Security Officer - General Interest
About the job
- A high school diploma or GED is required.
- A valid state Security Guard License is preferred.
- Current CPR, First Aid, and AED certification is preferred or must be obtained within 60 days of hire.
- Experience or interest in working in a direct-facing role with the general public and utilizing security technology systems is required.
- Strong observational and problem-solving abilities are required.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills are required.
- The ability to remain calm and professional in stressful or emergency situations is required.
- Comfort using radios, security software, and electronic reporting tools is required.
- Attention to detail and the ability to follow procedures consistently are required.
- A commitment to the Obama Presidential Center mission and an inclusive environment is required.
- The ability to work at the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park and/or other Obama Foundation locations in Chicago is required.
- The ability to stand and walk on foot for extended periods, patrol large areas, and respond quickly to security incidents is required.
- The ability to lift up to 25–50 pounds as needed is required.
- The ability to climb stairs, conduct foot patrols, and operate security equipment is required.
- The ability to work evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays as needed is required.
- The willingness to work outdoors and indoors in varying weather conditions is required.
- Maintain high visibility around the Center while providing a welcoming and respectful presence.
- Ensure the safety of visitors and staff by monitoring behavior, addressing suspicious activities, enforcing security policies and procedures, and providing guidance on safety protocols and emergency procedures, including fire, active shooter, civil unrest, and hazardous materials incidents.
- Monitor and patrol the premises to prevent theft, vandalism, and unauthorized access, and ensure that alarms, surveillance cameras, and other security systems are operational.
- Greet visitors, provide Obama Presidential Center information and directions, screen guests according to security protocols, and manage access points to restricted areas.
- Implement emergency response protocols or responses when necessary.
- Work closely with local law enforcement and emergency services to coordinate responses to security threats or incidents.
- Protect valuable artifacts and exhibits from physical damage and theft.
- Enforce organizational security policies and procedures governing visitor behavior, photography, and exhibit handling.
- Maintain the assigned sector or campus area and work with Visitor Experience staff when applicable to facilitate a welcoming and safe environment.
- Manage and monitor facility access, including issuing and tracking identification badges, controlling entry points, and ensuring authorized access to sensitive areas.
- Provide customer service by greeting guests and answering questions about campus layout and service locations.
- Operate and monitor security cameras and surveillance systems and review footage to deter and investigate suspicious behavior or incidents.
- Participate in training, drills, and certification processes.
- Respond to, document, and report incidents, breaches, accidents, unusual activities, and other security concerns, maintain detailed records, and provide reports to management.
- Assess and evaluate security risks and vulnerabilities and propose measures to mitigate risks and improve the facility's security posture.
- One to two years of prior security, law enforcement, or military experience is preferred.
- Experience with security monitoring systems and incident reporting is a plus.
About the company
The Obama Foundation is a nonprofit organization that aims to inspire, empower, and connect people to drive positive social change in their communities and globally. Its programs focus on education, civic engagement, and community-building, and funds come from fundraising and donations, corporate sponsorships, and merchandise sales. It also accepts donations of securities for tax benefits. The Foundation supports initiatives like the Obama Presidential Center, which will house a museum and public gathering spaces to engage the public. Its clients include individual donors, volunteers, schools, and community groups who participate in its programs and events via its online platforms. The Foundation’s goal is to empower individuals and communities to take action for social change by providing resources, education, and spaces for collaboration.
Company Size
501-1,000
Company Stage
Grant
Total Funding
$108M
Headquarters
Chicago, Illinois
Founded
2014
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- September 2026 community-solar partnership with Reactivate lowers operating costs and broadens local goodwill.
- June 2026 grand opening created strong demand, sold-out reservations, and heavy earned-media reach.
- 2026 programming with Chicago Public Library, youth sports, and forums deepens repeat visitation.
What critics are saying
- September 2026 pricing hit $909 million, exposing continuing capital demands and donor dependence.
- Fox News documented unpaid subcontractor claims and a 2025 discrimination lawsuit around construction.
- If maintenance budgets slip, the campus becomes an expensive monument, not a durable civic engine.
What makes Obama Foundation unique
- June 19, 2026 opening made the Obama Presidential Center a functioning civic campus.
- Its free 19.3-acre campus, library branch, forum, and museum bundle culture with programming.
- Obama's brand still unlocks megadonors like Bezos, Chesky, and the Gates Foundation.
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Benefits
Hybrid Work Options
Flexible Work Hours
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
1%1 year growth
1%2 year growth
0%AV Stumpfl Pixera powers Obama Presidential Center. The Obama Foundation selected Pixera to unify media playback across Chicago's new presidential museum, spanning a multitude of media exhibits and a four-storey immersive projection piece. The Obama Presidential Center opened to the public on 19 June 2026 in Chicago's Jackson Park. The date was chosen deliberately, as Juneteenth is a United States federal holiday that marks the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Following a dedication ceremony attended by dignitaries, the nearly 20-acre campus opened its doors to the general public. The Center rises across eight floors, four of them given over to public museum space, presenting exhibitions that explore the story of President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama through film, interactive displays, and large-scale immersive media. Barack Obama was the first United States president to hold a Twitter account, the first to livestream from the Oval Office on Facebook, and the first to answer questions from the public on YouTube. That relationship with digital technology is a central theme of the museum, where AV Stumpfl Pixera media servers drive 35 distinct systems spanning the full breadth of the exhibition programme. Paul Horst, senior manager of exhibition AV systems at the Obama Foundation, led the AV design and deployment across the museum. With exhibits ranging from individual 4K displays to large multi-projector installations, the team required a media server platform capable of scaling across every use case within a single, managed ecosystem. "We selected Pixera to consolidate our media playback into a unified ecosystem," says Horst. "It provided both the hardware options needed to suit individual exhibit sizes and the comprehensive software required to execute our most ambitious installations." The 35-system installation spans 23 single-display exhibits, seven multi-monitor systems and five multi-projector systems. The multi-monitor configurations include systems of up to 11 displays, each running from a single director server and two client units. The five multi-projector systems range from two-projector blends to the four-storey Power of Words installation. The deployment draws on the full breadth of the Pixera hardware range, with server models matched to the technical requirements of each individual exhibit. Across all systems, the Obama Foundation's AV team built custom web-accessible control interfaces within Pixera Control, making routine operations accessible to technicians without requiring in-depth knowledge of the software. Each interface provides the most common operator functions, like starting and stopping timelines, toggling outputs, restarting the render engine, and selecting photography-safe stills from the video content. The interfaces are available as embedded panels within Isaac, the museum's integrated control platform, giving operators access to the full media estate from a single location. Power of Words is the museum's centrepiece installation, running the full interior height of the building across all four gallery floors as a projected canvas that orients visitors on each level before expanding into themed visuals and artwork that cross every storey simultaneously. The spatial audio design, led by Emmy Award-winning sound designer Jeremy S. Bloom, deploys more than 89 speakers across the installation, with audio systems embedded in screens, floors, and in ceiling trenches at each level. "At site-specific immersive installations like those in the museum, mixing and spatialising the audio onsite is not only fun, but a complete necessity," says Jeremy S. Bloom, sound designer. "Onsite, without the traditional infrastructure of a dubbing stage, I need a way to finalise the audio on my own workstation while watching the final visual media at scale. Pixera allowed for this quite seamlessly. With the flip of a switch, I could send LTC timecode to the media server over our existing Dante network and gain control of all playback." The projection geometry of Power of Words presented an additional challenge. The screen is wider at the mid-level floors than at the top and bottom of the building, requiring the media producers to apply different content warps depending on the vertical position of each element on the canvas. To address this, the team developed a workflow using Pixera's NDI live-input capabilities, taking full-resolution After Effects compositions as direct NDI feeds into Pixera and displaying them on the full-scale screen in real time. Warping corrections and content changes could then be previewed and refined immediately, without the delays of iterative offline renders. Before the full Power of Words installation was commissioned, Horst's team built a six-foot scale model of the screen to work through the projection geometry and workflow challenges in advance. Smaller Pixera servers and compact projectors replicated the final installation conditions at bench scale, allowing the team to validate the mapping, audio synchronisation and control workflows before committing to the full build. "When we installed the full-sized systems at the Obama Presidential Center Museum, we had a high degree of confidence that the system would work because we had already built it," says Horst.
Reactivate and The Obama Foundation partner on community solar to lower energy costs for local communities in Illinois. Sep 01, 2026, 11:00 ET CHICAGO, Sept. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Reactivate, a mission-driven renewable energy developer, and The Obama Foundation today announced a new multi-year partnership under which the Foundation will serve as the "anchor tenant" for community solar projects developed, owned, and operated by Reactivate. This partnership unlocks the financial viability of the solar portfolios, directly enabling low-to-moderate income (LMI) households and local small businesses in Illinois to subscribe to the remaining capacity and realize up to 50% energy cost savings on their utility bills through the Illinois Solar For All program or other regional community solar programs. As an anchor tenant to solar assets, The Obama Foundation secures predictable, lower-cost clean energy to support its sustainability goals and offsets energy costs generated by the Obama Presidential Center. With rising electricity costs across the country, this provides a scalable blueprint for how commercial, industrial, and non-profit organizations can meet ambitious carbon reduction goals while providing economic equity for communities. "By stepping forward as an anchor tenant, The Obama Foundation helps power the Presidential Center with clean energy while actively lowering the barrier to entry for local families and small businesses to cut their energy costs," said Utopia Hill, CEO of Reactivate. "Building a stronger energy future requires leadership and collaboration that prioritizes community wealth creation, while strengthening local resiliency and advancing energy affordability for the communities that need it most." "President Obama set a clear vision: to make sustainability a centerpiece of all we do, and to serve as a model for what is possible," said Valerie Jarrett, CEO of The Obama Foundation. "We believe that taking care of the one planet we have starts with the choices we make right in our own backyard. That is why the Obama Presidential Center not only is sourcing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy, but we are also partnering with a company that will expand access to solar energy to our neighbors." Community solar allows subscribing customers to realize the financial benefits of clean energy without requiring property ownership or the upfront capital costs associated with traditional rooftop solar installations. For renters, working-class households, and local small businesses, community solar represents one of the few zero-upfront-cost mechanisms available to combat volatile energy pricing while supporting regional grid decarbonization. "It is an honor to partner with an organization like The Obama Foundation whose commitment to strengthening communities closely aligns with our own," said Tuba Avcisert, SVP of Origination and Contracting at Reactivate. "Their trust in Reactivate to serve the Obama Center's energy needs reflect a shared belief that clean energy projects should create lasting, meaningful benefits for the local communities they serve. About Reactivate Reactivate is a mission-driven organization that develops, owns, and operates renewable energy solutions that are designed to improve quality of life for communities, with a focus on meaningful benefits for working-class people across the country. Focus areas include community solar, small utility-scale solar, energy storage and EV charging projects. By delivering economic development and energy resiliency with renewable energy solutions, Reactivate provides energy cost savings, job opportunities, workforce training and opportunities for businesses, while creating positive social and environmental impact. About The Obama Foundation The Obama Foundation is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world. That mission begins on the South Side of Chicago, where the Foundation is building the Obama Presidential Center. But that approach extends to all our work, whether it's holding leadership training sessions in communities throughout the U.S., bringing local leaders together in countries around the world, working to support the global education of girls, or ensuring young men of color have pathways to opportunity. From every corner of the globe, our program participants are working together to address some of the biggest challenges of our time - from renewing our democratic institutions, protecting LGBTQ+ rights, fighting climate change, and so much more. SOURCE Reactivate
Scalable calibrates projection at Obama Presidential Center. Camera-based auto-alignment and custom multi-projector workflows keep a four-storey Power of Words canvas and 360° circular projection seamlessly blended during continuous operation. Located on Chicago's South Side, the Obama Presidential Center is a 19.3-acre campus that serves as a civic and cultural space, including a four-floor museum, program rooms, a public library branch, an athletic centre, an auditorium, and community gathering spaces. At the centre of the museum experience are large-scale immersive media installations designed to support storytelling throughout the facility. The museum explores themes of democracy, civic engagement and social change through interactive exhibits, archival materials and multimedia environments throughout the building. Among the museum's most technically demanding installations are Power of Words, a four-storey projection experience extending through the museum atrium, and a 360-degree circular projection environment featuring custom digital artwork developed in collaboration with a French artist. Power of Words spans approximately 85 feet (26 metres) vertically across four museum floors, allowing visitors to view the installation from multiple balcony levels throughout the atrium. The projection system consists of seven projectors positioned across multiple floors, including four landscape-oriented projectors covering the primary wall surface and three portrait-oriented projectors covering an adjacent wall. The second installation uses eight projectors arranged around a circular projection ring to create a continuous immersive display. The scale and complexity of the installations created significant operational challenges for the museum team. The large-format multi-projector systems require consistent alignment and calibration to maintain a seamless image, particularly in public environments like the Obama Presidential Center, which are subject to vibration, HVAC activity, temperature fluctuations and ongoing visitor traffic. In the case of Power of Words, the projection surface itself spans four storeys and is integrated directly into the building structure, introducing subtle shifts in geometry and screen tension over time. "We needed a system that would allow us to automate alignment and maintain image quality without requiring constant manual intervention," said Paul Horst, senior manager of exhibition AV systems for the Obama Presidential Center. Without automated calibration, maintaining systems of this scale often requires ongoing involvement from highly specialised projection technicians who can manually adjust geometry, warping and edge blending. In museum environments that operate daily with limited on-site technical staffing, those workflows can become difficult to sustain in the long term. To address those challenges, The Obama Foundation selected Scalable Display Technologies, whose software enables multiple projectors to operate as a single seamless display. Using camera-based calibration, the software automatically aligns geometry, and blends edges across projection surfaces of varying shapes and scales. What traditionally required days of manual alignment by specialised technicians can instead be completed through automated recalibration workflows. The ability to rapidly recalibrate large projection environments was particularly important for a museum installation that operated continuously without dedicated projection specialists onsite. Projection systems naturally drift over time due to environmental conditions, vibration, projector maintenance and changes in screen geometry. Scalable's software allows operators to restore alignment through automated recalibration rather than relying on time-intensive manual adjustments or external service calls. "We've been working with Scalable on batch files to run calibration from the command line, automatically generate MPCDI files, copy those files into the media server and trigger the media server to load updated calibration data," explained Horst. The automated workflow also coordinates environmental controls during recalibration, including projector warm-up periods and temporary lighting adjustments. Once recalibration is initiated, the system generates updated alignment datasets that can be deployed without extensive manual correction. "The recalibration process inside Scalable's software has worked extremely well," said Horst. "It's very helpful to warm up the projectors, run recalibration and achieve a clean updated alignment without extensive manual work." Scalable's projection technology is widely used in simulation, museum and immersive entertainment environments where image consistency and reliability are critical. The same automated calibration workflows used in defence and aerospace simulation systems are also deployed in projection mapping installations, themed entertainment environments and large-scale immersive exhibits where multiple projectors must behave as a single unified image. The architectural design of the atrium installation also introduced unique geometric challenges. Because of balcony placement and limited projector mounting positions, the system required projection across two intersecting wall planes positioned at nearly 90° angles. Several projectors were forced to operate at extreme projection angles where image spillover between adjacent surfaces became difficult to manage. To accommodate these conditions, Scalable collaborated with The Obama Foundation to develop a software feature called Projector Groups. The feature allows separate warp-and-blend operations across independent projection surfaces while maintaining controlled edge transitions between content regions. Horst explained, "That allowed independent warp and blend operations on each wall with a defined hard-edge seam between content regions." Prior to full deployment, The Obama Foundation developed both a full-scale projection mock-up and a miniature physical model replicating the final projector configuration. The process allowed the project team and Scalable engineers to test geometry, camera placement, media playback and calibration behaviour before installation inside the museum. "By the time we entered the building installation phase, we already felt confident the system would work," said Horst. In addition to the technical capabilities of the software, Horst cited Scalable's engineering support and responsiveness as a major factor throughout the project. "One of the biggest factors, honestly, wasn't technical - it was customer service," he said. "They've been very active throughout the process, added entirely new software features to solve challenges unique to our project and responded quickly whenever issues came up." According to Horst, the system's stability allowed exhibit designers and media producers to focus on refining content presentation rather than resolving projection issues during deployment. "The installation looks extremely clean," Horst said. "Honestly, one of the best outcomes is that nobody comments on the projection itself, which is exactly what you want. It simply looks the way it's supposed to look."
Eddie Vedder unveils new song with Chicago youth musicians at Obama center opening. Published June 19, 2026 by Ned Tepper When Eddie Vedder stepped onto the stage at the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, he didn't arrive alone. The Pearl Jam frontman used the historic occasion to premiere a brand new song called 'Better Believe', sharing the spotlight with Guitars Over Guns, a youth focused music and mentorship organisation made up of students and alumni from Columbia College Chicago (Per Loudwire). Rather than delivering a solo performance, Vedder turned the moment into a celebration of collaboration, before launching into the song he explained how the project came together and why it felt connected to the mission behind the new centre. 'What an honor for all of us to be here on this day,' Vedder told the crowd. 'President Obama was aware that I would be playing music with young musicians from the neighborhood. But when he heard Bluntmag were writing an original piece, a song just for the occasion, he said, "That might be a lot of work." And as usual, he was right. But it's been great work and it's everything the center stands for - its inclusivity, its access to resources, its mentorship and opportunity. So, Bluntmag thank you for this opportunity.' You can check out the performance below: The track was developed through a partnership between the Obama Foundation and Guitars Over Guns, Vedder co-wrote the song alongside Giselle Castro, Andre 'Add-2' Daniels, Jeremiah Fristoe, Mason Harris, Michael 'Myskie' Hightower, Naomi Owens, Joy Viltz and Iya Waters. Daniels, who serves as both a Columbia College Chicago adjunct professor and Guitars Over Guns' regional director in Chicago, helped guide the project from conception through recording. A studio version of 'Better Believe' has also been released, alongside Vedder and the young musicians involved the recording features longtime collaborator Josh Klinghoffer on keyboards. Eddie Vedder 'better Believe' Perhaps the most fitting detail is where the song's proceeds are headed, royalties earned by Vedder and his fellow writers will support Guitars Over Guns, helping the organisation continue its work using music, mentorship and creative arts programs to create opportunities for young people. The opening ceremony also featured performances from U2's Bono and The Edge, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder, making for a stacked lineup worthy of the occasion. Follow me on Facebook: * Charitable Foundation * Youtube Videos * Videos
Obama Presidential Center & Library launches in Chicago with star-studded grand opening ceremony. Staff | June 19, 2026 | The Obama Presidential Center and Library officially opened in Chicago with a ceremony on June 18, 2026, ahead of its public debut on June 19. Located in the historic 20-acre Jackson Park on the city's South Side, the complex commemorates the presidency of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama formally dedicated the Obama Presidential Center, unveiling a nearly 20-acre campus on Chicago's South Side that they said is intended to inspire civic participation and future generations. The $850 million complex in Jackson Park, more than a decade in the making, opens to the public Friday, coinciding with Juneteenth. Designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, the campus includes a four-story main museum featuring a full-size replica of the Oval Office, an installation of 440 campaign buttons, and various interactive public spaces. At the structure's highest point, the Sky Room provides panoramic views of the city's West and South sides, framed by an excerpt from a 2015 speech honoring the Civil Rights marches in Selma, Alabama. The broader campus features sustainable landscaping designed to ease regional flooding, along with a newly built branch of the Chicago Public Library, walking paths, a playground, and themed fruit and vegetable gardens. Foundation officials have described the project as a living institution focused on leadership and public service rather than a traditional monument. The invite-only dedication ceremony at John Lewis Plaza attracted former Presidents Joe Biden, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with former first ladies; as well as high-profile dignitaries and major figures from entertainment and media, including Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Stephen Colbert, Tom Hanks, and Vice President Kamala Harris. A prominent lineup of musical icon performers took the stage, featuring Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, The Roots, Christina Aguilera, and U2's Bono and The Edge. For the general public, a free watch party and global livestream allowed the broader community to view the celebration, which extended into a weekend of local festivities. Michelle Obama praised her husband's character and perseverance, while Barack Obama reflected on his political journey and urged Americans to remain engaged despite divisions and challenges facing the country. The Obamas' daughters, Malia and Sasha, made a rare public appearance alongside their parents during the ceremony. The dedication marked the beginning of a weekend of events celebrating the center's opening, with demand for tickets proving strong and reservations sold out months in advance. Organizers expect the site to attract roughly one million visitors annually and provide an economic boost to surrounding neighborhoods. For details on the Obama Presidential Center and Library, head to: www.obama.org.