Senior External Affairs Officer - Reproductive Healthcare (Remote)

Organizational Summary

Upstream USA is a fast-growing, national nonprofit committed to ensuring that equitable, patient-centered contraceptive care is made available to any patient and is fully integrated into the health system as part of basic health care. We envision a future where all patients are screened for their contraceptive needs and offered patient-centered contraceptive counseling that’s free from bias, noncoercive, trauma-informed and delivered by knowledgeable providers and support staff following best medical practices and evidence-based guidelines. We believe all patients should be able to access the contraceptive service of their choice – when they want it and where it is convenient for them to get it.

We do this by partnering with healthcare organizations, providing them free training, education and technical assistance. Surveys from patients receiving care at Upstream-trained healthcare organizations consistently show that patients feel heard and respected, and are able to access the contraceptive method of their choice.

To meet the growing needs in our country, Upstream has launched a national expansion to transform contraceptive care in more than 700 healthcare organizations across the United States by 2030, reaching 5 million patients of reproductive age. Already, our work with more than 130 healthcare partners in nearly forty percent of the country helps integrate much needed contraceptive services across the spectrum of healthcare, including primary care practices.

Upstream is funded primarily through philanthropic individuals and foundations, and does not accept funding from pharmaceutical companies. Upstream’s budget has grown from $1.7 million just six years ago to approximately $60 million in 2024. Upstream’s work has also garnered attention from many leading publications including Harvard Public Health,  Bloomberg, MedPage Today, and Politico.

Position Summary

The Senior External Affairs Officer will play a key role in the external affairs function of Upstream’s Development Team during an exciting time of continued organizational growth. Reporting to the Director, External Affairs, the Senior External Affairs Officer will support Upstream’s broadening portfolio of influencers, including philanthropic advisors, former public officials, academics, thought leaders, advocates and other high-touch stakeholders. The Senior External Affairs Officer will be responsible for tracking external priorities, their progress, and deliverables, including overseeing and deepening a portfolio of top-tier relationships in partnership with other teams. The Senior External Affairs Officer will support the Director in growing the function, creating systems and processes to streamline internal workflow and external engagement and provide administrative support where needed. This role is highly cross-functional and will require managing up and across teams internally, including Expansion, Policy, Program and Marketing/Communications. The ideal candidate will bring a background in skilled strategic relationship management, project management and communications in support of Upstream’s efforts to engage new ambassadors and champions with our mission and goals. This is an internal and external facing role, best fit for someone who is comfortable working both behind-the-scenes internally to advance relationships as well as in the room with external, high-level stakeholders. This is a stimulating and rewarding role for someone who loves to connect people and ideas in service of organization-wide impact, is a self-starter and thrives in a fast-paced environment.

The candidate will leverage their excellent project management skills alongside an understanding of relationship management and organizational strategy, utilizing strong written and verbal communication skills to oversee a portfolio of diverse stakeholders with differing perspectives on Upstream’s work. The Senior External Affairs Officer will be a collaborative, team-player, who genuinely enjoys working with others, and at the same time, be able to balance priorities as an independent contributor. The role requires familiarity with direct stakeholder management, project management and with the systems and processes that support relationship management. This role is best for someone who is comfortable with ambiguity and can take initiative to problem-solve. Attention to detail, strong relationship management instincts, internal and external diplomacy, organization, project management and high levels of discretion are critical for this position. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead on strategic engagement for Upstream influencer relationships and external affairs function in collaboration with the Director of External Affairs and other members of other teams, including development
• Deploy direct relationship management accountabilities, including supporting cross-functional teams in their portfolio stewardship as needed to support goals
• Partner with internal stakeholders to identify, cultivate and engage external relationships, assessing their impact on organizational goals and priorities
• Independently produce strong executive communications content in multiple voices with high-touch influencers who have the potential to advance Upstream’s mission and vision for national impact and scale
• Independently execute relationship and other external strategies with little oversight
• Supports implementation of the strategy and execution of in-person convenings, meetings, and stakeholder or cross-functional events with high-level influencers in partnership with the Director, External Affairs and other Development and External Affairs Team staff
• Prepares highly-personalized stakeholder communications across a variety of formats for Upstream’s stakeholder audience (reports, talking points, slides, acknowledgements, and correspondence)
• Oversees a portfolio of key relationships and/or cross-functional management, for, for example, specific geographies, research expertise, development relationships, etc.
• Represents Upstream externally with government officials, donors, academics, and other influential leaders and/or as behind-the-scenes account manager
• Ensure that Upstream’s key stakeholders understand Upstream’s vision, strategy and core program model and are engaged in support of cross-functional goals
• Drive best practice relationship management in collaboration with a set of internal Upstream colleagues to support best practice relationship management, with a focus on cross-functional relationships
• Project-manage long-term deliverables from inception to implementation in collaboration with the Director, cross-functional team members, and other members of the Development and External Affairs team
• Additional duties as assigned

Required Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills and Ability:

Upstream celebrates and fosters an inclusive work environment and encourages people of all identities, perspectives and backgrounds to apply.

• 6-7+ years of relationship management experience (development, fundraising, policy, public affairs, philanthropy, policy, for-profit investor relations, or similar) with increasing levels of responsibility
• Experienced in leading a portfolio of work in an independent manner
• Exceptional writing ability and capable of distilling complex content for sophisticated audiences into a variety of formats (talking points, presentation decks, grant reports/proposals, correspondence, etc.)
• Understanding of relationship management processes, pipelines, and tracking mechanisms within a CRM environment
• Skilled communicator and listener
• Highly organized
• Adept at building relationships— especially with high profile individuals—and influencing others both internally and externally
• Strong command of various Google slides and other Google suite tools
• Record of exceptional project management ability with ability to manage multiple competing priorities
• Awareness of the latest trends and industry practices in healthcare, public health or gender equity
• Demonstrated ability to operate with a high-degree of urgency, self-motivation, focus on goals and commitment to high-quality work
• Team player and strong individual contributor with the ability to manage up and across functions
• Keen attention to detail and able to exercise discretion
• Comfort in an internally facing role as well as with external audiences
• Commitment to Upstream’s mission and to mission-driven work
• Ability to effectively deliver and receive both positive and constructive feedback
• Proficiency with Salesforce, Google and Microsoft Suites

 Other Upstream Staff Expectations

• Upstream USA’s COVID-19 Vaccine Policy requires employees to have completed a COVID-19 vaccine primary series unless a medical or religious exemption is approved. As a condition of employment, newly hired employees must provide proof of their COVID-19 vaccination or, if applicable, request a medical or religious exemption.
• All Upstreamers must also be able to attend work-related in-person meetings and functions as needed.
• In our hybrid work environments, there is a basic expectation that our Upstreamers will ensure that their work from home setups will have reliable access to phone and Internet to ensure connectivity to their teams.
• At Upstream we gather for moments that matter for training, teaming and connection. Our teams come together for occasional in person meetings and organizational retreats. As part of our hybrid work practices, this travel expectation will be applicable for all Upstreamers, even those based remotely.
• Engage in EDI learning & development, community engagement, and culture building activities up to 5% FTE (i.e., 2 work hours per 40 hour work week). Examples include attending trainings, conferences and summits, volunteering time, participating in local community events, mentoring and learning, participating in Communities of Belonging or Culture Council, developing language acquisition, learning universal design principles, and using professional development benefits for EDI topics, among other activities.

Attributes

The ideal candidate will embody and embrace our core values which serve as our operating principles:

• We keep our mission at the center; Upstream's mission is to ensure that equitable, patient-centered contraceptive care is basic healthcare.
• We trust each other; we are reliable, empathetic, compassionately direct, and confident in each others’ ability to do the same
• We work every day to build an equitable, diverse and inclusive culture; we respect the backgrounds contexts and experiences of individuals, teams and partners in our interactions
• We bring joy to our work; we create opportunities to celebrate, connect and strengthen relationships with one another.

Travel Requirements

This role will require up to 25% business travel. All Upstreamers can expect a minimum of 8 days of business travel per year to attend 1-2 annual organizational retreats and two annual team/department meetings.

Upstream Benefits

Upstream USA offers a comprehensive benefit package including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, long and short term disability, 401K with a match, generous vacation, personal, sick and holiday time off, parental leave, professional development and a fitness and cell phone allowance for all full time employees and part time employees who work a minimum of 24 hours per week.  

Hiring Range

The hiring range for this role is $108,800 - $130,000. Final offers for this position will be based upon several factors including the scope of the role, market compensation analysis, position requirements, candidate’s experience level and capabilities, internal pay equity considerations and will be made within the parameters of Upstream USA's compensation framework and philosophy.

Hiring Process

Candidates who advance in our preliminary review process will have an opportunity to discuss the position, their employment background and lived experience with a member of our talent acquisition team by telephone. Those who advance to subsequent steps in our interview process may participate in up to three rounds of meetings by Zoom or in person and in a thought exercise/case study assignment. Each round could consist of multiple meetings with various Upstreamers.

EDI Vision Statement 

Internally, we envision promoting equity by reducing disparities in the Upstream talent lifecycle and engagement, cultivating a diverse workforce and inclusive culture, and fostering power sharing when we make decisions.

 EDI Guiding Principles

Through Equity, both in the workplace and in contraceptive care, we address root causes that enable disparities to occur, acknowledge that different resources and opportunities may be needed to reach fairer outcomes, and implement systems-level changes that are sustainable over time.

Through Diversity, we acknowledge, respect, and celebrate the collective mixture of differences and similarities of Upstreamers and our community partners. At Upstream, we value the diversity of identities at all intersections, while at the same time centering racial diversity.

Through Inclusion, we succeed at creating a culture of belonging that embraces differences in identities and experiences by building trust, joy, and psychological safety. We cherish and elevate these differences through power-sharing in how things get done internally and in service of our mission.

Communities of Belonging

Serving as employee resource groups for Upstreamers, Communities of Belonging assist in advancing our equity, diversity, and inclusion journey. They assist in instilling organizational values in our work and support our EDI vision. Open to all employees, Communities of Belonging create opportunities for leadership development, community engagement, support, and resource mobilization.

Upstream Careers

At Upstream, we embrace diversity. We nurture it and we thrive on it because it benefits our organization, our partners, and our community. Our goal is to attract, develop and retain exceptional people, and to create a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential.  Upstream is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, genetic information, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know. Learn more  about working at Upstream, our values, and our commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Upstream USA participates in E-Verify.

Upstream Headquarters

2 Oliver Street, Suite 402, Boston, MA 02109

www.upstream.org

No phone calls please.

Be advised that we do not ever conduct hiring interviews via text or email. Please protect yourself by learning more about our hiring practices and common red flags to look out for.