming, not reinvention of layout, systems, or base construction logic and methods.
• Document lessons learned from every opening so the next project starts smarter.
• Create the cost model that allows leadership to underwrite new sites with confidence before a lease is…