PANGEA POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT:

COMMUNITY ORGANIZER (SAN JOSE, CA)

 

A little about us!

Our vision is to live in a world where people have the right to move and resettle across borders with dignity and respect.  We work towards this vision through our mission: defending immigrants against deportation, promoting community education and empowerment, and engaging in policy advocacy.  We also work towards this vision internally by building a horizontal, consensus-based organization.

Our team: We started in 2013 with a team of 1.5 and now are 19.  Our majority POC staff and board of directors are diverse in their migration backgrounds, and extremely supportive of each other.  What brings us together is our dedication to our work, each other, and the larger movement for immigrants’ rights. 

Our work: We operate on three levels: direct legal representation, policy advocacy, and community empowerment and education. Attorneys at Pangea participate in traditional lawyering – zealously representing immigrants in their removal proceedings and appeals. We also act as movement builders – working with clients, their families, and grassroots organizers to create systemic change. Our goal is not only to achieve positive legal outcomes for each client, but also to provide our clients with opportunities for politicization and social transformation, thus advancing the larger movement for immigrant justice. 

Our offices: Pangea’s main office is located in downtown San Francisco, near key immigration offices, including the detained and non-detained immigration courts, ICE, USCIS, and the asylum office. Pangea’s Santa Clara County office is located in the San José Unified School District office, making us accessible to the immigrant community in the South Bay, as well as a broader network of parents, teachers, and students. Our San José office is also within biking distance of the Caltrain Diridon station, downtown San José, San José State University, the historic Alameda district, and the Rose Garden district. 

Our internal work: Pangea is more than a job; it’s an opportunity to become a director and share ownership in an organization that reflects the values we want to see in the world. Over the last 12 years, we have built an organization where everyone receives equal pay, authority is delegated by consensus, and everyone’s responsibilities are equally important regardless of organizational role. All employees serve on 1-2 organizational “hubs” that help run, build, and strengthen our organization. After 9 months of employment, new employees are voted on to become co-directors of the organization and voting members of at least one hub. We are committed to continuing to develop our organizational model guided by our social justice ideals, and we invest significant time in its upkeep and growth.

We are hiring a community organizer based in the South Bay to organize Pangea’s clients, former clients, family members, and other community members in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

Santa Clara County is diverse and vibrant. Mexican, Vietnamese, and many other migrants from all over the world make up almost 40% of the county’s population.  The community is growing daily with new immigrants who move to San José to reunite with family members. San Mateo County, the neighboring county, similarly has a vibrant migrant community and one of the largest in the Bay Area.

Pangea has many community partners in both Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, and our legal and grassroots immigrant rights collaboratives are well organized and welcoming.

San José, where our office is located, is a great place to live and work.  It has all the amenities of a large city, but with a more low-key vibe. The weather is amazing.  It is sunny about 300 days a year, and has an average annual temperature of 70 degrees. San José has incredible access to outdoor adventures all year round, including expansive open space preserves, Pinnacles National Park, Big Basin Redwoods, and the Santa Cruz beach and mountains. 

Primary Responsibilities

  • Identify, recruit, train, and develop leaders from among Pangea clients, former clients, and other directly-impacted individuals and their families in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties;

  • Support campaigns directed at Legalization For All/Papeles Para Todos, preventing the expansion of/shutting down ICE detention centers, and in support of sanctuary laws in San Mateo County;

  • Lead and support individual anti-deportation campaigns for clients, in partnership with the attorney representing the client, to release a detained person, stop a person’s imminent deportation, call on ICE to use discretion in an individual case, etc.;

  • Facilitate regular organizing meetings/calls among clients and other directly affected community members;

  • Plan and coordinate events and actions in support of campaigns;

  • Mobilize community members and leaders to participate in actions and events; and

  • Help to maintain and grow Pangea as a democratically-run organization, and actively participate in an organizational “hub.”

Required Skills and Experience

  • Fluent in spoken Spanish and English;

  • Experience working as an immigrant rights organizer or other labor or community organizing (3+ years);

  • Experience doing base building and leadership development with directly affected communities;

  • Highly detail oriented, meticulous, self-organized, and self-motivated;

  • Experience creating on-line petitions, using social media as well as traditional media for public campaigns;

  • Able to balance organizing and organizational responsibilities; and

  • Has access to a vehicle and can work some evenings and weekends to be accessible to clients and community members.

Bonus Skills and Experience

  • Fluent in written Spanish and English;

  • Experience with popular education pedagogies;

  • Experience doing policy advocacy;

  • Experience doing communications work;

  • Experience working for a horizontal worker-led organization; and

  • Experience working with survivors of trauma.

 

Alignment with Pangea’s Points of Unity

We are looking for someone who can relate to and embody our Points of Unity.  These are the internal organizational principles that our team created together in 2015, and we frequently turn to them when making difficult decisions.

  • We believe that all people are equal in rights and should be free to move. We dream of a world without borders.

  • We were created to fill a gap in free and low fee deportation defense services.

  • We recognize that education, legal empowerment, and policy advocacy are essential to changing perspectives around migration and migrants’ rights.

  • We believe in the oneness of all people and we embrace the common humanity of every person; our interactions are guided by love.

  • We treat every person we meet as an individual with a unique story.

  • We are committed to excellence and providing high quality services.

  • The law is a living document. Its flaws do not constrict us. We use it strategically to ask boldly for the best for our community.

  • We are positive and solution oriented. We value fresh attitudes, innovation, and creativity. We challenge conventional thinking in order to redefine what is possible.

  • We practice humility. We listen, learn, reflect, evaluate, and grow.

  • We value our team’s individual and collective well-being. We create mechanisms to support well-roundedness and our team’s mental, physical, and spiritual health.

  • We recognize a tension between serving as many people in need as possible, taking challenging, legally complex cases, and valuing our own health and well-being. We strive to maintain a balance between these three goals.

  • We are committed to equity regarding compensation, responsibilities, and shared ownership.

  • We strive to create an organization that is both financially sustainable and autonomous.

     

Benefits and compensation

First 9 months: The first 9 months at Pangea are considered a “sponge” period.  During this time, an employee receives and absorbs significant training and orientation around our horizontal model.  During the sponge period, an employee is a non-voting member of the team, and receives the same salary as all other teammates (currently $85,000/year).

After 9 months: After successfully completing the sponge period, an employee is voted on as a full member of the team. Their title is updated to that of Co-Director, and they get voting rights.

In terms of benefits:

  • Staff have a 4-day work week (Mon-Thurs) and our physical office is closed Fridays.

  • We offer health insurance through Kaiser (Silver Plan) at no cost to staff, and cover 50% of dependent premiums.

  • We offer up to $4,400 per year in health reimbursements for things like glasses, therapy, or co-pays.

  • We offer up to $5,000 per year in childcare reimbursements.

  • We have a Simple IRA plan with an automatic 2% employer contribution. 

  • We pay for professional membership fees, trainings, coaching, and staff development.

  • Our vacation benefits start at 12 days in the first year and increase with tenure up to 20 days per year.

  • We close our office for 13 holidays a year, as well as a week over the winter holidays.

Application instructions

The start date of this position is flexible. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. We will start evaluating applications on August 17, 2026. Please submit a cover letter, resume, and three references to jobs@pangealegal.org. In your cover letter, please answer the following three questions:

1) How has your personal background or experiences, professional or otherwise, prepared you for the kind of immigration work Pangea does?

2) What experiences do you have with collectively run organizations, or what draws you to a non-hierarchical organization?  

3) What makes you a perfect fit for the Community Organizer position?

 

Please indicate “Community Organizer” in the subject line of your email. 

We encourage immigrants and those directly impacted by Pangea’s work to apply. Pangea is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.