Senior Field Strategist, Steel

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 second revolution. For as much as industry made the middle class and ushered in a remarkable era of prosperity for many, it also threatens our climate, reinforces environmental racism, wastes valuable materials and energy, and leaves communities and workers behind. 

At Industrious Labs, our mission is to set into motion unstoppable policies, people power, and analysis to make a triple impact on climate, justice, and jobs that drastically reduce dangerous emissions, make industry accountable to communities and workers, and develop a circular economy.

About the Position

Guided by an inspiring vision and strategic plan, we seek an entrepreneurial Senior Field Strategist to join our team. Industrious Labs is fully remote. A successful candidate in this role must be located in or willing to relocate to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio or Western Pennsylvania. This role reports to Partner and Field-Building Director Dominique Thomas. 

The Senior Field Strategist is a highly skilled relationship builder with a proven ability to establish, grow, and sustain diverse coalitions of stakeholders. The Senior Field Strategist is energized by the challenge of the climate crisis, inspired to step into a new era of the movement and has a strong track record of working with diverse groups such as organized labor, environmental justice advocates, and policymakers. This is a public-facing role for an equity-centered leader with a solid track record of working in coalition with others and building capacity and collective vision across diverse perspectives and experiences. In doing so, the Senior Field Strategist further establishes Industrious Labs as a national leader in industrial decarbonization and a go-to resource for policymakers, policy influencers, climate advocates, and community leaders.

For decades, steel has been a pillar of America’s strength—building our cities, cars, and economy. But this industrial backbone has come at a steep cost: coal-based steelmaking spews toxic pollution that harms nearby communities and drives 11% of global climate pollution. Families in steel towns bear the brunt, breathing dirty air and paying the price in lost health, lives, and opportunities.

Now, the U.S. steel industry faces a choice: double down on polluting practices that harm our planet and people, or forge forward with investments in clean steel. By embracing modern, coal-free technologies, we can bring back good jobs, restore pride in American manufacturing, slash pollution, and seize a booming market for sustainable steel. Last year, federal funding showed what’s possible—historic commitments proved that bold policies can advance cleaner steelmaking and bolster real progress. The path forward is clear: hold companies accountable, fund solutions, and create demand for clean steel. Together, we can build a healthier, cleaner, and more prosperous future for all.

The Senior Field Strategist holds key responsibilities that will evolve over time as the team grows and functions are distributed. The Senior Field Strategist will lead on: 

• Sustainable Steel Community Cohort: Develop, execute and implement an annual 6-month leadership development program, along with long term engagement towards our campaign goals. The purpose is to engage those impacted by dirty steelmaking in imagining the future of the steel industry. In 2024, we launched this program in Indiana and in 2025, we are launching this program in Michigan. The Senior Field Strategist will continue to hold relationships with all Cohort graduates after the completion of each program.
• Alliance for Clean Steel: The Senior Field Strategist will coordinate and facilitate this coalition space and ensure the space is on track for our campaign goals, while thinking about long-term power building efforts. The Alliance for Clean Steel is composed of organizations in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, where the U.S. steel industry calls home, as well as national partners. Together, we’re fighting for a thriving fossil-free steel industry.

A successful Senior Field Strategist will: 

Strategy Development & Implementation

• Execute a comprehensive field-building vision and strategy in key states, including Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois, aligning with our field-building department and organizational mission and vision. 
• Engage key leaders, organizations, and partners in strategy development to build institutional and community support for the Steel campaign's goals.
• Develop and execute work plans and track progress to ensure transparency and strong collaboration.

Field & Capacity Building 

• Assess the landscape across the Midwest related to steel via a community mapping project and power analysis.
• Identify the industry landscape, including strengths, current players, and gaps, and engage key leaders, organizations, and industry partners.
• Build new organizational relationships and alliances that reflect our values and priorities around equity and justice
• Lead the development of needed coordination infrastructure to build power and capacity-building strategies with local partners through a shared vision, theory of change, and capacity-building strategy.
• If funding is available, develop a clear strategy to move regranting and subcontracting dollars to organizational partners in a justice-oriented manner. 

Coalition Building 

• Recruit and build an aligned and powerful coalition of labor, community, and green groups with a shared vision of industrial transformation.
• Collaborate in the development of comprehensive advocacy plans to build power across the landscape of different constituencies 
• Design and implement trainings and other opportunities for stakeholders to collaborate, train each other, and build the foundational knowledge to develop and refine campaign approaches.
• Identify partners with aligned efforts to accelerate action and leverage resources, relationships, and research.

The Successful Candidate

The Senior Field 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 working collaboratively internally and building new partnerships within the climate movement. They have the experience of setting vision, establishing, and scaling successful programs with an ethos of creativity, humility, and an expectation of continual learning. They are excited and inspired by the challenge.

The selected candidate will also possess most of the following Core and Preferred qualifications:

Senior Field Strategist Core Qualifications

• At least 5-8 years of increasing responsibility in robust coalition development, power building, and capacity/field/movement building, with a track record of accomplishment. Specifically: 
• Proven ability to create a clear vision with attainable goals that build power centered around equity and justice. 
• Experience developing and implementing a power analysis, community mapping, and/or landscape assessment. This includes the ability to articulate key findings and patterns. 
• Experience assisting/leading strategy development in coalition spaces and/or with diverse people/perspectives.
• Experience designing/implementing organizing efforts in local, state, regional, and national settings that build long-term sustainable power to win.
• Strong analysis of movement theory, implementation, and the intersectionality of racial capitalism and other systems of oppression.
• Mastery of relationship-building skills and strong existing relationships with a wide range of diverse external constituencies, from big greens, labor, environmental justice communities, etc.
• Experience in the climate movement or another social justice movement.
• Lives in or is willing to relocate to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio or Western Pennsylvania and has deep experience working and familiarity with the advocacy landscape in this region.
• Ability to travel at least once a month. 

Senior Field Strategist Preferred Qualifications

• Entrepreneurial drive to build an organization from the ground up; prior start-up experience as an early team member in a growing organization
• Experience re-granting and subcontracting with local partners and moving resources equitably.
• Experience in community organizing or other forms of organizing 

Industrious Labs Core Qualifications

Below are the qualifications expected of all Industrious Labs staff. 

• Strong commitment to the mission, vision, policies, and goals of Industrious Labs.
• Highly collaborative work style with the ability to operate as a peer and thought partner to colleagues and external partners.
• Commitment to continuous learning, hunger for knowledge, and willingness to ask questions and self-correct; a curious, self-directed, and entrepreneurial approach.
• Exceptional oral and written communication skills with the ability to break down a complex issue into manageable and clear decision points that drive the desired campaign outcomes.
• Excited rather than intimidated by the challenge of what's unknown about this role.
• Proven leadership skills with clarity of vision and a commitment to the highest levels of integrity, quality, and collaboration, developing strong team cultures, promoting and enhancing equity, diversity, and inclusion, performance management, and professional development.
• 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.
• Proven ability to prioritize and be flexible in a fast-paced, constantly evolving, and collaborative environment, where working on a team and working individually are all required.
• Commitment to giving and receiving direct, compassionate feedback.

Salary and Benefits

The salary for this position is $117,000. Industrious Labs has a policy not to negotiate 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 the 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.

Industrious Labs offers a competitive set of benefits, including 100% comprehensive health care coverage for employees (medical, dental, and vision); a 50% contribution to health care coverage for dependents; a work-from-home stipend; up to a 5% employer match to 401k; generous paid parental/family leave; 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 experiences and perspectives essential to solving the climate crisis. If you’ve read this job description and are excited by it and can see yourself happily filling this role and making a difference on climate change, we 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 Heather Beckford at heather@industriouslabs.org.  

 Application Procedure: 

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

1. What motivates you to spend your time, skills, and expertise working on climate change?
2. How do you describe power? How have you built power with others in the past?
3. Briefly share an advocacy campaign you played a key role in organizing people around. How did you build up a diverse coalition of people to work on a shared vision and theory of change?

This position is open until filled. Candidate review and phone screens begin immediately and will continue 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.