Career Opportunity

Museum Registrar (3556) - Fine Arts Museums

Recruitment: RTF0166083-01122492

Published: June 12, 2026

Apply using SmartRecruiters, the City and County of San Francisco's application portal.

About:

This is a Position-Based Test conducted in accordance with CSC Rule 111A.

Application Opening - Friday, June 12, 2026

Application Deadline - Friday, July 3, 2026 at 11:59 PM PST

Compensation as of January 3, 2026: $83,460 to $101,556 Annually

Working at FAMSF: 

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) are the city's largest public arts institutions and are comprised of the de Young and the Legion of Honor museums. The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international contemporary art, textiles and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa. The Legion of Honor displays a collection of over 4,000 years of ancient and European art and houses the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in a Beaux-Arts style building overlooking Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Bridge. The staff, the Board of Trustees, the volunteers, and various support groups are continuously working together to ensure the optimal utilization, display, preservation, and enrichment of this magnificent collection. The Fine Arts Museums believe that each employee contributes directly to the Museums' growth and success, and upholds the Museums' mission to make art accessible to the large and diverse Bay Area audience.

We Value Equal Employment Opportunity! 

FAMSF connects art, people and ideas. Echoing the inclusive values of our region, we warmly welcome people of all backgrounds, connecting them to each other and to a world of art and ideas through programming that sparks curiosity and dialogue. Between our two museums, you can experience a world of possibilities.

Role description

Under direction, the Museum Registrar is a critical position to the department and the collection operations by performing a wide variety of professional registration duties in support of the museum's collections management and exhibition programs. The Museum Registrar will oversee the intake and processing of all new acquisitions, averaging approximately 800 objects annually. This position also manages all registration aspects of the institution's deaccessioning process.

Essential Duties:

The essential duties and responsibilities of this position include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Receives, inspects, accessions, documents, labels and catalogs objects acquired for collections and/or exhibitions; makes notes and/or comments on condition reports; oversees deaccession procedures in compliance with collection management policies.
2. Oversees the movement, exhibition, storage, and disposition of art objects in order to guarantee security of the collections, including coordination with conservators, preparators, designers, curators and photographers.
3. Facilitates care and security of collections of art and artifacts on site; coordinates with conservators regarding the conditions necessary to store objects in a seismically safe, temperate place; controls art storage area; oversees object movement, internal and external; conducts periodic inventories of collection areas; maintains storage records and shelf lists.
4. Arranges for insurance on permanent collection, outgoing or incoming loans, including executing applications for federal indemnification of international exhibitions, maintaining insurance coverage and computing premiums when due, and processing liability and damage claims.
5. Prepares agreements and arrangements for outgoing and incoming loans, special exhibitions or permanent installation of objects, including contractual arrangements, loan agreement forms, exhibition contracts, condition reports, facility reports, supplying photographs, cataloging information, and other documents related to collections management.
6. Makes shipping arrangements for incoming and outgoing objects; inspects objects and checks condition reports, making notes as needed; coordinates the packing, crating and couriering of objects; establishes the date and method of shipping items. Works collaboratively with museum staff including curators, conservators, preparators, and packers, as well as representatives of other museums and outside art handling personnel such as airline personnel and cargo handlers in coordinating, scheduling, and monitoring the safe and legal movement of objects.
7. Researches and provides accurate information to museum administrators, staff and board members, representatives of other museums and the general public regarding loans, special collections, catalog information, packing, shipping, and insurance; promotes compliance with federal, state, and local laws relating to art collections management.
8. Serves as a courier accompanying valuable objects of art in transit as required. Accompanies art to offsite storage or airport cargo facility, oversees containerization and security; coordinates with customs broker; travels with art; supervises loading and unloading of crates at airport, borrowing museum and other venues. May oversee installation of objects at borrowing museums.
9. May prepare and manage special project budgets as required.
10. May train and supervise the work of subordinate personnel such as associate or assistant registrars, interns, and volunteers when required.
11. May check exhibitions to ensure environmental standards and security.
12. Performs related duties as required.

How to qualify

Minimum Qualifications:

1. Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university in art, art history, museum studies, arts administration or a closely related field and four years of verifiable museum registration experience; OR

2. Possession of a master's degree from an accredited college or university in art, art history, museum studies, arts administration or a closely related postgraduate program and two years of verifiable museum registration experience. AND

3. Computer literacy in word processing, database management and a computerized registration system.

Applicants must meet the minimum qualification requirement by the filing date unless otherwise noted.

One year of full-time employment is equivalent to 2,000 hours. (2,000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a 40-hour work week). Any overtime hours that you work above forty (40) hours per week are not included in the calculation to determine full-time employment.

Desirable Qualifications:

The stated desirable qualifications may be used to identify job finalists at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred to hiring.

1. Knowledge of and diversified experience with museum registration methods and techniques particularly as they relate to accessioning and deaccessioning.
2. Ability to work effectively with a variety of donors, vendors, international and domestic institutions.
3. Thorough knowledge of and efficient mastery of software and databases, including applications such as Microsoft Office and collections management database systems. 
4. Familiarity with customs restrictions, provenance and repatriation issues, and pertinent fine arts insurance practices.
5. Familiarity with basic conservation concepts, procedures, and terms. Skill and awareness in regard to the sensitive handling of works of art, including current best practices in packing, crating, and transportation of objects. 
6. Demonstrated organizational skills and knowledge of pertinent office and administrative procedures, including: basic accounting (A/P, A/R, POs); rigorous collections documentation practices; receipting; organizing and maintaining digital and hard-copy records.
7. Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
8. Extremely high level of accuracy and attention to detail; commitment to efficiency and effectiveness of systems and schedules.
9. Ability to work well under pressure and with conflicting demands.
10. Ability to efficiently and effectively work on a variety of projects concurrently, with attention to the goals and priorities of the department and the Museums.
11. Ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with colleagues, volunteers, interns, and effectively represent the Museum to outside professionals, lenders, donors, and members of the artistic community.

Verification:

Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at: Verification of Experience and/or Education 

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline may not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application. Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility, disqualification or may lead to lower scores.

What else should I know?

Selection Procedures:

After application submission, candidates deemed qualified must complete all subsequent steps to advance in this selection process, which includes the following:

Supplemental Questionnaire (Weight 100%): Candidates who meet the minimum qualifications will be sent a Supplemental Questionnaire. The Supplemental Questionnaire is designed to measure the knowledge, skills and abilities required for this position. All candidates’ responses to the Supplemental Questionnaire are subject to verification. All relevant experience, education and/or training must be included in the responses in order to be reviewed in the rating process.

A passing score on the Supplemental Questionnaire must be achieved in order to be placed/ranked on the eligible list. Candidates will be placed on the eligible list in rank order according to their final score.

Applicants will be given a deadline. Those who do not respond by the established deadline will not be eligible to continue in the examination process and will not be added to the eligibility list resulting from this process.

Applicants who meet the Minimum Qualifications are not guaranteed advancement through all of the steps in the selection process.

Eligible List/Score Report:

A confidential eligible list of applicant names that have passed the civil service examination process will be created, and used for certification purposes only. An examination score report will be established, so applicants can view the ranks, final scores and number of eligible candidates. Applicant information, including names of applicants on the eligible list, shall not be made public unless required by law. However, an eligible list shall be made available for public inspection, upon request, once the eligible list is exhausted or expired and referrals resolved. The eligible list/score report resulting from this civil service examination process is subject to change after adoption (e.g., as a result of appeals), as directed by the Human Resources Director or the Civil Service Commission.

The duration of the eligible list resulting from this examination process will be six (6) months, and may be extended with the approval of the Human Resources Director.

To find Departments which use this classification, please see the city’s Position Counts by Job Codes and Departments.

Certification:

The certification rule for the eligible list resulting from this examination will be Rule of Ten. The hiring department may administer additional position-specific selection procedures prior to making final hiring decisions.

Terms of Announcement and Appeal Rights:

Applicants must be guided solely by the provisions of this announcement, including requirements, time periods and other particulars, except when superseded by federal, state or local laws, rules or regulations. Clerical errors may be corrected by the posting the correction on the Department of Human Resources website at https://careers.sf.gov/.

The terms of this announcement may be appealed under Civil Service Rule 111A.35.1. The standard for the review of such appeals is ‘abuse of discretion’ or ‘no rational basis’ for establishing the position description, the minimum qualifications and/or the certification rule. Appeals must include a written statement of the item(s) being contested and the specific reason(s) why the cited item(s) constitute(s) abuse of discretion by the Human Resources Director. Appeals must be submitted directly to the Executive Officer of the Civil Service Commission within five business days of the announcement issuance date.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco: 

• Information About the Hiring Process

• Conviction History

• Employee Benefits Overview  

• Equal Employment Opportunity 

• Disaster Service Worker

• ADA Accommodation

• Veterans Preference

• Seniority Credit in Promotional Exams

• Right to Work

• Copies of Application Documents

• Diversity Statement

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit https://careers.sf.gov/ and begin the application process.

• Select the “I’m Interested” button and follow instructions on the screen

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email from notification@careers.sf.gov that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

Recruiter Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the Recruiter, Eric Quock, at equock@famsf.org.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.