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, and make industry accountable to communities and workers.

About the Position

Industrious Labs seeks to transform industry to deliver more just outcomes for workers, the planet, and the public. To help realize this vision, we seek an entrepreneurial individual to lead our growing work transforming the cement industry. Industrious Labs is fully remote. This role reports to Partner and Campaigns Director Evan Gillespie.

In this newly created position, the Cement Director is a highly skilled strategist with the expertise to effectively establish programs that span both the U.S. and the Global South. The Cement Director is energized by climate, union jobs, and environmental justice. While a background in cement is not required, enthusiasm for the sector (and fluency with the range of puns, from “cement is the foundation of global development” to “concrete outcomes”) is vital.

This is a public-facing role, managing a team working to decarbonize cement in the Global South, while building a program stateside in the U.S. We’re seeking an equity-centered leader with a solid track record of building programs, winning campaigns, and raising funds to resource the work. The position will immediately manage one Senior Campaign Strategist. Periodic domestic and international travel is expected (4 to 6 times per year).

The Cement Director holds key responsibilities that will evolve over time as the team grows and functions are distributed. In year one, the role will include:

• Oversee the development and execution of the Global Cement Network, ensuring strong strategy and effective implementation in partnership with the Field Building Department.
• Building a U.S. campaign strategy that integrates the organization’s strengths with a policy and power analysis.
• Determine, help raise, and manage the campaign budget. This is not limited to leading funder engagement, ensuring cost effectiveness, and accurate reporting to funders.
• Oversee the learning and impact evaluation of the campaign, tracking progress and benchmarks against strategic plans and proactively producing reports and analyses to inform strategies and improve results.
• Oversee the management of campaign staff, as well as helping to drive an effective cross-functional team, ensuring a strong team culture and strategically focused to build power in the Global South and US.

Other key responsibilities include:

• Identifying research needs and working with our analytics team to execute.
• Earned and owned media engagement.
• Occasionally serving on internal teams that support the health and functioning of the organization.

The Successful Candidate

The incoming Cement Director is driven by their belief and commitment to Industrious Labs’ vision, mission, and values. While a background in cement decarbonization, climate, or global development is not a formal requirement, qualified candidates should have a passion for those topics and the ability to translate their experience to transforming the cement industry.

Cement Director Core Qualifications

• At least 10-15 years of increasing responsibility leading teams to accomplish a shared goal.
• A background in policy development, movement building, or organizational leadership within an advocacy organization. Specifically:
• Experience developing policy, issue-based campaigns, and the various tools used to hone focused strategies
• Comfort working with a diverse set of stakeholders to build strategic relationships, including grassroots, labor, environmental justice, elected officials, and more.
• Demonstrated experience building programs that cultivate a clear focus, ambition, and high-functioning teams.
• Ability to identify the policies and venues that can deliver the best outcomes in line with our organizational values and goals.
• Demonstrated cultural competency working with people from diverse regions and backgrounds.
• Demonstrated ability to learn and master the details of policy.
• Excellent project management skills and the ability to balance different portfolios, set priorities, and focus on high-impact opportunities.
• A record of leading advocacy that has resulted in policy change, implementation, and sustainable wins.
• Experience raising funds to support partners and the program’s budget needs.
• Experience managing direct reports

Cement Director Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity working in a Matrix Management environment
• You’ve got opinions, not an ego. You’re the kind of person who can lead a project and still laugh at your own typos
• Scrappy
• Entrepreneurial drive to build a program from the ground up; prior experience as an early team member in a growing organization

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 $152,000. 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% premium contribution for employees’ comprehensive health care coverage (medical, dental, and vision), a work-from-home stipend, up to a 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 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 recognizes that a variety of educational and professional pathways could lead to being a strong candidate and contributor for this role. You may have transferable skills from experiences that may not match exactly what we’ve called out in our list of qualifications for this position. We’d love to hear about your experience and the skills you would bring to serve in this role. 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 attracted you to this position?
2. How do you describe power? How have you built power with others in the past?
3. Do you have experience running successful advocacy campaigns internationally? If so, please elaborate with a brief story of a successful campaign you led or contributed to. What was your role?

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.