Job Description

Climate Defiance, an organization working to fight climate change, is seeking an Organizing Director to lead our organizing work. We work to elevate climate change as a top political issue in the US through direct actions, such as creative protests, disruptions, and sit-ins, to put grassroots pressure on political leaders and generate critical visibility around the urgency of the climate crisis.

As the Organizing Director, you will manage a team of organizers and volunteers across the country. You will be responsible for our effort to build deep grassroots engagement and shake people in power to their core.

More about Climate Defiance:

We humiliate climate criminals in order to strip them of their power, shake society awake, and end the era of fossil fuels.

We don’t do petitions. We don’t do coalition letters about net-zero by 2050 goals. We don’t do bus stop ads.

We do direct actions. And we get results.

We’ve made leaders in the highest echelons of business and government resign in shame from their positions of power. We’ve played a crucial role in successful fights to protect public lands and halt fossil fuel infrastructure. And we’re just warming up.

Climate Defiance is a group of staff and volunteers who are deeply concerned about the climate crisis and fed up with our leaders failing us. We come from many walks of life, but all know we are facing an existential crisis, with no time to lose. We are done waiting for our leaders who compromise, drag their feet, and are, all too often, in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry. We seek to make climate change a top-3 issue in American politics. We seek to end the era of fossil fuels. We will do this through direct actions that break through the noise and make politicians act with the urgency this moment deserves.

We’ve already seen success. We played a prominent role in halting drilling on tens of millions of acres. We helped win a pause on fracked gas exports. The return of the Trump Presidency presents a major challenge, but we are ready to rise up and resist with the intensity that this crisis demands.

The role:

As the Organizing Director, you will supervise all organizers and work closely with volunteers.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Managing up to five organizing staff members in cities across the country; and working closely with volunteers as well.
• Hiring and training new organizers as the organization expands;
• Providing regular check-ins, coaching, and training support around organizing skills, planning, and strategizing to help the organizers be effective in their work;
• Supporting the organizers to organize successful direct action events;
• Guiding organizers around key tactics, including partnership work and media outreach;
• Traveling to chapters to provide in-person training and support and participate in direct actions;
• Supporting Climate Defiance’s fundraising work by participating in events and stepping in as needed.
• Helping design and manage our pipeline of online-to-real-life volunteers.

What we’re looking for in you:

Key qualifications:

• You have a minimum of three years of organizing or campaigning experience;
• You have at least two years of management experience, ideally in a campaign, advocacy, or grassroots organizing setting;
• You have experience managing teams of volunteers and believe in the power of collective action;
• You have participated in and/ or have led nonviolent direct actions (disruptive actions such as creative protests, strikes, sit-ins, or blockades) and are interested in its importance in climate change work;
• You have strong communication skills;
• You are a strategic thinker who can help staff and volunteers push through challenges and come up with successful plans;
• You have the flexibility and readiness for actions and site visits. The travel expectation for this role is 25%.

Preferred qualifications:

• You have managed staff or volunteers outside of the city you are based in;
• You have experience in leading systematic conflict resolution;
• Your convictions align with the principles of nonviolent confrontation, direct action, and disruption.
• You have experience in climate change advocacy (though organizers from other causes will definitely be considered!)

Details:

• Candidates can be based anywhere in the U.S., with a preference for large cities. Due to the travel involved, it’s helpful to be based near a major airport.
• The salary for this position is $62,400 with additional benefits, including unlimited vacation time (with 20 days plus Christmas week encouraged), group health care, and a 401(k) with a 3% employer contribution. Climate Defiance has a flat salary structure where all employees are paid the same.
• You will report to our Executive Director and work closely with staff across the organization, including our communications, development, and people and culture teams.

Note: For more senior candidates who have operations and/or organization-wide management experience, we are open to a role with a wider set of responsibilities and with a different title, such as Deputy Director. We are happy to explore this possibility in the interview process and encourage candidates with this type of experience to indicate interest in their application. Salary and benefits would be the same.

To apply: Please visit and click on the Organizing Director job and choose “Apply To Position” to apply. (If you choose another apply button, your application will be incomplete.) Thank you!

Climate Defiance is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are dedicated to fostering a diverse and impassioned team, with a special emphasis on encouraging applications from women, gender non-conforming individuals, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, individuals with disabilities, and other individuals from historically marginalized communities. We uphold a policy of non-discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or medical condition. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

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