Chief Operations Officer

Chief Operations Officer

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights

Location: Atlanta, GA
Work Arrangement: Hybrid; 3–4 days per week in person
Salary: $175,000–$200,000

 

The Organization

 

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is a museum and cultural institution dedicated to advancing civil and human rights through exhibitions, education, dialogue, and civic engagement.

 

Located in downtown Atlanta, the birthplace of the civil rights movement, the Center connects the history of civil rights in America to today's global human rights challenges, inviting visitors to understand their own role in shaping a more just future.

 

After a $58.7 million expansion, including two new wings, the Center reopened in November 2025 with six new galleries, one updated gallery, a café, and 50% more programming and event rental space. The expansion substantially increased the Center's physical footprint, programming capacity, and potential reach.

 

The next challenge is to translate those assets into sustained audience growth, earned revenue, exceptional visitor experiences, and stronger institutional performance.

 

As the Center enters its next chapter, we are seeking an entrepreneurial, analytical, and experienced Chief Operations Officer (COO) to lead this work.

 

The Position

 

The Chief Operations Officer (COO) is responsible for translating the Center’s vision and strategy into an integrated operating plan that drives admissions, earned revenue, audience engagement, and organizational performance.

 

The COO serves as the organization's chief integrator. Reporting directly to the President & CEO, the COO provides executive leadership for the Center's visitor-facing operations and aligns Education, Exhibitions, Public Programming, Visitor Experience, Admissions, Membership, and Group Sales around a coherent audience strategy.

 

The COO owns the Center's attendance and visitor-related revenue goals and uses data and audience insights to drive decisions and accountability.

 

This is a hands-on leadership role. A successful candidate will be equally comfortable developing an institutional strategy, examining a sales pipeline or attendance dashboard, working with staff to solve an operating problem, and holding teams accountable for results.

 

The COO partners closely with the:

 

• Chief Administrative Officer, who oversees finance and budget, event space rental, facilities, security, and administrative operations.

• Chief Marketing Officer, who leads brand, communications, and marketing execution.

• Chief Development Officer, who leads fundraising and resource development.

• President & CEO, who leads institutional strategy, external affairs, and overall organizational direction.

 

Key Responsibilities

 

Strategy & Organizational Performance

 

• Translate strategic priorities into operational plans with clear ownership, timelines, measures of success, and accountability across departments.

• Ensure staff in Education, Exhibitions, Visitor Experience, Programming, Admissions, Membership, and Group Sales operate together to ensure an integrated audience development strategy.

• Partner closely with the Chief Marketing Officer to translate attendance goals and audience priorities into marketing plans.

• Monitor organizational performance against objectives and recommend course corrections as needed.

• Lead cross-functional initiatives that require coordination among multiple departments and oversee project management for major institutional initiatives.

 

Attendance Growth & Revenue Strategy

 

• Develop and execute strategies to significantly increase annual admissions-related earned revenue.

• Lead initiatives that drive individual and group admissions, memberships, educational visits, and attendance at engaging public events.

• Build a high-performing admissions and sales culture with clear pipelines, targets, ownership, and accountability.

• Develop and continually refine pricing, packaging, promotions, and audience-conversion strategies.

 

Programming & Audience Development

 

• Lead the development of public programs, signature events, and seasonal offerings that advance the mission while attracting and engaging audiences.

• Ensure that education programs and resources effectively serve schools, teachers, students, and other priority audiences.

• Partner on exhibition planning to ensure that audience, operational, financial, and visitor-experience considerations inform exhibition development and maintenance.

 

Note: The Center has a Director of Curation; the COO is not a curatorial role.

 

Data, Analytics & Business Intelligence

 

• Develop and oversee the Center's enterprise approach to data, analytics, and organizational performance.

• Ensure data integrity and consistent reporting across departments.

• Establish key performance indicators across attendance, earned revenue, visitor experience, and education, and ensure data systems provide an integrated picture of organizational performance, with consistent and reliable reporting across departments.

• Use audience research, segmentation, and performance data to identify opportunities and diagnose underperformance.

• Foster a culture where decisions are informed by evidence, visitor insights, and measurable outcomes.

 

Partnerships & External Engagement

 

• Ensure the team builds strategic relationships with schools, universities, tourism organizations, corporations, hotels, convention and hospitality partners, nonprofit organizations, and community institutions.

• Represent the Center with civic leaders, business partners, and key stakeholders.

• Identify partnerships and new opportunities for collaborations that increase awareness of the Center’s offerings, attendance, and earned revenue.

 

Leadership & Team Development

 

• Build, motivate, and develop high-performing, cohesive teams.

• Set clear expectations and hold staff accountable for measurable results.

• Assess organizational capabilities and strengthen teams where necessary.

• Coach and develop staff while addressing underperformance directly and promptly.

• Recruit excellent talent and build the systems and culture necessary for that talent to succeed.

• Model collaboration, urgency, sound judgment, and disciplined execution.

• Be visible and engaged in the day-to-day life of the Center, including regular interaction with visitor-facing staff and operations.

 

Qualifications

 

• 10+ years of progressive executive leadership experience.

• Demonstrated success increasing attendance, visitors, or consumer engagement in a museum, cultural institution, attraction, performing arts venue, or comparable consumer-facing enterprise.

• Proven experience leading revenue-generating teams.

• Keen understanding of earned income for nonprofit organizations.

• Strong financial and operational management skills.

• Experience leading complex organizations through change and growth.

• Excellent leadership, communication, and relationship-building skills.

• Experience using data and analytics to drive strategic decision-making.

• Experience measuring impact using key performance indicators (KPIs) and standard operating procedures (SOPs).

• Passion for civil and human rights and a commitment to creating a welcoming environment for staff and visitors.

 

The Ideal Candidate

 

The ideal candidate is:

 

• Mission-driven and commercially minded.

• Entrepreneurial and innovative.

• Decisive and highly accountable.

• Collaborative.

• Comfortable using data to make decisions.

• Experienced in building high-performing teams.

 

Work Environment

 

This is a hybrid position with in-person requirements of 3–4 days per week.

 

Compensation & Benefits

 

The salary range for this role is $175,000–$200,000.

 

Benefits include:

 

• Medical

• Dental

• Vision

• Disability

• Life Insurance

• FSA

• HSA

• Voluntary Benefits

• 401(k)

• Paid Holidays & Paid Leave

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

 

How to Apply

 

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is partnering with DRG on this search.

 

Sherry Ettleson
Principal
settleson@drgconsulting.com

 

Interested candidates should submit an application through DRG. All applicants will receive an email confirming receipt of their application.

 

Candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply even if they do not meet all of the qualifications outlined above. Candidates selected to move forward for an initial screening call are expected to hear from the search team by the end of October.

 

Recruitment Fraud Notice: DRG is the exclusive partner for this search. Legitimate communications will come directly from DRG using @drgconsulting.com email addresses or their LinkedIn profiles. If you are unsure whether a communication is authentic, please contact the consultant listed in this posting.