About Us

Heavy industry is the foundation of modern society. We need materials like cement, steel, and aluminum more than ever to rebuild our bridges and roads, construct wind and solar projects, and manufacture electric vehicles and heat pumps that will undergird our future. But industry needs a new social contract with America. For all the good industrial progress brings, it also causes a lot of harm. It threatens our climate, reinforces environmental racism, is wasteful, andhas left workers and communities behind when convenient to the industry's bottom line.

Addressing this challenge – and the opportunity it presents – is why Industrious Labs exists. With our partners, we're reimagining the industrial sector as not only a source of good union jobs but a climate solution where we make things responsibly, prioritize waste reduction, reuse, repair, remanufacture, and recycle. To do this, we will have to change how our stuff is made and what we do with it when we are done with it. We see an America known again as a country of industry, where the best quality and greenest materials are made with American labor. In the future we build together, industry is a good neighbor to communities, the anchor of a healthy regenerative economy, and leading the world in addressing climate change.

About The Position

Industrious Labs is fully remote, and this role will report to the Communications Director while working closely with the directors of the Circular Economy campaign and Aluminum campaign. The goal of the Circular Economy campaign is to address the ways that waste is causing immediate severe climate change from landfill methane. Landfills are the third biggest methane polluter in the U.S., producing at least 14 percent of U.S. methane pollution. With partners, Industrious Labs is working at the federal level and in several states and municipalities to enact policies that minimize existing landfill methane and other toxic emissions and prevent new organic waste from being landfilled, ensuring food recovery. The goal of the Aluminum campaign is to ensure a supply of clean, domestically produced aluminum, shoring up American jobs and strengthening our supply chains. Specifically, we are seeking federal support to power smelters with clean energy and upgrade and modernize the primary process. This campaign seeks to create win-win solutions to strengthen the industry, create and maintain good jobs and ensure the aluminum we need for a clean energy future. As demand rises, we will need a strong supply of clean aluminum to build wind turbines, electric cars, solar panels, transmission lines, and more.

The Senior Communications Strategist will focus on the following key outcomes:

Building and refining multi-channel communications plans to guide our work on aluminum and circular economy, working with other organizations to build a shared collaborative vision;
Telling the story of industrial decarbonization through targeted and high-profile media, placing strategic earned media stories that advance the work of Industrious Labs and our partners and promote climate-safe industry transformation, job creation, and benefits for communities;
According to our agreed messaging and branding guidelines, create, edit, commission, and maintain a library of multimedia / multichannel communications assets, including social media graphics and text, text-over-image video, a photo library, background briefings/Q&As, newsletter text, etc.; and
Other duties as assigned that support the development and operation of a communications department.

Who You Are

The incoming Senior Communications Strategist is driven by their belief and commitment to Industrious Labs' vision, mission, and values. Through their track record and expertise as a communications professional, the successful candidate will co-create public campaigns that advance Industrious Labs' and our partners' goals. The Senior Communications Strategist builds authentic and lasting relationships with coalition members, funders, and the media, engaging with them as partners. They possess the diplomacy skills necessary to coordinate press work across groups in an empowering and collaborative way.

The Senior Communications Strategist joins a deeply committed team with a track record of success in campaign strategy, data analysis, and communications, focusing on climate and clean energy. The successful candidate is entrepreneurial, and excited about the prospect of building something new in the climate movement from the ground up. They have the experience of being part of setting vision, establishing, and scaling successful programs with an ethos of creativity, humility, and an expectation of continual learning.

Despite enormous obstacles in decarbonizing heavy industry, the Industrious Labs team operates with a spirit of possibilities. We seek a Senior Communications Strategist who shares the belief that we can all do things we've never done before and can stretch ourselves to achieve incredible results.

This role requires a deep commitment to environmental and climate justice principles, proven collaboration skills, and the ability to design and execute coordinated strategies that will generate change in a deeply entrenched and seemingly intractable aspect of the climate movement. The Senior Communications Strategist demonstrates initiative by diving right in to take a concept from idea to implementation, navigating through internal and external barriers as they arise without getting stuck, and finding and deploying resources creatively to solve problems. The selected candidate will also possess most of the following Core and Preferred qualifications:

Core:

Experience developing and delivering communications strategies in a campaign, advocacy or political context
Proven track record of delivering strategic earned media and building relationships. Enthusiasm for pitching stories and the thrill of landing a hit.
Ability to get up to speed on complex information and analyze data and news efficiently and effectively.
Social media savvy with an understanding of how to integrate social into comprehensive communications and movement-building strategies in a campaign environment.
Multimedia creation skills: the ability to create simple social graphics, infographics, and social videos.
Strong relationship-building skills with a wide range of diverse external constituencies. Demonstrated experience working across lines of race, class, gender, and geography and an analysis of how climate change intersects with historically oppressed and marginalized communities. Experience centering impacted community voices and strategies in coalition spaces.
Outstanding written and oral communications skills that demonstrate an ability to translate complex data and analysis into persuasive narratives across types of media.
Commitment to continuous learning, hunger for knowledge, and willingness to ask questions and self-correct; a curious, self-directed, and entrepreneurial approach.
Openness to giving and receiving direct, compassionate feedback.

Preferred:

At least five years of increasing responsibility in communications, with a proven track record of accomplishments.
Prior experience and content knowledge in climate, clean energy, public policy and/or the industrial sector, including manufacturing and labor.
Prior start-up experience as an early team member in a growing organization.
Ability to lead through influence in a matrixed environment.
Experience with advocacy communications and desire to work deeply on an issue that can move the dial on climate change.

Salary And Benefits

The salary for this position is $110,000. Industrious Labs has a policy not to negotiate on salaries. Historically, negotiations reward those who have the skill, privilege, and confidence to ask for more money; and because not everyone has those skills, allowing for negotiations undermines economic equity we strive for as an organization. Rather than use negotiations to drive competitive salaries, we endeavor to pay people well and establish a transparent salary scale based on the experience, competencies, and responsibilities required to thrive in this role.

We provide a package of benefits that complement the paid salary to ensure a high quality of life for all employees, including 100% of comprehensive health care coverage for employees (medical, dental, and vision), work from home stipend, up to 5% employer match to 401k and 11 paid holidays plus unlimited vacation, starting with a minimum of 15 business days.

Our Commitment to Racial Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Climate Justice

We believe that diversity in our team isn't just a value but brings different lived experience and perspective essential to solving the climate crisis. If you've read this job description and are excited by it, if you can see yourself happily filling this role and making a difference on climate change, we really hope you apply. Industrious Labs is an equal-opportunity employer and is committed to transparent and equitable recruitment, hiring, and promotion processes that foster inclusion and belonging. If you need reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please email Cathy Schreiber at cathy@industriouslabs.org.

Application Procedure

To apply, please submit a resume and cover letter answering the following:

What motivates you to spend your time, skills and expertise working on climate change?
Can you share a story of a communications or advocacy campaign you played a key role in -- what was the goal and outcome? What kind of coalition was involved, if any? And what lessons did you take away from the experience that you would bring with you to Industrious Labs?

This position is open until filled. Candidate review and phone screens begin immediately and will be conducted throughout the search. We anticipate several steps of mutual exploration, including a phone screen, panel interview(s) and thought exercises for finalist candidates. Our search processes generally take 3 - 4 months.

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Senior Communications Strategist