Director of Strategy

Position Summary

The Director of Strategy will lead Upstream’s Strategy function and be a leader in shaping and driving the organization’s strategies for achieving our mission and vision. The Director will work cross-functionally to ensure the organization is developing and working from well-informed plans that position Upstream to deliver upon its mission and growth ambitions (e.g., both in support of annual goals and longer term positioning for impact). Reporting to Interim Head of Strategy and Policy, the Director will be a strategic and analytical thinker, adept project manager, and savvy navigator of cross-functional organizations. Analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, translating that data into clear insights, and using those insights to shape strategies, recommendations, and decisions are critical skills for this position. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead and facilitate the development of Upstream’s multi-year strategic plan. Work with external consultants, senior leadership, and key internal and external stakeholders to execute the planning process. Develop clear and compelling materials that communicate the plan to key audiences. 

• In partnership with senior leadership, lead and facilitate the organization's annual strategic priorities and goal-setting process. Ensure alignment with other organizational processes (e.g., budget development).

• Lead key strategic initiatives to advance Upstream’s organizational goals and priorities. This includes early exploration and assessment of innovative and new paths to impact to advance our mission. In turn, facilitating the transition of key initiatives to the teams that lead on implementation.

• Effectively leverage and translate data analytics to identify opportunities, challenges, and risks for the organization, and to drive organizational strategies for growth. 

• Support the President and Chief Operating Officer in the facilitation and engagement of Upstream’s senior leadership team around key organizational decisions and strategies.

• Lead and manage the Strategy team. Hire and mentor team members when additional capacity is needed. Work alongside and manage third-party vendors and consultants to deliver high-quality deliverables.

• Perform additional job-related duties and other special projects as needed.

Required Experience, Knowledge, Skills and Ability

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

• Minimum 5 years experience in consulting, and/or internal strategy/planning role required. Has worked in and/or has deep knowledge of the healthcare / public health field. 

• MBA strongly preferred.

• Experience managing a strategy team with many and sometimes changing priorities, and successfully driving that team to high performance. Strong project management ability with experience delegating responsibilities as well as managing up. 

• Experience at strategy consulting firms and/or working with nonprofit organizations is highly preferable. 

• Understanding of, and some experience with, sales/partnership/go-to-market strategy is highly preferable. 

• Knowledge of FQHCs, Health and Hospital Systems and Medicaid/Managed Care, how they contract for new partnerships and the value propositions that most resonate with them highly preferable.

• Experience engaging with different parts of a cross-functional team to inform strategies and decisions and demonstrated ability to collaborate cross-culturally and with individuals of different backgrounds.  

• Skilled analyst that can distill quantitative and qualitative data into key insights and clear options and recommendations. Experience with market sizing, assessing new business opportunities, establishing clear options, tradeoffs and recommendations. Skilled writer and developer of presentations for executive-level audiences. Skilled verbal communicator and influencer; ability to influence without authority

• Ability to effectively deliver and receive positive and constructive feedback

• Proficiency with Google and Microsoft Suites

• Sense of humor and eagerness to bring joy and fun into the workplace 

• Connection to Upstream’s mission and values

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 to 20% 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.