Position: Manager of Education Programs, Bronx Zoo
Reports to: Curator of Education, Bronx Zoo
Positions managed: Program Coordinators, Educators, and PT/Seasonal Staff
Location: Bronx Zoo, in-person
Department: Education
Position Type: Full time, Sunday – Thursday; Monday – Friday during the summer. Some additional weekend, evening and holiday work required.
Job Summary:
The Manager of Education Programs is an integral member of the Bronx Zoo Education team, supporting high quality STEM and nature-based learning while advancing conservation education through the lens of Discover, Inspire & Protect. The Manager of Education Programs oversees and supports the staff leading all types of educational programming, including school field trips, scout programs, informal children, family and adult programs, birthday parties and summer camp. Our programs seek to engage with diverse groups of neighborhood and wider New York City residents, to build a connection with WCS in unique, creative and enduring ways, and to leverage the Bronx Zoo resources to address community interests. The Manager creates and fosters relationships, both internally and externally, to ensure the success of programming and expand the diversity and inclusion of participants, staff and volunteers. The ideal candidate has strong people and program management skills, as well as experience coordinating events and a deep knowledge or pedagogy, which together allow them to effectively coach and professionally strengthen the team while also managing projects of their own. The Manager ensures the team has the support, training and resources to successfully integrate STEM education, participant-based learning and conservation action into a variety of programming.
Major Responsibilities:
The Education Manager’s main responsibility is managing Bronx Zoo Education staff and ensuring the success of the team in coordinating, developing, teaching, and supporting programming.
Internal Qualification Requirements
Responsibilities include:
Work closely with the Curator of Education and Program Coordinators to conceptualize and develop a broad spectrum of education programs. Oversee the implementation and evaluation of program offerings, ensuring they are innovative and meaningful educational experiences that engage participants in STEM learning and conservation action. This will include observing programming, providing feedback on instruction and program structure and content, and overseeing program refinement.
Manage specific projects and programs, leading the curriculum development, coordinating logistics, collaborating with Events, Visitor Services and other WCS departments, tracking associated expenses, and scheduling and training staff, interns and volunteers.
Coordinate with internal and external partners to plan and implement education events such as science fairs and family days.
Interview, hire, train, supervise and evaluate full time staff; support Program Coordinators in doing the same for part time staff and interns.
Serve as Camp Director and manage the camp team to ensure the success of summer camp programming. Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to, overseeing curriculum development, hiring and training camp counselors, scheduling camp staff, and communicating with caregivers.
Administrative tasks including, but not limited to, monitoring booking systems, reserving rooms, scheduling instructors, ordering supplies and materials, tracking budgets, and meeting regularly with the Education Admin team.
Evaluate program sales and performance based on Dashboard and Convergence data. Use the data to develop a yearly marketing strategy including pricing strategies for fee-based education programming, and work closely with the Education Admin team to ensure appropriate monthly e-blasts, social media posts and external marketing, and that the website is kept up to date and accurate.
Work closely with our Tractable Animal team to safely and effectively incorporate live animal demonstrations into Bronx Zoo education experiences. This includes being trained in handling our ambassador animals and supporting team members with their training and animal use scheduling.
Be an active and supportive team member in the education department by participating in on-site and off-site staff development days, team meetings and trainings (both individual and team), and through contributing to a positive work environment.
Facilitate team growth professionally and create an encouraging culture by identifying team members’ strengths, providing professional development opportunities and feedback, and delegating effectively.
Job Qualifications:
•Bachelor's degree in science, conservation, education or related field; Master’s degree a plus.
•Three years of dynamic leadership experience of a team of staff, interns and/or volunteers.
•Strong people management skills that include experience directly supervising and evaluating staff.
•Five years of instructional experience in formal or informal science education, including programmatic development, implementation and evaluation.
•Demonstrated experience building and maintaining strong internal and external relationships, and working with diverse partners and audiences.
•Ability to lift up to 20lbs and to perform light physical activity including occasional extended periods of time spent sitting, walking and standing.
•Possess a valid driver’s license.
•Conversational fluency in Spanish a plus.
