It is both an honor and an enormous responsibility to work for the American people stewarding one of the world’s largest museum collections. The Department of the Interior’s museum community is a small, dedicated community looking after a huge collection. From entry level to career professionals and specialists, museum careers with DOI offer a wide range of working environments, experience with diverse collections, and support for professional development.  

With positions all over the country, from Guam to Alaska to the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Department of the Interior has many exciting places to grow your museum career. 

Did you know that the Department of the Interior employs more than 60,000 people? Explore museum careers and many of the 300 other career fields available at DOI.

How do I find museum jobs?

Of the 60,000+ jobs in the Department of the Interior, there are just a few hundred museum jobs. However, there are many other jobs  that have museum collection responsibilities too. You don't have to be a curator to work with museum collections. There are also many other jobs that have museum responsibilities such as park rangers, geologists,  archaeologists, biologists, and many more. All employment opportunities are posted on USAJOBS.

We list all museum jobs on USAJOBS. The best way to search is to search by job title and/or job series. For example, search for "curator" or job series "1015."

• What's a job series? All federal jobs are organized by job functions and functions are grouped into series and given a four digit number 

The career ladder in the museum program begins with entry-level positions and extends to senior program administrators, from GS-2 through GS-15. Museum jobs follow the General Schedule pay scale.

What do curators do?

Good question! With positions all over the country, you might expect to find great differences from place to place. It's true, no two sites are completely alike, but the responsibilities and mission of museum workers is the same. Museum curators work to preserve the diverse museum collections of this country and to facilitate their access and use for research, exhibitions, and public enjoyment. 

What are the types of museum jobs?

The most common museum jobs are museum curators and museum technicians, followed by archivists and archives technicians.

1. Museum Curator
2. Museum Specialist and Technician
3. Archivist
4. Archivist Technician 

• Tip: If conservation is your field, there are also few positions in conservation. When an opening is advertised, you will find it called "General arts and information."

 FYI- “Exhibit Specialist” sounds like a museum job, and some exhibit specialists  have museum responsibilities, but often it is a technical position in historic preservation.

Internships

Why not test drive a career path? If you are a student, recent graduate, or beginning a new career in museums, internships offer a great way to explore a DOI career and share your passion for museum collections. Many youth programs are also open to veterans and entry-level professionals and some internship programs also recruit nationally. Contact your local site for more information.

Interior Museum Program

Here at the Interior Museum Program, we offer paid, policy-based internships through National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE). The Interior Museum typically has one internship available during the academic year application cycle.

Bureaus and Offices

You can find many more opportunities in our bureaus and offices like the Interior Museum, Bureau of Land Management,  National Park Service, and more. Internships are available year-round located across the country, and advertised both locally and nationally.

Many bureaus list internships working with museum collections through public land corps partners:

• American Conservation Experience
• Student Conservation Association
• Many State and local conservation associations

The Public Land Corps is a work and education program for young people and veterans. Internships with Public Lands Corps offer many benefits. For more information on see Personnel Bulletin 21-09 

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