Working Washington

ABOUT US: 

Working Washington is a national leader in new forms of worker organizing and and building an economy that puts workers first. Along with our partner organization, Fair Work Center, we build worker power through education, organizing, and enforcement. Over the past decade we have won first in the nation rights for domestic workers and gig workers through our PayUp campaign, and led the campaign to raise the minimum wage in SeaTac and Seattle. We organized to make Washington’s overtime laws the strongest in the country and won nearly half a billion dollars for immigrant workers during the pandemic. We are building a statewide base of workers who will continue to drive our future campaigns to reduce income inequality, center the needs of immigrant workers and workers of color, and shift the balance of power back to working people.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

This position will directly manage and lead our organizing team, and play a key role in setting the overall strategic direction of the organization. This role is best suited for an experienced organizer and campaign manager with strong grounding on the intersection between racial, gender, and economic justice. They are enthusiastic about using a wide range of strategies to drive campaigns that shift the bounds of what is considered possible and win bold, transformative demands. They will understand the importance of actively fostering organizational culture aligned with our mission to build collective power.

This position will collaborate especially closely with our basebuilding staff, which currently leads much of our outreach and worker training, to build powerful alignment between issue campaigns, policy, narrative, and leadership development. They will serve as a member of the Leadership Team, and report to the Executive Director. Whenever possible, a racial equity lens should be applied to each responsibility under each section below.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Campaign Strategy Leadership

  • Lead team in setting campaign strategy, including selecting targets, and integrating the organization’s communications, lobbying, worker-driven policy development, and enforcement capacity into campaign plans
  • Collaborate with team to create outreach, worker engagement, and leadership development plans to execute campaign strategy  
  • Proactively identify opportunities for new worker campaigns aligned with organization’s strategic priorities as a statewide powerbuilding organization 
  • In close collaboration with the communications team, build campaign narratives and plans that integrate digital communications, social media, and worker-facing communications that advance organizing goals and build our base of support  
  • Manage development of tools like surveys and crowdsourced databases to center workers in issue identification and campaign & policy development 
  • Collaborate with the basebuilding and legal teams to deepen connections between outreach, leadership development, campaign, and enforcement work

Policy and Political Leadership 

  • Lead policy development on legislative campaigns, collaborating with relevant staff and partners to ensure policy goals that come from worker organizing are viable and responsive to workers’ needs
  • Conduct strategic organizing research or identify need for external support 
  • Build political strategy for campaigns with legislative goals, and help set organizational priorities for cross-industry political objectives
  • Meet directly with elected officials and other decisionmakers to advance campaign and policy goals, and build worker leadership to directly advocate to lawmakers

Team Leadership and Staff Development 

  • Develop and implement training curriculum on core organizing skills, including relational organizing, list management and growth, and leader recruitment and development
  • Ensure that team members have consistent work plans, clear roles, and regular feedback to succeed in their individual roles and as a team. Invest in staff leadership and build deep relationships grounded in clear vision and responsibilities. 
  • Provide coaching to ensure deep worker leadership on campaigns at every stage
  • Collaborate with data team to develop systems and train and mentor organizing staff in metric tracking and data management; support staff in training leaders keep data organized 
  • Support training and mentoring of staff throughout organization, ensuring that they can integrate our organizing model, strategies, and priorities into their work 

Organizational Leadership and Other Responsibilities 

  • Serve on the Leadership Team, working collaboratively to advance the organization’s priorities and to foster an organizational culture grounded in equity, mutual respect, and commitment to powerbuilding
  • Represent organization in a wide range of external settings, consistently advancing the organization’s interests and communicating our worker centered, power-building framework 
  • Strengthen relationships and strategic collaboration with external partners, and foster connections to new partners  
  • Manage team budget. Support fundraising through assisting with application and report drafting, and participating in relationship building meetings to convey our organizing strategy to current and potential funders 

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS 

  • At least 7 years of experience working with community, labor, or electoral organizations where you had success developing and winning campaigns. High level ability to develop campaign strategy with staff and worker leaders, integrate others into organizing plans, and align campaigns to advance a long term powerbuilding agenda.  
  • Demonstrated experience working with politically underrepresented and historically marginalized communities, and centering member leadership development
  • At least 3 years supervising staff and leading a team, with a strong track record of building teams and developing staff leadership through coaching, training and feedback. Committed to building relationships and integrating data and equity best practices into management and team development.
  •  Strong project management skills and ability to track multiple deadlines and priorities
  • Enjoy collaborating on new/emerging projects, and able to thoughtfully communicate and discuss ideas as well as proactively ask for help 
  • Excellent judgment, professionalism, and problem solving skills, including the ability to respond quickly and effectively to unforeseen challenges
  • Ability to travel and work during the evening and weekend as necessary

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Working knowledge of the state’s political landscape, including basic mechanics of state and local governance and legislative processes 
  • Possess an understanding of digital organizing strategies
  • Prior experience holding high level of responsibility for strategic external relationships
  • Professional proficiency in a second language
  • Knowledge of national political and worker organizing landscape

OTHER INFORMATION 

Salary & Benefits: This is a management position with the anticipated salary range being between $90,000 - $105,000, depending on relevant experience. We provide a generous benefits package, including exceptional medical, dental, and vision care, 5% employer 401k contribution, substantial holidays, vacation and sick leave, and an ORCA card for employees in the Puget Sound area.

Location: This is a salaried overtime exempt position that we anticipate being based in our Seattle office, though we are open to candidates who may primarily work out of our Yakima office. We are a hybrid workplace and expect this role will have a combination of in person work and work that can be performed remotely, and are open to considering strong candidates who currently live out of state but are willing to relocate. It may require occasional evening and weekend work and occasional travel throughout the state.

HOW TO APPLY

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and resume to jobs@workingwa.org with the applicant’s last name and “Organizing Director” in the subject line. In your cover letter, let us know why you’re interested in this role and which skills you believe will make you successful in it. The priority deadline for submissions is February 24, 2023. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we will accept applications until the position is filled. 

Commitment to Equity: Working Washington is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We strongly encourage people from communities most negatively affected by historical and ongoing inequity to apply, such as: people of color, immigrants, women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people, and people with disabilities. We seek candidates whose lived experiences reflect the lived experiences of the workers we support. If you need disability, language or other accommodation in the application process, please contact Zhi Chen at zhi@workingwa.org.