Director of Education

Museums & Historical Societies, Education & Programming

Salary Range

The Planes of Fame Air Museum seeks a passionate, creative, organized education leader to spearhead the creation and deployment of mission aligned programming for the Museum as it embarks on its new development in Santa Maria, California. Reporting to the Executive Director, the Director of Education will be instrumental in building upon early community engagement in the region to hone in on key partnership opportunities for school field trips, school and community outreach, family programs, senior programs, scout programs, and homeschool audiences.

This is an exciting time for the Planes of Fame Air Museum and the successful candidate must have the ability to manage projects from origin to completion, manage staff, and lead and cultivate a volunteer corps. This role will additionally be involved in exhibit content development as the museum continues to evolve, ensuring educational standards and teacher input is included by exhibit designers, and will liaise with the exhibit design firm as the project manager.

At the beginning stages of the museum project, the Director of Education will also be expected to oversee the museum’s collections and their move from the Chino location to the Santa Maria location, with the Executive Director and with the Chino location’s director of education and collections. At the outset of this position, direct reports may be volunteer based however the Director of Education is anticipated to have the following paid positions reporting to them, as funding allows:
Educator and Volunteer Specialist and Community & School Programs Coordinator.

• Lead education and public programs department and oversee hiring and management of 1-2 coordinators and a core of paid educators, specialists, and volunteer docents;
• Supervise the education and volunteer specialist (anticipated hire date is July, 2026);
• Develop and manage annual operational budget for education programs;
• Represent Planes of Fame Air Museum in the Santa Maria, California community with a goal of developing at least three critical partnerships that grow museum attendance and revenue;
• Serve as key liaison with school district partners with a goal to drive field trip programs;
• With Executive Director, develop and steward teacher advisory board;
• With Community & School Programs Coordinator develop and implement school outreach programs with a goal of at least 2 signature K-8th grade classroom programs and 1 signature middle school Family Science Night program;
• Develop and implement curriculum for all program areas, with coordinators;
• With Executive Director, implement and refine educational program strategy;
• Write, execute, and manage grants for educational programs, in partnership with development consultants or staff;
• Create supplemental materials for school field trips that align museum exhibitions with California Common Core State Learning Standards for science, technology, engineering, math, history, and art;
• Oversee the Skyward Bound program and develop expansion plan to serve middle and elementary school students with a goal of inspiring students to identify pathways for careers in aviation and aerospace;
• Oversee paid summer internship program for high school students;
• With Community & School Programs Coordinator, develop and implement calendar of events to engage families, seniors, and scouts;
• Serve as project manager for new museum’s exhibit design and building process;
• Keep Executive Director up to date on schedule changes or potential budget adjustments for exhibit design and build;
• Assist in management of collections move from Chino location to Santa Maria location;
• Ensure new collections storage spaces meet expectations and standards required for the nature of the Planes of Fame collection;
• With volunteer coordinator, develop and implement training manual and related materials;
• With volunteer coordinator and Executive Director, create stewardship plan for volunteers;
• Participate in museum events as needed;
• Other duties as assigned.

Required:

• Minimum 2 years of experience managing employees;
• Bachelor’s degree is…