Director of Operations – New Museum Openings

MUSEUM OF ICE CREAM

Director of Operations overseeing new museum openings at Museum of Ice Cream. Managing operations from lease signing to stabilization of new locations.

Posted 6/13/2026full-timeNew York City • California, Florida, Nevada, New York • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $160,000 - $180,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Museum of Ice Cream is looking for a Director of Operations, New Museum Openings to lead how we bring new locations to life — from the moment a lease is signed, through design and build, into opening day and stabilization.
This is a hands-on operator role with strong systems orientation. You bring multi-site openings experience and a working knowledge of design, construction, and development, and you partner with those teams from the earliest planning stages to ensure operational considerations are reflected in the build.
You own the opening playbook end to end — readiness, training, SOPs, soft launch, and go-live — and you hand off cleanly to our Regional Directors of Operations, who carry the business forward into steady-state operations.
At your core, you love what this work is for. You believe in play, in human connection, and in hospitality as a craft. You understand that what we build is not just a space — it is the stage for joy, wonder, and connection to show up every day.
You take pride in handing over a new museum that is ready on day one — staffed, trained, stocked, safe, and operationally sound — and in turning every lesson learned into a stronger playbook for the next opening.
You are equally passionate about systems, processes, and training, and you lead through ambiguity, pressure, and the complexity of an opening period with calm and focus.
You will lead the full opening lifecycle of every new MOIC location — from design-phase partnership through pre-opening readiness, into soft launch, go-live, and stabilization. You will align Development, Design, Construction, Facilities, Supply Chain, People, Training, Marketing, Ticketing, and Finance to deliver openings that are on time, on brand, and operationally ready.
You will build and evolve the playbook that makes each opening better than the last and hand each new location off cleanly to the Regional Director of Operations who will carry the business forward.

Requirements

What you’ll need

7 to 10+ years of operations experience in multi-site hospitality, entertainment, experiential retail, food and beverage, or high-volume guest-facing environments, with proven end-to-end openings experience (multiple openings strongly preferred).
Experience partnering with Development, Design, and Construction teams during the design phase of new locations.
Demonstrated partnership with People, HR, and Talent functions on hiring, onboarding, and training readiness for new sites.
Strong field operations background — you understand how strategy translates into daily execution, with deep working knowledge of staffing, training, guest flow, labor planning, BOH operations, safety, inventory, systems, and site-level readiness.
A genuine love of play, human connection, and hospitality as a craft — you see operational excellence as the foundation for guests to experience joy and wonder, not as an end in itself.
Ability to build clear operating tools, SOPs, launch plans, checklists, and scalable processes, with strong business acumen to assess performance, identify gaps, and drive improvement.
Calm, hands-on leadership in ambiguity and pressure, with strong written and verbal communication, organization, follow-through, and stakeholder management.
High ownership mindset with a strong bias toward action and accountability.
Ability to travel up to 70%, with surge to 85%+ during active opening windows. Temporary relocation may be required during opening periods.
**Nice-to-Haves:**
F&B operations background; experience opening experiential, attractions, or multi-unit consumer brand locations;
Bilingual Spanish
Tools: Slack, Google Suite, and ADP
A love of ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Benefits

Comp & perks

50% off retail products
401(k)
Dental insurance
Health insurance
Vision insurance
Paid time off
Ability to advance within the organization
Stock options
PTO

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

operations managementmulti-site openingsdesign and construction knowledgestaffing and trainingguest flow managementlabor planninginventory managementSOP developmentperformance assessmentprocess improvement

Soft Skills

leadershipcommunicationorganizationstakeholder managementcalm under pressureownership mindsetbias toward actionadaptabilityteam collaborationproblem-solving