Careers

The Seattle Aquarium is much, much more than the exhibits, animals, activities and experiences that bring hundreds of thousands of people to our facility each year—our passionate staff members are a key element of what sets us apart. We're firmly committed to hiring highly skilled, talented and motivated people who genuinely want to contribute to our shared success. We seek out employees who lead by example, acting with truth, sincerity and fairness in all decisions. We have a positive, visionary view of our organization and its future, and hope you will join in our commitment to our mission, service and quality.

The Seattle Aquarium is a progressive, equal-opportunity employer that values a diverse workforce. As we move forward, we are committed to making the Aquarium a diverse, inclusive and welcoming space for our staff, partners, audiences and community as a whole.

 

Current openings

Our S.A.L.I.S.H. Values

Sustainable

Adopting and promoting, internally and externally, practices that improve ocean health.

Awe inspiring

Creating captivating experience for all audiences.

Learning & improving

Fostering, evaluating and applying knowledge and discovery.

Inclusive community

Recognizing that diversity is critical to achieve our mission.

Scientific Integrity

Ensuring our credibility with evidence-based practices.

Honoring place

Using our location and history as a lens for larger understanding.

What Sets Us Apart

Seattle Aquarium volunteers
Culture

The Seattle Aquarium works to ensure that we are inclusive and welcoming to all segments of the community. We strive to have our audience reflect the diversity of our region, including underserved populations and groups, and have developed inclusive outreach and community engagement/action programs to help us toward that goal.

 

Historic photo of Pier 59
History

The Seattle Aquarium is the ninth largest aquarium in the U.S. by attendance and among the top five paid visitor attractions in the Puget Sound region. Since our opening, we’ve hosted over 22 million visitors and provided marine conservation education to over 1.6 million school children. We’re proud to be accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Seattle Aquarium employees preparing to dive
Conservation

The Seattle Aquarium aims to be a leader in conservation and education, defining the role of a great Aquarium in the 21st century as a catalyst for public engagement. Our focus is on making an impact: through our programs, partnerships, outreach efforts and more—helping people learn to love Puget Sound and Earth’s one big ocean, while galvanizing them to take action to protect these precious resources.

Seattle Aquarium volunteers

Great Benefits

We are invested in providing high-quality, comprehensive benefits and understand their importance for you and your family. Full-time staff enjoy the following benefits:

  • Medical*, vision* and dental coverage
  • An employer-funded health reimbursement account*
  • Access to medical- and dependent-care flexible spending accounts*
  • Basic life insurance
  • Short- and long-term disability
  • Access to voluntary life insurance
  • 403b retirement plan with employer matching funds*
  • Subsidized ORCA pass*
  • Family Plus membership*
  • Participation in annual variable pay program*
  • Generous paid time off

*Part-time staff are eligible for these benefits.

Current Openings

Deputy director of philanthropy operations

The Seattle Aquarium’s deputy director of philanthropy operations is a senior member of the philanthropy team with overall reporting responsibility to the vice president of philanthropy. This is the number-two position in the department and responsible for internal day-to-day management, supervising annual fundraising activities and infrastructure, which include the annual fund, operating and programmatic gifts and grants, corporate relations, planned giving, database management, reporting, philanthropy operations administration and policies, and philanthropy operating budget and forecasting.

For more information and to apply, click here.
Posting expires: Open until filled.

Human Resources Assistant

The human resources assistant reports to the director of human resources and supports the administration of the day-to-day operations of the human resources department. The HR assistant helps with the implementation of HR services, policies and programs in collaboration with the HR team members, and contributes to the organization and culture by seeking to make the Aquarium and our programs more welcoming and inclusive for all.

For more information and to apply, click here.
Posting expires: Open until filled.

On-Site School Programs Coordinator

The Seattle Aquarium is searching for an on-site school programs coordinator to lead the daily operations and development of on-site school programs for the preK-college audience within the School and Public Programs (SPP) department. The coordinator will work with the school and public programs manager to oversee staff while instructing in the classroom, ensure the ongoing excellence of school programs, and develop new classroom programming and self-guided materials as needed. The Seattle Aquarium aims to engage all people and communities that live and work along the shores and in the watersheds of Puget Sound to meet our mission of Inspiring Conservation of Our Marine Environment, with an understanding that “our” means everyone’s marine environment. This is particularly important because environmental degradation disproportionately affects communities of color and low-income communities, and because environmental challenges will not be solved without bringing to bear the knowledge, skills and diverse views of the entire human community.

For more information and to apply, click here.
Posting expires: Open until filled.

Principal evaluator

The Seattle Aquarium is looking for a principal evaluator (PE) to join the conservation engagement and learning team. The PE will work with the director of conservation engagement and learning to create and foster an evaluation culture at the Aquarium, where staff regularly use evaluation as a tool to improve programs and use evaluative thinking every day to make better decisions. The PE will work with the director and department managers to create and coordinate opportunities for evaluation capacity-building within conservation engagement and learning department staff with an eye toward developing evaluative thinking skills. The PE will plan and conduct internal evaluation projects for new and existing programs, including developing evaluation plans, coordinating data collection and interpretation, and report writing. The PE will also serve as a primary point of contact for external evaluators working with conservation engagement and learning department programs. Finally, the PE will work with the director to develop and implement the Aquarium’s social science research agenda and serve as the primary point of contact and coordination for external research projects that have requested the Seattle Aquarium’s participation.

For more information and to apply, click here.
Posting expires: Open until filled.

Senior Marine Science Educator - School Outreach

The Aquarium is looking for a senior marine science educator focused on school outreach to join the school and public programs (SPP) team. This position requires an implementer and schedule planner who will work to support curriculum development for all programs offered for the kindergarten through high school audiences within the school outreach team. There will also be occasional opportunities to work with other programs on the SPP team. The senior educator will work with the school outreach programs coordinator to lead and support staff while instructing programs in local schools and at local field sites, ensure the ongoing excellence of SPP programs, assist with the development of new programming, and assist with the scheduling of staff and resources as needed. We view this work through an equity lens, with the goals of removing barriers where they exist for members of the community to meaningfully engage with the Aquarium; to foster authentic, mutual relationships between the Aquarium and the community; and to bring diverse audiences together to achieve our mission. This work supports our strategic plan goal of inspiring conservation and making the Aquarium and its programs accessible and welcoming to all.

For more information and to apply, click here.
Posting expires: Open until filled.

Seattle Aquarium employee performing enrichment activities with harbor seal
College Internship Program

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