Careers
Every day, the staff of Sightline Institute work together to make Cascadia a global model of sustainability—strong communities, a green economy, and a healthy environment. We believe true sustainability exists at the intersection of environmental health and social justice.
Work with us
Sightliners are a talented cadre of researchers, communicators, and advocates working across Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. We’re supported by dedicated administrative and fundraising staff and united by a shared mission.
We value a wide range of backgrounds and lived experiences and are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We continually work to ensure that our audiences, staff, and board reflect the rich geographic, racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and other demographic diversity of Cascadia.
Sightline offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package. Our Cascadia-based, virtual-first work arrangements and collegial culture mean you can work with flexibility, balance, and regular opportunities to connect in person.
Here are just some of the benefits we offer:
• Retirement support with a 10% employer contribution to a 401(k), regardless of employee contribution
• Comprehensive health coverage, including medical, dental, and vision plans with generous employer contributions toward employee and dependent premiums
• Monthly stipend to support a productive and comfortable remote work environment
• Regular in-person staff gatherings for connection and collaboration
• Generous paid time off, including 4 weeks of paid vacation, 12 paid holidays, and 2 weeks of paid health, wellness, and care leave annually
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave, provided directly or in coordination with state family leave programs
• 3-month paid sabbatical earned for every 7 years of service
You can learn more about open roles in the position description(s) below. If no positions are listed, we invite you to follow our work by email or on social media to stay connected and be first to learn of future opportunities with us.
Opportunities
Principal Director, Program Development
The Principal Director scouts, vets, and recommends each new program area. Then they launch it: conducting and publishing the original research that establishes Sightline’s credibility in the field, developing the strategy, anchoring early fundraising, and helping recruit the program’s permanent director. Once that director is in place, the Principal Director begins again with the next area, in a recurring three- to five-year cycle. The handoff is by design. The goal is a new program that stands on its own, led by someone hired to carry it forward, so the Principal Director can start the next one.
The Principal Director is an accomplished researcher, a skilled writer and speaker, and an experienced program builder. Because the subject changes every few years, we are less interested in deep expertise in any one field than in range.
You would be joining an organization of experienced staff members, fully remote across Cascadia. New programs have always come out of our team of researchers and communicators, kicking ideas around until someone finds the angle. We are more a guild of artisans than a factory, and this role is also built to work that way: you would be working in collaboration with colleagues who know the region and its politics well.
Researcher, Housing + Cities | Permanent, full-time
Our Housing + Cities team works to create housing abundance as a solution to multiple pressing challenges. The Researcher will staff our work as a thought leader, policy researcher, analyst, writer, communicator, and advocate. They will develop and deploy expertise on policies to create housing abundance, primarily zoning reform, but also other types of reforms that Sightline has identified as promising. They will implement strategies for using information and communications to help win passage of these reforms, often in coordination with cross-partisan coalitions. Read more in the full position description.
Researcher, Democracy + Elections | Permanent, full-time
Sightline’s Democracy + Elections program conducts research and educate stakeholders and decisionmakers. We have team members in place to support Alaska, Montana, and Oregon efforts, plus team members who work across all jurisdictions. We are opening a permanent position on this team to support, mostly through research and writing, our efforts in the northern Rockies states of Montana (especially), Idaho, and Wyoming. Although the position will focus on these priorities in the near term, we expect them to lead to other opportunities in future. Read more in the full position description.
Manager, Messaging Strategy
Sightline Institute seeks a Manager of Messaging Strategy, a skilled messaging strategist to translate policy research into values-based narratives, test them rigorously, and guide our researchers, partners, and allied campaigns in their effective use.
We’re looking for someone who believes words matter, a framing strategist, a connoisseur of opinion research, a values-focused communicator, and a coalition-minded relationship-builder. The Manager of Messaging Strategy is someone who studies crosstabs for fun, can spot a winning argument at 50 paces, brainstorms metaphors before breakfast, and knows their way around a legislative vote count. If that’s you, read on.
Researcher, Housing + Cities | Permanent, full-time
Our Housing + Cities team works to create housing abundance as a solution to multiple pressing challenges. The Researcher will staff our work as a thought leader, policy researcher, analyst, writer, communicator, and advocate. They will develop and deploy expertise on policies to create housing abundance, primarily zoning reform, but also other types of reforms that Sightline has identified as promising. They will implement strategies for using information and communications to help win passage of these reforms, often in coordination with cross-partisan coalitions. Read more in the full position description.
Researcher, Democracy + Elections | Permanent, full-time
Sightline’s Democracy + Elections program conducts research and educate stakeholders and decisionmakers. We have team members in place to support Alaska, Montana, and Oregon efforts, plus team members who work across all jurisdictions. We are opening a permanent position on this team to support, mostly through research and writing, our efforts in the northern Rockies states of Montana (especially), Idaho, and Wyoming. Although the position will focus on these priorities in the near term, we expect them to lead to other opportunities in future. Read more in the full position description.
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Every day, the staff of Sightline Institute work together to make Cascadia a global model of sustainability—strong communities, a green economy, and a healthy environment. We believe true sustainability exists at the intersection of environmental health and social justice.
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[vc_column_text]Sightliners are a talented cadre of researchers, communicators, and advocates across Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, supported by solid administrative and fundraising teams. In considering applicants to our jobs, we appreciate a broad array of experiences and backgrounds and are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We continually work to ensure that our audiences, staff, and board reflect the geographic, racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and other demographic diversity of Cascadia.
Sightline offers a competitive compensation plan, robust benefits package, flexible and balanced virtual-first work arrangements, and a collegial culture. This includes:
- A 401(k) plan with employer contribution of 10 percent of salary, regardless of employee contribution level
- Full medical, dental, and vision insurance for the employee and partial coverage for dependents
- Monthly remote-work stipend
- Regular staff gatherings for in-person connection
- 4 weeks of paid vacation, 10 paid holidays, and 2 weeks of paid sick leave per year
- A 3-month paid sabbatical every 7 years
Learn more in the position descriptions below. If none is listed, we invite you to follow our work by email or on Facebook and Twitter to be first to learn of opportunities with us. [/vc_column_text]
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Opportunities
Researcher, Housing + Cities | Permanent, full-time
Our Housing + Cities team works to create housing abundance as a solution to multiple pressing challenges. The Researcher will staff our work as a thought leader, policy researcher, analyst, writer, communicator, and advocate. They will develop and deploy expertise on policies to create housing abundance, primarily zoning reform, but also other types of reforms that Sightline has identified as promising. They will implement strategies for using information and communications to help win passage of these reforms, often in coordination with cross-partisan coalitions. Read more in the full position description.
[button link='{“url”:”https://www.sightline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Sightline-Researcher-Housing-Cities-050824.pdf”,”title”:”Learn More”,”target”:”1″}’]
Researcher, Democracy + Elections | Permanent, full-time
Sightline’s Democracy + Elections program is seizing these opportunities to conduct research and educate stakeholders and decisionmakers. We have team members in place to support the Alaska, Montana, and Oregon efforts, plus team members who work across all jurisdictions. We are opening a permanent
position on this team to support, mostly through research and writing, our efforts in the northern Rockies states of Montana (especially), Idaho, and Wyoming. Although the position will focus on these priorities in the near term, we expect them to lead to other opportunities in future. Read more in the full position description.
[button link='{“url”:”https://www.sightline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Sightline-Researcher-Democracy-Elections.pdf”,”title”:”Learn More”,”target”:”1″}’]
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