Senior Director of Partnerships - South

Career Stage: Director

Travel: 25%

Location: Remotely based in the Southern U.S.; strong preference for candidates who are based in North Carolina

Organizational Summary

Upstream USA is a fast-growing, national nonprofit working to expand opportunity by reducing unplanned pregnancy across the U.S. We envision a future where patient-centered contraceptive care is an integral part of primary care in all settings, for all people. In this future, patients are screened for their contraceptive needs; are offered patient-centered contraceptive counseling, free from bias and coercion, provided by knowledgeable providers and support staff following evidence-based guidelines; and can receive any contraceptive method of their choosing, during the same visit if they want, without logistical barriers.

Upstream promotes health equity by partnering with health centers to provide training and technical assistance to increase access to contraception, and address disparities and biases in contraceptive care. Surveys of patients getting care at Upstream-trained health centers consistently show that patients feel listened to, heard, and are able to access the contraceptive method of their choice. Our work empowers patients to decide if and when they want to become pregnant, a critical step towards improving maternal health, as well as positive outcomes for parents, children, and their families.

To meet the growing needs in our country, Upstream has launched a national expansion to transform contraceptive care in more than 700 health centers across the United States by 2030, reaching 5 million women at risk for unplanned pregnancy. Already, our work with more than 125 healthcare partners in nearly forty percent of the country helps to 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 four years ago to approximately $40 million in 2022. Upstream’s work has also garnered attention from many leading publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNN, Vox, Forbes, and Marie Claire.

Reporting to the National Director of Partnerships, the Sr. Director of Partnerships (SRDP) is responsible for cultivating strategic relationships with healthcare organizations, providers, and key leaders in the field throughout their region. They lead and guide partnership recruitment efforts via personal and team recruitment efforts to healthcare organizations.  They supervise a recruitment delivery team and are responsible for coaching, mentoring and guiding the staff. The SRDP will support the National Director of Partnerships, as needed, to recommend partnerships, implement strategies, and identify required resources for excellence in recruiting efforts. The Sr. Director of Partnerships (SRDP) will join the dynamic, high-performing Partnerships & Community Engagement (PCE) team responsible for delivering healthcare organization partnerships ready to engage in programming. The position will build relationships with community leaders, healthcare executives and key staff to champion Upstream’s intervention model and liaise between health centers and internal Upstream teams to ensure the development of timely and successful partnerships. The position will provide leadership and strategic support, carefully shepherding the partnership through its formative stage as well as developing and executing creative strategies to further contraceptive access through community engagement. Work-related travel throughout the region and nationally is required.

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

Relationship Development & Health Center Recruitment (60%)

• Develop collaborative recruitment strategies. Research and review the landscape to identify potential partners.
• Execute recruitment of health centers, hospitals and other healthcare facilities through virtual and (when safe) in-person communications to inform agencies of the opportunity to partner with Upstream and receive our training and technical assistance intervention.
  • Manage a robust pipeline of agencies with 35 (estimated) agencies in active recruitment stages in accordance with predicted recruitment cycle timelines.
  • Ensure pipeline progression to active recruitment as agencies move through the cycle.
• Formalize partnerships through completion of memorandums of understanding (MOU) and incorporate Upstream’s robust data collection requirements into the recruitment process. Work collaboratively with the Partner Marketing team to ensure agency value proposition and messaging is aligned with recruitment strategy.
• During recruitment, work closely with the Practice Transformation Team (PTT) and the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team to support a partnership and ensure a smooth transition of agency relationships once the partnership is confirmed.
• Use knowledge of the agency to offer PTT advice on project scope, budget, etc. Support the PTT to ensure the implementation is aligned with the organization's best-known practices and the needs of the partner healthcare center.

Ongoing Partnership Management, Strategic Support, & Project Work (20%)

• Identify and cultivate relationships with healthcare leaders and community stakeholders to lift up the importance of reproductive health equity and encourage more health systems to formalize partnerships with Upstream.
• Maintain a breadth of knowledge about current healthcare trends in the region, emerging issues, policy and innovations that might impact Upstream and relay these to appropriate colleagues and use this to develop recruitment and community engagement strategies that foster an environment enabling Upstream’s success.
• Be an agent for change, seeking continuous improvement, quality, and efficiency within all aspects of Upstream’s work both internally and externally. Engage with colleagues to think “outside the box” to increase partnerships (e.g. validation from other health agencies or high-level government leaders, incentive offerings, etc.).
• Help research and market the growth of Upstream, including identifying places to amplify the work of Upstream and our partner agencies (webinars, conferences, sponsorships etc).

Supervision (20%)

• Responsible for coaching, mentoring, and guiding Partnership & Community Engagement Team on recruitment execution, relationship management, and accountability.
• Facilitates sharing of key learnings from program delivery with PCE team for continuous learning
• Collaborates within and across departments to continuously calibrate against established recruitment practices while providing support for continuous quality improvement.

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

• Demonstrated success in selling a complex product, service or program to institutions or companies (as opposed to individuals). The key objective of this role is to recruit health centers to participate in Upstream’s practice transformation program.
• Excellent relationship management skills and interpersonal skills, with the ability to develop productive working relationships across a diverse spectrum of partners and colleagues.
• Possesses strong listening skills, training in motivational interviewing a plus
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience, including relationship management, sales, business development (previous healthcare related experience or Reproductive health background preferred).
• Bachelor’s degree is a plus
• Strong coaching and mentoring skills to develop direct reports and peers on quality recruitment efforts.
• Entrepreneurial spirit and the natural inclination to take initiative, move quickly, and be creative.
• Comfort working independently; a high degree of flexibility and entrepreneurialism will be needed to assist in the continuous quality improvement.
• Determination and commitment to Upstream's mission. Predisposition to not take no for an answer and find multiple alternative ways to pursue a goal when met with obstacles.
• Upstream USA’s COVID-19 Vaccine Policy requires employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless a medical or religious exemption is approved. Currently, we do not require boosters for our on-site team members. However, proof of boosters may be necessary if the role requires travel to external agencies. External clients may require Upstreamers to be fully vaccinated. Being fully vaccinated means that an individual has completed a COVID-19 vaccine primary series and received the most recent booster dose recommended by the CDC.
• 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., up to 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.
• Required travel in this role is up to 25% - work-related travel throughout the region and nationally is required

(Not required to apply)

• Bachelors’ and/or Masters’ degree in related field or combination of applicable education and reproductive health experience.
• Knowledge of the healthcare landscape
• Interest in working at a mission driven organization
• Working familiarity with constituent relationship management tools (Salesforce) and our third-party data vendor (Azara).

Attributes

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

• We keep our mission at the center; our mission to expand opportunity by reducing unplanned pregnancy guides our decisions, actions and purpose
• 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.

Other attributes include:

• Collaborative
• Adaptable
• Change agent
• Persistent
• Facilitator
• Influential
• Communicative
• Thrives in an environment of continuous feedback
• Possesses a team-oriented approach
• Natural leader who organizes and inspires others to achieve goals
• Sense of humor

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

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 $111,508 to $162,000.  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, specific candidate geographic location, 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 creating 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.