Cultural attraction security officer job description
A museum, zoo or garden security officer protects guests, staff and the collection: paintings, artifacts, rare plants or live animals. They patrol a set route, answer alarms and lead lost child searches. They are often first to medical calls, and they lock every door and gate at night.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, museums, zoos and gardens · BLS, May 2025
Our Security Officers protect guests, staff, and the [animals, artifacts, or plant collections]. You patrol the site, watch cameras, respond to alarms and incidents, help reunite lost children with their adults, and lock up at night. You are often the first responder on scene until EMS or police arrive.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Patrol galleries, grounds, parking lots, and back-of-house areas on a set route.
Monitor cameras, intrusion alarms, and fire panels, and respond to every alarm.
Lead the lost child search: cover the exits, search assigned zones, and reunite the child only with a verified adult.
Respond to medical calls, falls, and disturbances; give first aid; calm conflicts with words; and call EMS or police when needed.
Enforce rules that protect the collection, such as no touching objects, no feeding animals, and [bag or tripod policies].
Open and lock up the site, check every door, gate, and [animal or collection area], and clear the grounds at closing.
Write clear incident reports before the end of each shift.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Unlock gates and buildings and check alarms before staff and guests arrive.
Run patrol rounds and log each checkpoint.
Help with crowds at school arrival, peak hours, and events.
Escort contractors, cash pickups, or [object moves] as assigned.
Clear the site at closing, set alarms, and brief the next shift.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Patrol rounds completed on schedule: [your target].
Incident reports filed by end of shift: [your target].
Time to reunite lost children with their adults: [your target].
Alarm response time: [your target].
Closing checks completed: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
High school diploma or equivalent.
Security guard license where your state requires one.
First Aid, CPR, and AED certification, or willing to earn it in training.
Clear writing for incident reports.
Calm, respectful communication with guests during tense moments.
Clears a criminal background check, as your policy and state law require.
6. Preferred Experience
Security experience at a museum, venue, school, or hospital.
Experience with camera, access control, and alarm systems.
De-escalation training.
Emergency medical responder or EMT training.
7. Physical Requirements
Walk and stand for most of an [8]-hour shift, including stairs and outdoor paths.
Move quickly to emergencies anywhere on site.
Patrol outdoors at night and in bad weather.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Full-time and part-time shifts covering days, nights, weekends, and holidays.
Uniform and radio provided.
Overnight shifts where the site has [24/7] coverage.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new security officer gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
What makes security different at a cultural attraction
Every security officer patrols, answers alarms and writes reports. At a nonprofit or public site, the officer also protects objects and living collections no one can buy again and, at a zoo, guests standing a few feet from wild animals.
The collection can't be replaced
An old master drawing, a dinosaur bone or a rare orchid is one of a kind. The American Alliance of Museums' core standards call for appropriate measures to keep people, collections and buildings safe and secure. In the galleries that means enforcing no-touch and bag rules politely and watching for tripods where you ban them. Behind the scenes, officers escort contractors and object moves. Source: American Alliance of Museums: Core standards for museums.
Guests may feed animals only where you allow it
USDA rules for licensed animal exhibitors say that if the public may feed animals at all, the food has to come from the facility. Exhibits also need enough distance or a barrier to keep animals and viewers safe. Officers stop guests who toss snacks, climb rails or reach into exhibits. They radio the keepers as soon as an animal or a fence looks wrong. Source: 9 CFR 2.131: Handling of animals (Cornell LII).
Lost child searches start at the exits
The template has officers cover the exits first, then search their assigned zones. On a site with several gates and a big parking lot, that order matters more than speed. The reunion happens only after the adult's identity is confirmed, and the officer writes up the search before going off shift.
Acres to clear at closing
Closing a zoo or garden means sweeping paths, restrooms, picnic areas and parking lots for guests left behind. Then officers check every door, gate and service entrance, including keeper and collection areas, before alarms are set. Write the sweep route down and have officers log each checkpoint as they go.
First on scene for medical calls
Officers are often the first to reach a guest who fell on a path, fainted in a long line or reacted to something at the cafe. They give first aid within their training, guide EMS in through the service roads, and keep the crowd back until the ambulance leaves.
How much cultural attraction security officers make
The closest BLS group for cultural attraction security officers is security guards. Security guards who work for museums, zoos, gardens, and historic sites earned a median of $18.51 an hour ($38,500 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $38,020 median for security guards in all industries. About 6,130 of the 1,283,470 security guards in that survey work for museums, zoos and gardens.
Hourly; some sites pay more for overnight shifts. Officers placed by a contract guard company are paid by that company, not by the attraction.
Museums, zoos and gardens
$38,500$38,500 median Middle half $34,740–$45,850 10th–90th $31,380–$49,150
All industries
$38,020$38,020 median Middle half $35,210–$46,200 10th–90th $30,210–$58,840
$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Museums, zoos and gardens
$31,380
$34,740
$38,500
$45,850
$49,150
All industries
$30,210
$35,210
$38,020
$46,200
$58,840
BLS groups museums, zoos, botanical gardens and historic sites together. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Enforces no-touch, bag and barrier rules without embarrassing the guest
Writes reports someone else can act on the next morning
Gets to an emergency anywhere on site and gives a clear location by radio
Stays calm with a lost child's parent, an injured guest or a heated argument at the gate
Meets any guard license your state requires
Teach these on the job
Your patrol route, checkpoints and closing sweep
The fire panel, intrusion alarms and camera system
Which doors lead to animal or collection areas, and who may use them
Your animal emergency codes and where officers stand during one
CPR, AED and First Aid, if you run the class
Officers carry radios and work from a camera system, intrusion and fire alarm panels, door access software and a guard tour system that logs each checkpoint. A new officer picks up the software in a few shifts; knowing which service gate the keepers use at dawn or where the art storage door is takes walking the site with a senior officer.
Cultural attraction security officer interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Use your own post orders and incident logs to pick the targets, and look at nights and event days on their own.
Patrol rounds completed on schedule
Pull the guard tour log each week and mark rounds that started late or skipped a checkpoint. Separate the ones an incident interrupted from the ones that simply slipped.
Incident reports filed by end of shift
Each morning, check yesterday's dispatch log against the reports filed. A call that still had no report when the officer's shift ended counts as a miss.
Time to reunite lost children with their adults
Log the time of the first radio call and the time of the reunion for every lost child. Review the slow ones to see which exit or zone was covered late.
Alarm response time
From the alarm panel or dispatch log, measure the minutes from alarm to officer on scene. Look at collection and animal-area alarms apart from routine fire panel trouble signals.
Closing checks completed
Use a closing checklist of every door, gate and animal or collection area, signed with times. Spot-check a few at random the next morning before staff arrive.
Does a museum or zoo security officer need a license?
Often, and the rules vary by state. BLS says most states license security guards, with requirements that differ from state to state. New York requires everyone doing security guard work to register. Its training rules: an 8-hour course before the first assignment, 16 hours of on-the-job training within 90 days, and 8 hours of in-service training each year. California has a separate registration for unarmed in-house officers. Check your state's licensing agency before you post the job.
How much does a cultural attraction security officer make?
Security guards who work for museums, zoos, gardens, and historic sites earned a median of $18.51 an hour ($38,500 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $34,740 and $45,850 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
What does a background check for a security officer involve?
If a screening company runs it, the federal FCRA applies. First, hand the applicant a separate written disclosure and have them sign their permission. Before rejecting someone over what the report shows, give them a copy of it and the federal summary of their FCRA rights. That gives them a chance to explain or correct it. If you still say no, send a final notice. Some states and cities also limit how employers use background reports, so check yours. Where the state licenses guards, it may run its own check too.
Do security officers handle an escaped animal?
Plan for officers to handle people, not the animal. Trained animal staff deal with the animal under your emergency plan. Officers move guests indoors or away from the area, close gates, keep the radio channel clear, and guide the response team in. Drill it with the animal team so each officer knows their post before it's real.
How is security different from guest services at a museum or zoo?
Guest services answers questions, runs rentals and helps people enjoy the visit. Security owns alarms, patrols, rule enforcement, the closing sweep and the first response to medical calls and conflicts. Both work lost child calls: guest services stays with the child, and security covers the exits and searches.
