Lead Organizer — Michigan
FOR: A new left-of-center organization working to ensure society addresses the harms and risks of artificial intelligence.
About us
Artificial intelligence is going to reshape every part of American life — from how we work and what our kids learn to how we raise our families and what our democracy looks like. Right now, the people making those decisions are a handful of Big Tech billionaires and the investors funding them. Everyone else is being asked to go along for the ride.
We are at a critical crossroads in the fight to protect American workers, American families, American consumers, and the communities we call home. The same Big Tech billionaires and corporations who have spent the last decade concentrating wealth, gutting labor protections, and turning public discourse into an attention-economy slot machine now want unfettered control over an even more powerful technology that will reshape every corner of American life.
We believe the American people, not unaccountable billionaires and corporations, should make those decisions. That's why we're working to build a movement that takes on Big AI, and ensures that federal legislation regulating this technology becomes law soon. Our core demands for politicians are simple:
Defend the essential freedoms of Americans – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – from harmful impacts of AI.
Ensure the economy works for all Americans, not just Big AI and tech billionaires.
Don't put our humanity at risk: no development of superintelligent AI at home or abroad or replacement of humans.
We exist because ** Humans First** — the bipartisan organization that opened this fight — concluded that the fastest path to federal legislation runs through two grassroots organizations pushing for similar policy goals: one organizing conservatives, one organizing progressives and liberals. Humans First is now the conservative arm.** We are the left-of-center arm, spun out of the same founding team.**
We are well-funded, we are moving fast, and we are hiring a small team that will build our organizing program from the ground up.
The opportunity
Michigan is one of the most strategically important states in the country for our work. Data center construction is a major flashpoint with active grassroots energy, including coordinated rallies in six cities in April 2026. The University of Michigan, Michigan State, and Wayne State anchor major campus organizing environments where college students and educators are directly experiencing the disruption caused by AI in the classroom and in the early-career job market. Workers face growing digital surveillance on the job, and the humiliating experience of having to train their own AI replacement.
We're hiring a Lead Organizer to build our Michigan operation from scratch. You will be the senior organizer in the state — running real organizing yourself, working alongside one junior Organizer, and holding the strategic coherence of our Michigan program. You will be the face of our work in Michigan to partners, members, allied organizations, and the press. Within the scope of our theory of change, you will make tactical assessments about which fights we engage in, which leaders we develop, and how we show up in a complex political environment.
You will spend most of your time organizing — one-on-ones, leader development, structure tests, hard conversations, building relationships with other member organizations — not sitting in conference calls on Zoom.
What you'll do
Build relationships and credibility with key Michigan-based Labor Unions, faith communities, community organizations engaged in data center fights, and student/academic worker organizations
Run direct organizing — develop organic leaders, hold one-on-one conversations, run structure tests, train member-leaders to do their own organizing — across at least one priority lane (likely labor-and-campus, with data center coalition work as a secondary lane)
Make tactical calls about where our limited capacity in Michigan goes — which fights we engage, which we don't, which partners we deepen with, which we keep at arm's length
Coach and coordinate with the Michigan Field Organizer, holding shared accountability for the Michigan program
Represent the organization externally in Michigan — to coalition partners, to media, to elected officials and their staffs, at convenings
Hold our message and strategic frame under pressure when allies and partners pull toward unstrategic directions
Identify and execute on opportunities to raise the political salience of AI accountability in 2026 primary races between now and August
Provide feedback from the field — what's landing, what isn't, which constituencies are organizable, which campaigns are moving people — to shape our broader strategy
Lay the groundwork for a permanent Michigan operation that can grow as our funding scales
Who you are
You don't have to fit every line below. The strongest candidates will fit most.
A real organizer, not just a mobilizer. You have run actual structure tests, developed leaders into organizers, held one-on-ones as core practice, and stuck with the slow work of building durable relational power (and all the tensions that entails). You can name specific leaders you've developed and the conversation/organizing arcs that brought them in. You know the difference between turning out a list and building a base.
Senior enough to lead, junior enough to still be doing the work. You have 4+ years of organizing experience, including some experience leading peers or coordinating teams, but you're not looking for a desk job. You want to keep doing the organizing while taking on more strategic and program-level responsibility.
Hard-conversation skills. You can sit with someone whose politics differ from yours and have a real conversation about AI without retreating from values clashes or getting defensive. You can persuade — actually shift positions — not just rally the already-aligned.
Working knowledge of at least one of: organizing inside a Union, or faith-based, identity-based, or place-based organizing inside a real membership organization. You know what it means to earn standing inside a host structure rather than start a new one from outside.
Cultural literacy with working-class voters across lines of difference. You can talk to autoworkers, nurses, educators, faith communities, and rural and exurban Michiganders without sounding like a coastal elite or a partisan operative. You hold your values while operating in cultural registers different from the one you personally inhabit.
Strategic discipline. You understand why a populist class-axis frame matters — workers and communities versus concentrated AI capital, not Democrats versus Republicans, not urban versus rural — and you can hold that frame under pressure when others pull toward easier framings.
Self-direction in ambiguity. You can build something with limited supervision in an organization that's still being built. You don't need a fully-developed playbook. You have a bias for action, can make calls and stand behind them.
Curiosity about AI as an issue. You don't need to be an AI expert, but you need to be willing to come up the curve quickly enough to make the fight real for people. Genuine interest matters more than prior credentials. We make use of AI tools and technology ourselves when it helps us be more effective.
Michigan roots or strong Michigan credibility. You live in Michigan or have prior organizing work in Michigan that gives you standing with the state's organizing infrastructure. Parachute hires will spend their first months building credibility before they can do real work, and we need to move faster than that.
Likely backgrounds
Strong candidates will tend to come from one of these profiles:
Senior organizer or rank-and-file member-leader at a Michigan-based Union local, state council, or labor federation, especially in healthcare, education, manufacturing, or service-sector Unions
Lead organizer at a faith or community-based organization especially in the Detroit, Ann Arbor, or Lansing regions
Regional field director or senior field organizer on a recent Michigan ballot initiative, primary challenger campaign, or persuasion-heavy electoral effort
Non-paid volunteer experience counts! This list is non-exhaustive. We care more about the capabilities above than the résumé line.
How we'll evaluate you
We run a structured, scorecard-driven process.
Career review — a detailed walk through your last 3–4 roles, with particular focus on specifics of organizing work and leaders you've developed.
Strategic alignment interview — a deep dive on your alignment to our mission, values, strategy, and perspective on AI to ensure this is the right fit in both directions.
Reference calls — including at least one organic leader you developed who can speak to your organizing practice from the inside.
Compensation and benefits
Salary: $120,000 annualized
Structure: Six-month contract starting summer 2026, with possibility to convert to a permanent role assuming mutual fit.
Benefits: Medical / dental / vision, fully covered for employee and dependents; unlimited PTO.
Location: Detroit or Ann Arbor preferred; other Michigan locations considered for the right candidate. This role requires Michigan residency.
Travel: Significant in-state travel; occasional national travel for convenings and training.
How to apply
Please send a résumé and a short statement of interest to: alex@humansfirst.com
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the role is filled. We are moving quickly.
Equal opportunity
We are an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a team that reflects the country we are trying to organize — across race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, age, and veteran status. If you need an accommodation at any point in the process, please let us know.