JOB OPENINGS
- Location: Denver Metro Area
- Compensation: $38.04/hour for 12 months ($70,000 for full 1-year contract)
- Position Type: Contractor, 40 hours per week for 12 months
- Start Date: ASAP
- Apply by December 1, 2025
About the Role
SWEEP’s Housing Forward Colorado (HFC) campaign is seeking a Contract Organizer to help expand and diversify grassroots support for pro-housing reforms in Denver and other communities along the Front Range with an emphasis on missing middle housing. This role combines community organizing, coalition building, public education, and event coordination.
You’ll work directly with the HFC team, local housing advocates, businesses, elected officials, and community groups to build momentum for middle housing as Colorado cities update their zoning and housing policies. This may entail some travel around the Denver metro area as well as evening and weekend work to attend important community meetings.
This is a unique opportunity to shape one of Colorado’s most important housing reforms from the ground up.
Key Responsibilities
Community Outreach & Public Education:
- Find opportunities to deliver presentations and engage residents at community meetings, neighborhood associations, district meetings, and local events.
- Create a tracker to monitor the process and schedule for priority updates to municipal plans and codes.
- Organize and support public education activities including walking tours, workshops, speakers, and other events.
- Launch and execute social media campaigns to educate and mobilize residents.
Coalition Expansion & Networking
- Build partnerships with new constituencies to connect them with pro-housing advocacy, including businesses, faith groups, architects, developers, and community leaders.
- Develop relationships with city councilmembers, planning board members, city staff, and local advocates.
- Support local pro-housing groups and organizing efforts, and connect new volunteers with local pro-housing groups.
Public Comment Mobilization
- Recruit and prepare community members to speak at public hearings and district-level meetings.
- Provide messaging and logistical support before and during meetings.
Message Testing & Feedback
- Gather insights from community interactions to inform and refine our messaging and strategy.
Qualifications
- Experience in community organizing, advocacy, or campaign work
- Excellent communication, relationship-building, and public speaking skills
- Social media management experience
- Comfort working both independently and in teams
- Passion for housing affordability and equitable urban development
- Spanish language fluency or multicultural organizing experience is a plus
- Existing relationships with target constituencies in the Denver Metro Area is a plus.
Interested applicants should submit their resumes to mfrommer@swenergy.org.
Location: The position is based in Colorado; the Associate can work remotely or from the SWEEP office in Boulder or Denver.
Work schedule: Full-time. We will also consider applications for contractual applicants.
Deadline for applications: By midnight on December 12, 2025.
About SWEEP: Founded in 2001, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) is a nonprofit organization that works to ensure a healthy, equitable, and low-carbon future by advancing energy efficiency, beneficial electrification, and clean transportation solutions in the Southwest states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. We achieve these goals through advocacy, research, and education. SWEEP works closely with state and local elected officials, conservation community partners, public utility commissions, state and federal agencies, utilities, clean energy businesses, and national laboratories. We strive to foster a workplace culture of policies and practices demonstrating our commitment to equity and inclusion.
Position description: SWEEP seeks a dynamic industrial energy efficiency and decarbonization specialist and policy advocate to lead its efforts to accelerate decarbonization of Colorado’s and the southwest region’s industrial sector.
The successful candidate will collaborate with other stakeholders such as utilities and state energy offices to promote industrial decarbonization technologies and strategies in Colorado and other southwest states. The Industrial Specialist will engage with several policy proceedings already occurring within Colorado and will also promote demonstrations of developing technologies such as industrial heat pumps, in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. Additional activities are described below.
While this could be a remote position, applicants must reside in Colorado and be able to travel regularly within the state to attend in-person public meetings and engage with stakeholders. The position will report to SWEEP’s Executive Director and collaborate closely with SWEEP staff in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah.
Key responsibilities
- Work with the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) and Xcel Energy to fund and organize pilot projects to demonstrate industrial heat pumps and possibly other electrification technologies.
- Collaborate with other stakeholders to provide input on CEO’s industrial decarbonization roadmap and the GEMM Rulemaking update.
- Collaborate with other stakeholders to advocate for adding more funding to CEO’s industrial clean air grants program in 2027.
- Working with SWEEP’s Utility Program, advocate for incorporating electrification technologies into the Strategic Energy Management (SEM) and other industrial programs of Xcel Energy, Platte River Power Authority, and other key utilities in the southwest states.
- Promote best practices in energy efficiency and demand response programs for large data centers in the southwest states.
- Write blogs and white papers on best practices in promoting industrial decarbonization, drawing from successful work in Colorado and other states.
Minimum qualifications
- 5+ years of experience in energy or environmental policy or related fields.
- Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Science, or a related field.
- Familiarity with energy efficiency technologies and policy.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills and strong analytical skills.
- Commitment to clean energy solutions, sustainability, equity, and consumer protections.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience in the energy field.
- Knowledge of energy efficiency technologies, energy efficiency program design, and demand-side management strategies.
- Experience related to climate and energy policy or public utility regulation.
Compensation and benefits
This role’s full-time starting salary ranges from $75,000 to $90,000, depending on experience. SWEEP’s excellent benefits package includes health and dental coverage, a retirement plan with a match, 26 days of vacation and holidays, paid sick leave, parental leave, and life insurance. After five years of employment, SWEEP staff are eligible for a three-month paid sabbatical.
We are committed to building a more diverse and inclusive organization and conservation movement. We encourage applicants from all cultures, race, ethnicity, geographies, political affiliations, sexual orientations, gender identities, and all other identities protected by law. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity employer.
To apply: If you are interested in this job, please submit a cover letter and resume to hiring@swenergy.org. If you have questions about the position, contact Neil Kolwey at nkolwey@swenergy.org or Elise Jones at ejones@swenergy.org.
