SFO- Senior Museum Registrar

Airport Minority Advisory Council•Sf, CA

17h•Onsite

About The Position

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is a world-class, award-winning airport that served more than 54 million guests in Fiscal Year 2025. SFO offers non-stop flights to 60+ international cities on over 40 international carriers and connects non-stop with 80+ U.S. cities on 10 domestic airlines. As an enterprise department of the City & County of San Francisco, SFO has a workforce of approximately 1,900 City employees. SFO is a dynamic organization recognized as a leader in safety, environmental sustainability, and forward-thinking infrastructure, with a mission to deliver an airport experience where people and our planet come first. Established in 1980 by the Airport Commission, SFO Museum's mission is to delight, engage, and inspire a global audience with programming on a broad range of subjects; to collect, preserve, interpret, and share the history of commercial aviation; and to enrich the public experience at San Francisco International Airport. The Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and operates more than twenty-five sites throughout the Airport terminals, including fourteen galleries and the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, which houses a permanent collection of more than 150,000 objects. As a team member of SFO, you will embrace SFO's core values and SFO's Racial Equity Action Plan. Under general supervision of the Curator in charge of Collections, the Senior Museum Registrar will perform complex and high-volume registration duties associated with archives materials at the Aviation Museum and Library, which comprises 116,500 objects and receives record numbers of donations annually, heavily used by curators, researchers, and other SFO departments.

Requirements

Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university in art, art history, museum studies, arts administration or a closely related field and five years of verifiable museum registration experience; OR Possession of a master's degree from an accredited college or university in art, art history, museum studies, arts administration or a closely related postgraduate program and three years of verifiable museum registration experience.
Computer literacy in word processing, database management and a computerized registration system.
Considerable physical effort and dexterity in the use of fingers, limbs and body.
Excellent visual acuity.
Exposure to inclement weather and working conditions that are somewhat disagreeable in underground locations.
The use of ladders and aerial lift bucket.
Lifting of 51 pounds of equipment.
Ability to identify a variety of color codes.
Ability to obtain and maintain security clearance (including criminal history record check, FBI fingerprints, and Security Threat Assessment).
Successfully pass a medical examination prior to appointment.

Responsibilities

Lead and oversee the collection development and registration of museum objects and aviation archives at SFO Museum, including establishing standards for accession, documentation, labeling, and cataloging; ensure the integrity of more than 180,000 records in the collections database.
Manage and approve donation processing workflows, including creation of master donation records, evaluation of prospective materials, tracking of donation status from intake through deed of gift, donor correspondence, and oversight of records for purchases and transfers into the permanent collection.
Supervise the maintenance of official collection records, including donor files, insurance documentation, identification photographs, invoices, and financial records; review accession documentation prepared for curators and museum leadership.
Plan, coordinate, and oversee the digitization program for archival materials, setting priorities, quality standards, and workflows for scanning, metadata creation, digital asset management, and preservation.
Serve as the primary registration liaison to curators, museum staff, and other SFO departments; advise on appropriate use of archival materials in exhibitions, publications, research, and projects, including coordination with airline partners.
Direct and review periodic inventories of the permanent collection, ensuring accuracy of location, condition reporting, and record reconciliation; approve corrective actions when discrepancies are identified; monitor environmental controls in collections storage facilities across campus with HOBO data tracking and integrated pest management (IPM).
Review and provide final input on all aviation exhibition text related to archival materials to ensure historical accuracy, consistency, and alignment with SFO Museum standards.
Oversee and authorize the movement, storage, and disposition of collection objects; establish handling protocols, packing standards, environmental controls, security procedures, and records management of donation documents and insurance; serve as lead courier when high-value or sensitive materials are transported; authorize conservation treatment; coordinate with vendors for collection supplies and equipment maintenance.
Coordinate aviation oral history program initiatives with participant correspondence, transcript editing, publication, and production of content deliverables for public programming; produce and edit weblog content/blogposts in conjunction with museum collection initiatives; support educational programming, tours, and outreach activities, ensuring appropriate use of collection materials and compliance with museum, library, and archival policies.
Provide lead supervision, training, and work assignments to interns, volunteers, and other collections/registration staff; set priorities, monitor progress, and ensure quality of cataloging, digitization, and records work.
Provide onsite support of the Aviation Museum & Library during public open hours on weekends as assigned, including volunteer supervision, visitor services, operations, interdepartmental liaising, and point of contact for first responder and frontline communications.
Perform related duties and responsibilities as assigned.