Associate Director of Audience Services

ORGANIZATION

Chicago Humanities connects people to the ideas that shape and define us and promotes the lifelong exploration of what it means to be human. Chicago Humanities fosters curiosity, celebrates creativity, explores the boundaries of contemporary knowledge and culture, and challenges us to see ourselves and the world anew. Collaborating with nearly 40 of Chicago’s major cultural and educational institutions, Chicago Humanities produces over 100 events annually and partners with nearly 40 venues around Chicago, as well as stewards a vibrant online home for the humanities. Chicago Humanities has an international reputation for innovation and creativity, featuring an exceptional roster of writers, scholars, performers, and visual artists in its programs and online.

POSITION OVERVIEW
Reporting to the Director of Operations, the Associate Director of Audience Services is a full-time position that leads the Audience Services team, holding a bird’s eye view of audience-facing initiatives and projects with the ultimate goal of creating an exceptional audience experience. This role is an expert people manager for internal and external teams: they lead a team of both full-time and seasonal staff members, and partner with external box offices, booksellers that contribute to the audience’s experience. This role creates staff training, makes audience egress plans, enforces life safety and emergency procedures, co-leads venue site visits, and infuses accessibility for people with disabilities and older adults into our operations. This role is also a data analyzer, creating budget projections and reporting on ticket sales performance.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

People Management and Leadership

• Hire, train, and supervise Audience Services personnel, including a full-time Audience and Accessibility Manager, part-time seasonal Audience Services Representatives (ASRs), and seasonal House Managers for both office and in-person responsibilities.
• Coordinate schedule and location assignments for ASRs and House Managers, and tracking payroll hours for these employees.
• Oversee holistic event staff scheduling, assuring all events are properly staffed.
• Create and facilitate FOH staff training, in collaboration with production leads, and Audience and Accessibility Manager.
• Support Audience Services Manager in Initiating project plans for the build of ticketing system content in preparation for ticket on-sales, delegating to team members to hit deadlines.
• As manager, can step in as head box office and house manager for events as needed.

Audience Experience and Event Management

• Ensure quality customer service for a diverse, multigenerational audience by phone, online, and at events.
• Oversee audience experience in collaboration with Audience and Accessibility Manager, approving audience communications, box office policies, and procedures.
• Work closely with the Marketing department to ensure consistency of customer service language and policy messaging and create plans for ticket promotions and discounts.
• Manage audience flow and floor plans ensuring ease for CH audiences in all venues, communicating plans to venues and vendors as needed.
• Participate in seasonal planning of festivals including consultation of audience flow, and communicating audience needs and behaviors within seasons structure.
• Work with the Audience Services team to ensure Box Office technology is running smoothly.
• Serve as an audience services lead onsite, ensuring quality audience experiences for both small and large scale events.

Operational Support

• Oversee partnerships with third party box offices and booksellers, providing reporting of sales data and plans for onsite logistics.
• In collaboration with bookselling partners, manage book inventory and drop shipment coordination between partners, venues, and internal teams.
• Manage catering logistics for audience concessions as needed, and event staff meals.
• Oversee scheduling of contracted security staff, when relational to Front of House. (bag check; magnetometer etc.) in collaboration with the Director of Operations, and Associate Producer.

Budgeting, Data Reporting, and Analysis

• Create and monitor the Audience Services budget for staffing and supplies.
• Oversee daily financial transactions and controls, and box office software and equipment.
• Evaluate marketing successes through end-of-production summaries, reporting out ticket sales data, audience demographics, buying behavior, use of accessible services, etc.
• Assist the Director of Operations on other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 6+ years experience in management of visitors services, front-of-house operations, and/or event management.
• A dedication to creating a culture of friendly, inclusive customer service and enjoy working with the public.
• Strong people management skills and the ability to delegate tasks efficiently to a team.
• Demonstrated ability to foster a positive, supportive work environment for your team.
• Tech-savvy with systems management experience (ticketing system, donor database, website content management systems, email marketing platforms, box office phone systems).
• A highly-organized team player, able to multi-task with several projects simultaneously in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Grace under pressure, flexibility, resourcefulness, and assertiveness in problem solving.
• Excellent writing and communication skills. Must be comfortable communicating publicly while training staff and volunteers.
• Experience or training in accessibility, disability awareness, or diversity/equity/inclusion initiatives considered a plus.
• Ability to work evenings and weekends per our events schedule.

WORK LOCATION

Chicago Humanities maintains a collaborative and congenial environment. We work in a hybrid model, requiring in-person Tuesdays - Thursdays at our River North office. Mondays and Fridays allow remote work; exceptions might occur based on organizational and/or departmental needs. While working remotely, you can access a laptop computer and a $50 per month stipend to offset home internet and personal phone expenses. This role is required to work select night and weekend hours to support aspects of our in-person events across the city.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

This is a full-time position with a salary of $60,000-$65,000. Benefits include fully-covered health insurance (with an option to upgrade), dental, vision, 403(b) with 7% employer match, equitable parental leave, tax-free commuter spending plan, life insurance, short and long-term disability, and 17 days of accrued paid time off. In addition, we offset busy seasons with additional paid office closures during the summer and a communal winter break (December 25 through New Year’s Day). Chicago Humanities observes ten holidays and provides one floating holiday and one volunteer day.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, ACCESS, AND INCLUSION

Chicago Humanities is committed to providing a diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive workplace where all employees and volunteers, whatever their gender, race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education, or disability, feel valued and respected. We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal employment and advancement opportunities in our departments, programs, and policies. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard.

TO APPLY

Please submit your application here, including resume and cover letter (please submit as PDFs). Applications are due by Friday, January 16, 2026.

If you need any accommodations completing this application, please email our Associate Director of People and Culture, John Rooney at jrooney@chicagohumanities.org.

Candidates who are selected for an interview will be notified via email. No phone calls, please. We look forward to reviewing your materials.