Guest Associate Jobs in Washington (NOW HIRING)

Guest Services Associates report to Guest Services Manager at The Phillips Collection. Guest Services Associates provide box office, retail, and member services support at the museum's front of house. Guest Services Associates will have a strong record of customer service experience in the hospitality, fundraising and/or retail sectors and will possess excellent communications skills, practiced sales acumen and a familiarity with business systems used for retail, reservations and/or fundraising, in order to welcome, engage and support the needs of diverse audiences and create opportunities for further engagement, fundraising opportunities and increased ticket, membership and shop sales.

Guest Services Associates demonstrate The Phillip Collection's commitment to the principles of diversity, institutional culture, and civic responsibility in their words, actions and attitude. Guest Services Associates seek to foster a welcoming and accessible environment for guests and staff and are positioned to reflect the highest standards of The Phillips Collection to the public.

Membership: The Guest Services Associate serves a vital role in maintaining the museum's membership program, through membership sales and customer service, as well as responsibility for handling all general membership questions and concerns in person and over the phone.

• Staffs the membership desk at the guest admissions entrance in the Goh Annex, delivers top-notch customer service and explains various membership levels, and promotes the benefits of membership and upgrading to higher levels of membership.
• Serves as the primary liaison between visiting members and the Development Office, alerts Major Gift Officers to high-level donors in the museum.
• Responsible for processing onsite membership sales and manages open and close of day process for onsite memberships.
• Promptly responds to member and public inquiries concerning membership, addressing questions and concerns, and resolving issues quickly and efficiently, routing concerns from Major Donors to Major Gift Officers and Members to the Director of Membership.
• Works with Director of Membership to maintain accurate records in the Altru database and other projects as needed.
• Flexible and responsive to changing tasks and priorities as needed by the Membership team.
• Schedule: Flexibility preferred within museum staff hours of 9:30-5:30pm Tue-Sun, with emphasis on weekends. Additional shifts are expected for evening programming, such as Phillips After 5, Third Thursdays (up to two evening shifts a month). Available to work 15-24 hours weekly.

Admissions: The Guest Services Associate sells guest admissions and program tickets and assists in the overall functions of Admissions and Guest Services operations.

• Staffs the admission desk and sells tickets for museum admittance and public programs in person, over the phone, and over the Phillips website.
• Actively greets and orients visitors entering the museum. Addresses guests and general inquiries positively with excellent customer service, ensuring clarity and accuracy.
• Executes accurate daily accounting duties—completing customer transactions, reconciling sales at the end of the day and preparing deposits.
• Acts as a public-facing representative of the museum, remaining informed about its collection, exhibitions, and program offerings.
• Promotes daily programming with guests and looks to create opportunities to provide them with a broader exposure to the museum's history, identity, and offerings.
• Promotes membership sales and upgrades.
• Troubleshoots a variety of membership, ticket reservation and online sales.

Museum Shop: The Guest Services Associate provides sales and cashier support in the Museum Shop, thereby generating revenue for the museum as guests commemorate their visit.

• Opens and/or closes the museum shop.
• Efficiently and accurately performs cash register procedures.
• Utilizes standard loss prevention techniques.
• Acquires the familiarity of products in the shop.
• Promotes the sale of shop merchandise.
• Maintains neat the appearance of the shop.
• Stocks and labels merchandise.
• Promotes membership sales and upgrades.
• Acts as a public-facing representative of the museum, remaining informed about its collection, exhibitions, and program offerings.

Performing other duties as assigned by departmental manager.

• Superior interpersonal communication and previous customer service skills.
• Ability to maintain professional composure and accuracy during heavy visitor traffic.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and attend to multiple customers in a public setting.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills and attention to detail.
• Must be able to collaborate, work with and engage positively with a diverse team and diverse guests/audiences/range of people with diplomacy, and tact.
• Proficient in Windows and Microsoft Office.
• Strong math skills, close attention to detail, and basic accounting acumen.
• Prior experience with fundraising database software (Altru) not required but the ability to learn quickly is key.
• Prior retail experience, including experience with automated POS system, ticketing or events software experience is helpful.
• Must be able to work up to two Thursday evenings (Phillips After 5, Third Thursdays - up to two each month), have some continuous availability for Saturdays or Sundays, and - potentially – for other special events.
• Occasionally lift and carry up to 30 pounds without assistance.
• Ability to stand for extended periods of time.
• Work experience in a museum setting, particularly in a guest services, membership, or retail, is helpful.
• Knowledge of art and merchandising experience is helpful.
• Foreign language skills, a plus.

Target closing date for this position is Friday, May 1st, 2026.

No recruiters, no phone calls, please.

The Phillips Collection is an equal opportunity employer and administers all employment decisions and personnel actions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, genetic disposition or carrier status, marital status, veteran status, personal appearance, gender identity or expression, family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, or any other category protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.