Service Employees International Union

Job Title: Director, Racial Justice Center

Department: Racial Justice Center

Location: Washington, DC (Headquarters)

Employment Type: Full-Time, Exempt

Salary: $162,520

About SEIU

We are the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a union of about 2 million diverse members in healthcare, the public sector, and property services. We believe in and fight for our Vision for a Just Society: where all workers are valued and all people respected—no matter where we come from or what color we are; where all families and communities can thrive; and where we leave a better and more equitable world for generations to come. We are an anti-racist union determined to check corporate power and uproot structural racism through unions—worker power and collective action—and government—legislative and political action. We fight for Unions for All and a Government that Works for All so that all of us, across race and place, can have power together in unions and participate fully in our democracy.

About the Racial Justice Center

The Racial Justice Center (RJC) was established in 2017 to anchor SEIU’s conviction that racial justice is fundamental to building union power and achieving economic justice. The RJC is now poised to move into a new chapter of its work. In this next phase, the RJC will serve as a strategy partner, supporting SEIU to integrate racial justice across campaigns and programs. The RJC will drive systemic change through research and analysis to inform SEIU’s campaign strategies to build power to win Unions for All and end poverty wages forever, writing new rules so that all workers—of every race, from every place—can organize across employers, industries, sectors, and geographies.

Position Summary

SEIU is seeking an experienced and visionary leader to serve as the Director of the Racial Justice Center (RJC). The right candidate will be ready to embrace the challenge of taking the RJC and its team into its next chapter. This leader will partner with senior leadership, staff, and partners to develop and embed racial justice strategies across campaigns, programs, and priorities. The RJC will specifically be relied on to bring in outside thinking around racial justice, support the union in evolving its analysis around race and the economy, track and assess the racial justice impact of our strategies, and promote key learnings and successful strategies across the union.

This position requires an agile leader who has experience working within longstanding legacy institutions, especially those with a public mission and democratic membership structures. The Director will be stepping into the role as the purpose of the RJC is shifting, so it will be particularly important that the next RJC Director have the listening and relationship-building skills to inspire action, navigate complexity and fluidity, foster alignment across diverse teams and stakeholders and build a high-performing team.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Shape and drive the strategic vision of SEIU’s Racial Justice Center, ensuring its work advances systemic racial justice goals and positions the union to advance its economic justice mission.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership of the International Union, embedding racial justice strategies into programs and decision-making to achieve long-term organizational impact.
• Cultivate and empower a high-performing team within the Racial Justice

Program Management

• Partner with SEIU leadership to design, implement, and advance Racial Justice Center programs that drive SEIU’s goals.
• Conduct deep listening on an ongoing basis to ascertain when, where and how racial justice analysis and strategies can be integrated into campaigns and geographic plans.
• Oversee full program management, including design, budgeting, implementation, evaluation, and reporting, while ensuring cross-functional teams meet milestones to ensure progress.
• Develop and scale tools, models, and approaches that strengthen long-term racial justice capacity across SEIU’s organizational

• Ensure all program operations align with SEIU’s policies, resolutions, and organizational standards of accountability.
• Establish clear benchmarks, accountability measures, and evaluation processes that track progress and demonstrate impact in racial justice

Research & Analysis

• Conduct research and provide data-driven insights to inform SEIU’s racial justice
• Provide information, data and support to ensure campaign, political, and geographic plans have an intentional racial justice analysis and strategy.

Internal Communication & Engagement

• Develop an internal engagement approach that ensures the RJC’s work and findings are regularly and appropriately disseminated to SEIU stakeholders.
• Communicate key racial justice work and findings to SEIU leadership and
• Partner with SEIU’s anti-racist organization change efforts, led by its BOLD Center, to foster ongoing alignment and connection between its internal and external racial justice efforts.

Partnerships

• Build strong, trust-based relationships with SEIU locals and affiliates to advance shared racial justice priorities and ensure alignment across the
• Cultivate and maintain partnerships with racial justice organizations, thought leaders, and movement allies to stay at the forefront of emerging strategies and
• Translate new learning, best practices, and innovations into actionable insights that inform SEIU’s approach to advancing racial justice.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Minimum of 10 years of experience advancing racial justice in a union or comparable social justice organization setting, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience working with senior leadership of a union or other large social justice organization, providing strategic counsel and aligning work with organizational
• Working knowledge of labor and labor
• Deep expertise in racial and economic justice theory and practice, systems change, and organizing, with the ability to translate vision into action.
• Demonstrated commitment to social and economic justice, with the capacity to build trust and work effectively across diverse communities and cultural contexts.
• Experience supervising, mentoring, and developing diverse staff while cultivating inclusive, high-performing team cultures.
• Demonstrated ability to direct cross-functional teams, manage through complexity, and successfully achieve strategic objectives.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence, inspire, and present to a wide range of stakeholders.
• High emotional intelligence and cultural competence, particularly in navigating sensitive or challenging topics.
• Ability to adapt to ambiguity, assess complex situations, and develop innovative, solutions-oriented approaches.
• Experience with fiscal management, including developing and managing annual

Physical Requirements

Work is primarily performed in an office setting but may occur in other environments as needed to fulfill job responsibilities. This role requires travel and extended hours.

Benefits

SEIU staff enjoy top notch benefits including comprehensive health benefits, major medical, dental and vision for employee and eligible dependents, domestic partner benefits, competitive salaries, generous holidays and vacation policies, and both a pension plan and a 401(K) Plan.