Manager of Installations & Packing

Philadelphia Museum of Art

www.philamuseum.org

The Manager of Installations and Packing provides senior operational leadership for all art handling, packing, crating, transportation, and installation activities across exhibitions, the permanent collection, and offsite storage. The role oversees a large, highly skilled technical team and is responsible for planning, coordination, and execution of complex projects that require close collaboration with Curatorial, Registration, Conservation, Exhibition Design, Exhibition Planning, Facilities and Operations, and external partners.

This position combines people leadership, technical judgment, scheduling oversight, and cross-departmental coordination to ensure that artworks are handled, installed, and transported safely and efficiently, in accordance with professional museum standards.

Responsibilities

Specifically, you will:

Lead and manage a multidisciplinary team that includes an Installation Coordinator (responsible for calendar management and scheduling), Outgoing loan coordinator, mount fabricator, installation technicians, installation leads, and related staff.

Provide clear operational direction, establish priorities, and coordinate work across multiple concurrent projects, including exhibitions, rotations, outgoing loans, and internal art movements.

Oversee the planning and execution of installation and de-installation of exhibitions, working closely with curators, registrars, conservators, designers, and exhibition planners.

Develop and implement packing, crating, and handling strategies that ensure the safety of artworks in transit, storage, and display.

Coordinate staffing plans, schedules, and workflows in collaboration with the Installations Coordinator, Outgoing loans coordinator and other departmental partners.

Manage relationships with outside contractors, shippers, fabricators, and vendors as required.

Oversee departmental budgeting, purchasing, and resource allocation in coordination with the Director of Collections.

Ensure compliance with Museum policies, safety standards, and collective bargaining agreements.

Oversee TSA certification compliance and training for required staff

Conduct site visits and object assessments to evaluate packing, transport, and installation requirements.

Courier loans to other institutions, as assigned.

Oversee art movements between all Museum facilities and offsite storage locations in coordination with Registration.

Requirements

Your background and experience include:

Minimum of 7–10 years of experience in museum installations, art handling, or related technical fields.

At least 3–5 years of experience in a leadership or supervisory role overseeing specialized technical staff.

Experience managing complex, high-risk projects involving sensitive and fragile works of art in a variety of mediums.

Experience working within unionized or similarly structured labor environments strongly preferred

How to Apply

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage candidates to apply early as the position will close once we have a robust applicant pool or a candidate has been selected.

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