Executive Project Specialist - Remotely Based in Proximity to Boston (Reproductive Healthcare)

Organizational Summary

Upstream USA is a 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 to provide them with free training, education and technical assistance – from urban to rural, from large hospitals to small clinics. We know patients and providers want options that meet their individual needs, and our team of practice change experts work hand-in-hand with healthcare organizations to uplift contraceptive care services and drive exceptional patient outcomes, all at no cost to them. 

Across the nation, there are challenges to accessing the high-quality, patient-centered contraceptive care patients deserve. To meet this growing need, Upstream is in the midst of a national expansion to transform contraceptive care. We began by partnering with a single healthcare organization in 2014, when Upstream was founded; today, we have partnered with more than 150 across the nation, and we’re on a path to serving 5 million patients by 2030. 

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.

This is a hybrid position, which requires up to 2-3 days per week in our Boston Office.

Position Summary

Upstream seeks a collaborative, detail-oriented and highly organized individual to join the Development and External Affairs team. This individual reports to the Senior Executive Assistant and collaborates closely with the Chief Development and External Affairs Officer (CDEAO) and the CEO to support  their internal leadership responsibilities and external commitments  to Board members, donors and other high-profile stakeholders.

This is a blended role that will include a full range of executive support duties, relationship management tracking, data entry and project support. This is an exciting opportunity to join an energetic, collaborative, supportive and mission-driven organization by providing flawless execution of administrative responsibilities and limited special project initiatives. Additionally, the  Executive Project Specialist will work effectively across the vertical providing project support, facilitating flow of information to create efficiencies, help maintain focus on organizational priorities, and maximize opportunities for high quality relationship management across the team’s external and internal constituencies.

The ideal candidate must have competency in and the ability to support a variety of administrative and executive support tasks at a very high level of proficiency and accuracy with minimal supervision and a high degree of diplomacy and adherence to confidentiality. The ideal candidate must have experience and competency in planning activities and project support, client or account data tracking experience, working collaboratively with the team and with cross functional leaders and colleagues throughout the organization to administratively support the organization’s operational strategy and execution.

The Executive Project Specialist will execute competently and with minimal oversight on assigned projects and tasks, including supporting the scheduling, management and planning of leadership calendars and key department meetings.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Executive Assistant Duties

• Support day-to-day schedules of CDEAO and CEO, ensuring logistical details are in place and resolving conflicts
• Support complex calendaring requests for CDEAO, CEO, the team and across the org
• Leverage a deep understanding of executive and organizational priorities, along with strong customer service, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, to help ensure our executive’s time is allocated effectively. Support the coordination of pre- and post-meeting materials for external meetings to maximize productivity and alignment with key objectives.
• Coordinate pre- and post-meeting materials for CEO and CDEAO external meetings, ensuring briefings are ready for internal participants, materials and SWAG are prepared, thank-you notes are sent within 24 hours, and notes and action items are captured in Salesforce.
• Collaborate and partner with the External Affairs team to accurately record relationship and activity data, supporting effective relationship management for   CDEAO and CEO external relationships.
• Assist in creating highly personalized executive communications by preparing and occasionally drafting emails that are polished, error-free, and carefully tailored to reflect the executive's tone and relationship with each recipient.
• Coordinate executive travel and support expense reporting for executives
• Order and maintain Boston office supplies, serve as liaison for our property management company and for our sponsored lunch program, communicate office closures and activities, and promote team building and organizational culture through planning and support of office activities and gatherings.
• Coordinate planning and facilitation of key cross functional meetings to support priority information sharing, collaborative communication and team building
• Build working relationships with administrative and executive support staff to support organizational effectiveness

Project Support Duties

• Support the External Affairs team by creating bios for executive lead briefings and other written materials as assigned
• Lead small projects from start to finish working collaboratively and communicating progress milestones
• Support project planning and execution for multiple, concurrent, small-and-large scale projects from initiation to delivery across the team, helping to advance critical initiatives and operationalize programs
• Support engagement across cross-functional teams, supporting workstreams to create and execute on project deliverables
• Coordinate cross functional communications on project status and execution
• Provide support for process and continuous improvement initiatives within the department and the office of the CEO
• Identify areas for efficiency and improvement in all initiatives
• Perform other duties and project work 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. 

• Demonstrated professional experience in administrative support, project execution and event planning with high-profile or high-stakes audiences
• Solid project management skills, including an ability to organize, prioritize and problem-solve in a fast-paced setting
• Exhibits confidence working independently, exercising sound judgment, demonstrating initiative, and making well-informed decisions with limited direction and supervision
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; confident and diplomatic under all circumstances; establishes rapport quickly with all levels of diverse staff members; collaborative and supportive; strict adherence to confidentiality; high level of discretion required
• Possess the ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing, with senior leaders, external partners, and internal employees. Skilled in drafting communications that authentically reflect the executive voice and align with organizational tone and objectives.
• Demonstrates professionalism and the ability to remain calm and composed l under pressure
• Ability to organize, prioritize and coordinate multiple work activities to meet deadlines in a fast paced and nimble work environment
• Displays a strong teamwork orientation, with a commitment to collaboration and a focus on continuous process improvement
• Proven ability to collaborate and work effectively across multiple organizational functions and subject areas. Skilled in communicating, influencing, and building strong and effective working relationships with diverse teams and staff members.
• Strong technical competency, specifically with Google’s G-Suite including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Gmail and Google calendar. Experience with Salesforce a plus

Valued and Non-Essential Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills and Ability (Not required to apply)

• Bachelor’s Degree is desirable but not required

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.

Travel Requirements

This role will require up to15% business travel and weekly time in the Boston office. 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.

Pay Transparency

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.

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.

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, 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 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.