Chief of Guest Engagement & Revenue Optimization

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Minnesota Zoological Gardens

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Created by the State of Minnesota, the Minnesota Zoo opened in 1978 with a mission to connect people, animals, and the natural world to save wildlife. Cutting-edge exhibits provide exciting experiences with animals and their habitats introducing guests to species from around the globe. Education programs engage audiences at the Zoo, throughout the region, and around world. Conservation programs protect endangered species and preserve critical ecosystems.

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Chief of Guest Engagement & Revenue Optimization

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This position is responsible for driving an exceptional, modern, and mission-centered guest experience at the Minnesota Zoo while maximizing revenue generated through admissions, membership, events, educational programming, and third-party food, beverage, and retail operations. This position serves on the Director's Advisory Team as a principal advisor and strategist for guest engagement, revenue generation, educational program creation and delivery, brand position, and go-to-market strategy. This position plans, directs, and implements strategies to generate statewide, national, and international engagement with the Zoo's educational and conservation mission.

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This position supports operations across a large campus environment and requires the employee to travel between multiple buildings and work sites located throughout the campus to perform assigned duties and respond to operational needs. The incumbent must be able to travel between campus locations in a timely and reliable manner to carry out essential job functions. When job duties require the operation of a motor vehicle to access work sites, transport equipment, or respond to service needs, the employee must be able to safely operate a vehicle and possess a valid and unrestricted driver's license.

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Job responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

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• Direct and manage the division staffing in accordance with applicable policies, procedures, and labor contracts to ensure a high-performing division structured for scalability, cross-functional collaboration, and long-term sustainability.

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• Establish and direct a comprehensive guest experience strategy across all guest-facing departments to ensure experiences are mission-aligned, financially sustainable, operationally excellent, and responsive to public accountability standards.

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• Establish and direct the Zoo's earned revenue strategy to maximize revenue generated through admissions, membership, events and educational programming, and third-party food, beverage, and retail operations.

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• Provide executive leadership for the creation, delivery, and evaluation of educational programming aligned with conservation priorities and financial sustainability.

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• Provide executive oversight of major third-party partners including retail, food, and beverage operations and other service delivery partners.

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• Serve as a key member of the Director's Advisory Team to develop and lead Zoo-wide strategies and policies and to ensure management decisions and actions are aligned with state values and the priorities of the Director and Deputy Director.

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Qualifications

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The following qualifications are required of all applicants seeking consideration for this position. Only applicants whose application materials clearly demonstrate fulfillment of each of these minimum qualifications will be considered for the position. To ensure accurate evaluation, your resume must clearly describe your experience in the required areas. For each job, include whether it was full-time, part-time, or intermittent/on-call; how many hours per week you worked; and the month and year you started and ended.

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Minimum Qualifications

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• Ten (10) years of progressive leadership experience in guest engagement and revenue operations, commercial strategy, within a complex, public and mission-driven organization with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.

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• Demonstrated leadership experience must include time as an executive leader.

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• Total demonstrated leadership experience may include experience as a manager, supervisor, or team/project lead.

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• Master's degree may substitute for 18 months of experience; Bachelor's degree may substitute for one year of experience; Associate's degree may substitute for six months of experience.

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• Demonstrated experience managing $10M+ in earned revenue, including revenue forecasting, pricing strategy, budgeting and financial performance management.

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• Ability to create and communicate division level strategy, a roadmap to achieve the vision and experience with effectively managing and/or leading diverse partners or constituent groups through change.

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• Experience leading and developing leaders, fostering accountability and collaboration, and translating organizational strategy into measurable results.

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• Experience using customer-centered approaches or community feedback, knowledge and perspectives to improve organizational strategies, decisions, operations and services

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• Experience overseeing third-party vendor contracts and performance-based agreements.

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• Valid driver's license.

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Preferred Qualifications

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• Bachelor's or Master's degree in hospitality, business, communications, education, or related field.

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• Experience in zoological, aquarium, museum, comparable attraction, or retail leadership.

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• Experience leading projects from planning through implementation while meeting established timelines and objectives, and maintaining operational excellence.

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• Experience establishing ongoing feedback structures with customers or community to inform organizational strategies and decisions.

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• Experience creating and managing large-scale ticketed events.

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• Advanced proficiency with POS, CRM, ticketing, and analytics systems.

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• Fluency in a second language such as Spanish, Hmong, or ASL.

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How to Apply

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Apply online by Thursday, September 10, 2026

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Apply online here

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Minnesota Zoological Gardens

13000 Zoo Boulevard

Apple Valley, MN 55124

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Visit our website

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@mnzoo

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