Sunrise Movement - Chief of Staff

Sunrise Job Description: Chief of Staff

Hours: Full Time 

Location: Flexible, work from home (remote)

Start date: December 2025

Reports to: Executive Director 

Eligibility: This position is not eligible to participate in Sunrise’s CWA Labor Union. 

Compensation: $90,000-$115,000 annually depending on years of experience and whether the candidate lives in a high-cost metro area. More info about the special city allowance can be found here. 

Benefits: Sunrise offers a benefits package with 100% paid premiums for health care, dental, and vision. We offer unlimited paid vacation days with minimum 20 days per year, parental leave, caregiver leave, unlimited sick time, and additional paid and unpaid time off. We also offer an annual professional development fund and tech office budget. Option to contribute to 401k.

Application instructions: To apply, please upload your resume and respond to the application questions on this form.

Application Timeline: Applications will be accepted for this position until November 24, 2025. NRG Consulting Group is supporting this search. Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.

About Sunrise Movement

We are fighting for a government action that actually meets the scale, scope and urgency of the climate crisis. We believe that in order to win the world of our dreams, we must build a movement of thousands of young people across race and class to take to the streets and disrupt business as usual until we force the change we need. This is also how we defeat authoritarianism. In the next three years, we must build up the capacity for mass non-cooperation, and repolarize society so that we can defeat Trump, win structural reforms to democracy, and pass climate legislation beginning in 2029. 

Position

One Sentence Purpose: The Chief of Staff  is responsible for keeping the organization and staff focused on strategic goals, is the cross-functional glue of the organization, and helps the executive director stay focused on the right things at the right time. 

The Chief of Staff is a decisive senior leader who is able to make high level, complex decisions, while weighing both the needs of the staff and the sustainability of the organization, connecting dots across teams and understanding the full picture of how to navigate various risks and threats to foster a strong and healthy organization. The ideal candidate is an effective communicator and strong manager and trainer of other managers and staff, and they have the ability to use discretion while navigating complex dynamics. 

We’re looking for candidates who have a demonstrated commitment to supporting and maintaining a diverse staff body that is committed to multiracial organizing. They should ensure all staff have access to personal and professional growth, and have experience giving honest feedback to support others' development and ensure that the organization stays focused on our mission. 

Responsibilities

Management Duties -- 10% 

• Manage Team Support (HR) Director
• Co-Manage Executive Director
• Manage Deputy Chief of Staff

Organizational Management and Organizational Risk – 25%

• Oversee goal setting for organization using OKR framework or similar
  • Quarterly stepbacks to evaluate progress
  • Support other leadership teams to set goals and evaluate periodically
  • Ensure our priorities are communicated, visible, and that we have systems for tracking goals
• Coordinate the Executive Risk Team to guide informed decisions about strategic and operational risks at the highest level of the strategy
  • Conduct ongoing threat assessment and guide structural shifts to protect from internal and external threats
  • Lead, facilitate  and project manage risk assessments across teams, training, events and resources for staff and leadership, and ability to discern when to communicate appropriately. 
  • Liaison with legal counsel, organization board members, staff, and other relevant parties to gather accurate risk assessments, and advise the Executive Director (ED) on decisions affecting big picture organizational health and strategic goals.
• Support with Program Planning 
  • Manage ED and Campaign Director to own and move forward planning our programs year by year. 
  • Ensure program planning is coordinated smoothly with budgeting and involves operations team for consultation and feedback in the appropriate places
• Create trainings, resources, & guides where needed to foster an aligned staff and organization culture around safety, security & risk as needed.

Union Coordination – 10%

• Serve as main point of contact with the Sunrise staff union and lead negotiator for contract with staff union
• Conflict and grievance support 
• Coordinate with union– primary  contact
• Run Labor Management committee with Bargaining Unit and run the Management Bargaining Committee to re-open and bargain our contract.

Personnel -- 30%

• Sense for needed communications across the organization
• Lead on navigating and handling when there are complaints reported
• Coordinate staff trainings and retreats 
  • Plan schedule for and run weekly allhands calls
  • Run annual staff retreat
• Final Approver of changes to roles, salaries, promotions, and separation pay.
• Overseeing yearly hiring timeline and general personnel management, approve all hires
  • Tracking budget: ensure budget aligns with staffing changes and needs

Teams - 25%

• Support ED to run Senior Leadership Team (SLT) 
  • Help set agendas and do coordination of team if needed 
  • Participate as SLT member and guide conversations around Organizational Operations, specifically around Risk, Compliance, Finance as it relates to our Strategy
  • Serve as a backstop for top-level Financial and Operational health of the organization and ensure this is effectively communicated with SLT 
  • Ensure short, mid, and long term priorities are being accounted for 
  • Ensure that SLT have the financial health of the organization on its radar in regular rhythms by working with the Finance Director to assess and understand organizational finances and projections
  • Support the Senior Leadership Team to make strategic hiring decisions; to assess staffing caps and capacity, while ensuring we do not grow our staff too quickly or without consulting our operational capacity and budget. 
  • Make sure Sunrise 2025 HQ is well-maintained and staff are updated on changes 
• Participate on Operations Management Team (OMT)   
• Work closely with Operations leadership staff to integrate compliance, finance, fundraising and other operations work streams seamlessly throughout the organization. 

Qualifications 

Must Haves

• At least 3 years in organizational leadership, working in a collaborative setting where required to make decisions at a high level.  
• Experience dealing with confidential grievances and HR violations.
• Experience line managing staff.
• Training skills; can train others to develop new manager skills. 
• Able to focus on the big picture and be detail oriented.
• Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Comfortable in a fast-paced, continuously evolving environment with multiple tasks and competing deadlines.
• Excellent diplomacy and tact.
• Willingness to learn and ask questions. 
• Excellent time management skills, the ability to prioritize work, pay attention to detail, and troubleshoot problems.
• Strong facilitation skills.
• Familiarity with the financial and compliance systems necessary to running 501c3, 501c4, and PAC organizations
• Expertise in project management, with experience managing multiple complex projects and diverse teams

Nice To Haves 

• Familiarity with union contracts and labor- management relations. 
• Experience working in youth climate movement.
• Experience in conflict mediation. 

Sunrise and Sunrise Movement Education Fund are Equal Opportunity Employers. We will consider applicants for this position without regard to any category protected by applicable federal, state or local law, including but not limited to: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status or uniformed service member status. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people, young people, and members of other historically disenfranchised populations are strongly encouraged to apply.

Application instructions: To apply, please upload your resume and respond to the application questions on this form.