Be a part of a dynamic team whose work enriches the health of communities by strengthening city and county health departments. At the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), we are united by our work to improve our country's 3,300 U.S. local health departments. We represent the voice of local public health while striving to live out our core values of equity, excellence, participation, respect, integrity, leadership, science, and innovation. We provide our employees with meaningful work, opportunities to learn and grow, a strong work/life balance, and a flexible, hybrid work schedule while being a part of a collaborative team.

We are interested in growing our team with passionate, committed, and innovative individuals. The Senior Specialist (Manager), Affiliate Business Partnerships will join NACCHO at a time of dynamic growth. This position is important in the Meetings and Membership Department.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Specialist (Manager), Affiliate Business Partnerships is usually an individual contributor in a specific area of expertise and is accountable for professional functions and/or systems. Work at this level requires substantial knowledge in an area of specialization and both conceptual understanding and sufficient professional experience to work on complex assignments with minimal supervision. These assignments typically require originality and creativity in applying the knowledge and concepts of the area of specialization.

The Senior Specialist, Affiliate Business Partnerships may provide guidance to other professionals and administrative staff either in a supervisory, project management or technical capacity. The Senior Specialist, Affiliate Business Partnerships is considered a career level professional and works with minimal supervision. Incumbents only move beyond this level if they develop expert level capabilities – and NACCHO needs this level of skill – or if they take on significant management responsibilities. Positions at this level require proven analytical, research and project management capabilities typically acquired through a Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent education and a minimum of five years progressive and relevant experience. An advanced degree may be substituted for work experience.

As the Senior Specialist, you will be instrumental in expanding and fostering member engagement, including enhancing capabilities with NACCHO’s affiliate business partner members. This position involves establishing and nurturing client relationships, understanding partner needs, and ensuring high levels of engagement and successful execution of member benefits. Also, you will be responsible for acquiring new affiliate business partner members, supporting existing program partners, and ensuring annual retention of program membership. In addition, you will seek opportunities to upsell products into existing program members growing NACCHO’s unrestricted revenue and capability to support our members.

This position is designed for individuals with 3-5 years of relevant experience, providing an opportunity to manage a broad array of affiliate business partner memberships, gain knowledge and insights into the importance of business development and relationship management, and develop a pipeline of prospective new program members that NACCHO could potentially support.

COMPETENCIES AND EXPECTATIONS:

• Analytical - Synthesizes complex or diverse information; collects and researches data; uses intuition and experience to complement data; designs work flows and procedures.
• Problem Solving - Identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner; gathers and analyzes information skillfully; develops alternative solutions; works well in group problem solving situations; uses reason even when dealing with emotional topics.
• Project Management - Develops project plans; coordinates projects; communicates changes and progress; completes projects on time and budget; manages project team activities.
• Technical Skills - Assesses own strengths and weaknesses; pursues training and development opportunities; strives to continuously build knowledge and skills; shares expertise with others.
• Customer Service - Manages difficult or emotional customer situations; responds promptly to customer needs; solicits customer feedback to improve service; responds to requests for service and assistance; meets commitments.
• Interpersonal Skills - Focuses on solving conflict, not blaming; maintains confidentiality; listens to others without interrupting; keeps emotions under control; remains open to others' ideas and tries new things.
• Oral Communication - Speaks clearly and persuasively in positive or negative situations; listens and gets clarification; responds well to questions; demonstrates group presentation skills; participates in meetings.
• Written Communication - Writes clearly and informatively; edits work for spelling and grammar; varies writing style to meet needs; presents numerical data effectively; able to read and interpret written information.
• Teamwork - Balances team and individual responsibilities; exhibits objectivity and openness to others' views; gives and welcomes feedback; contributes to building a positive team spirit; puts success of team above own interests; able to build morale and group commitments to goals and objectives; supports everyone's efforts to succeed.
• Quality Management - Looks for ways to improve and promote quality; demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness.
• Ethics - Treats people with respect; keeps commitments; inspires the trust of others; Works with integrity and ethically; upholds organizational values.
• Organizational Support - Follows policies and procedures; completes administrative tasks correctly and on time; supports organization's goals and values; benefits organization through outside activities; supports affirmative action and respects diversity.
• Motivation - Sets and achieves challenging goals; demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles; measures self against standard of excellence; takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.
• Quality - Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness; looks for ways to improve and promote quality; applies feedback to improve performance; monitors own work to ensure quality.
• Quantity - Meets productivity standards; completes work in a timely manner; strives to increase productivity; works quickly.
• Safety and Security - Observes safety and security procedures; determines appropriate action beyond guidelines; reports potentially unsafe conditions; uses equipment and materials properly.
• Adaptability - Adapts to changes in the work environment; manages competing demands; changes approach or method to best fit the situation; able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events.
• Attendance/Punctuality - Is consistently at work and on time; ensures work responsibilities are covered when absent; arrives at meetings and appointments on time.
• Dependability - Follows instructions, responds to management direction; takes responsibility for own actions; keeps commitments; completes tasks on time or notifies appropriate person with an alternate plan.
• Initiative - Volunteers readily; undertakes self-development activities; seeks increased responsibilities; takes independent actions and calculated risks; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities; asks for and offers help when needed.
• Innovation - Displays original thinking and creativity; meets challenges with resourcefulness; generates suggestions for improving work; develops innovative approaches and ideas; presents ideas and information in a manner that gets others' attention.

POSITION SPECIFIC DUTIES:

Community Development and Capability Building:

• Drive engagement activities, including events, tradeshows, and presentations.
• Cultivate relationships with key stakeholders, including NACCHO staff, commercial organizations, academic institutions, and other for-profit/non-profit partners that deliver education and services to NACCHO’s local health department members.
• Organize collaborative events for affiliate business partners, exhibitors, and sponsors, working closely with NACCHO program staff, and other internal and external stakeholders.
• Serve as the bridge and connection between affiliate business partners, NACCHO program staff, and local health department to drive participation, engagement, and volunteerism.

Account Management:

• Establish and maintain relationships, ensuring engagement and overall satisfaction with affiliate business partners, increasing likelihood of renewal with a goal of retaining over 85% of our current program members.
• Focus on securing commitments to increase affiliate business partner membership with new and existing corporate members.
• Conduct ongoing needs assessments, identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, and suggest program enhancements to grow accounts.
• Ensure overall engagement of the affiliate business partner, including ongoing touch points, utilization of benefits, connection to the broader community, and support in their desire to learn and grow via their membership with NACCHO.
• Deliver presentations regarding the benefits of affiliate partner membership to our program partners as needed to ensure members are aware of and utilizing the resources that are available to them.
• Facilitate and support the learning objectives and networking opportunities that fall within the scope of NACCHO’s affiliate partner membership through webinars, roundtables, and other events, in coordination with NACCHO’s program staff.

Ecosystem Development:

• Act as an ambassador to introduce, grow, and support the affiliate business partner program to prospective and existing for-profit and non-profit organizations, including academic institutions, local and state partners, funders, and the broader public health community.
• Develop and manage a traditional sales pipeline of new prospects and renewal opportunities utilizing qualified leads, referrals from the NACCHO program staff, and other business development related activity.
• Support the facilitation of connecting affiliate business partners members with each other through organization specific webinars, round table discussions, member panels, virtual presentations, and in-person meetings.
• Represent the program at virtual and in-person events (meetings, conferences, etc.)

This is a full-time, exempt position. This position is considered a term position made possible through grant funding, some, or all of which is scheduled to end July 31, 2025. While NACCHO will make every effort to secure continued funding, this position may be eliminated on July 31, 2025.

SELECTION PROCESS:

The selected candidate must reside in the Washington, DC – Maryland – Virginia (DMV) area within 30 calendar days of their start date.

We only accept applications that follow the electronic process. No phone calls please. This position is subject to background screening. Qualified applicants should send a cover letter with salary requirements, resume, one writing sample to: PN – 5 Senior Specialist, Affiliate Business Partner Program.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/SKILLS:

Bachelor's degree and certification in relevant professional field with a minimum of 5-7 years relevant work experience; or equivalent combination of education and experience, including a relevant certification. Master’s degree in a relevant field preferred.

• Previous management experience with a membership-based organization or association that includes member acquisition, engagement, and retention aspects is preferred.
• Public health experience preferred.
• Experience in a business-to-business and business services sales environment.
• Natural curiosity and willingness to understand business analysis and its many practitioners.
• An “underdog” mentality with a desire to promote and support the public health workforce.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Charismatic and dynamic presentation skills, able to be delivered both in person and remotely via Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
• Technically savvy and self-service oriented.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with an ability to thrive in an environment built on trust and independence.
• Spreadsheet and Word Processing software experience required.

Abilities

• Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals.
• Ability to write routine reports and correspondence.
• Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees of the organization
• Ability to calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportion, percentages, area, circumference and volume.
• Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral or diagram form.
• Ability to utilize technology to maximum efficiency, including (but not limited to) Microsoft Office 365 (Outlook,Word, Excel, PowerPoint); experience with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software such as NetForum, Salesforce, Zoho, or other association and conference management software is preferred.
• Demonstrated history of establishing and consistently meeting or exceeding business development targets.
• Ability to collaborate among a range of key business areas (marketing, event management, communications, affiliate partners, sponsors & exhibitors)
• Ability to move between business development and account management seamlessly.
• Strong portfolio of skills around negotiating and closing deals through communicating value.
• Ability to leverage data in creating compelling presentations for clients, senior leadership, and decision makers.
• Ability to take initiative and work independently as necessary to achieve high performance in position.
• Full accountability for all work responsibilities and outcomes, and for input to team(s).

Skills

• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong writing, proofreading, and editing skills.
• Strong organizational and customer service skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Extremely detail-oriented; highest degree of accuracy in all activities.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

• Occasionally required to sit.
• Occasionally required to walk.
• Occasionally required to reach with hands and arms.
• Occasionally required to talk or hear.
• Occasionally required to bend, lift or climb stairs.
• Occasionally required to lift light weights (less than 25 pounds).

WORK ENVIRONMENT: The noise level in the work environment usually is moderate.

About National Association of County and City Health Officials

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), a national organization representing nearly 3,000 local health departments nationwide, has an immediate opening for a Manager - Affiliate Partnerships, Sponsorships, and Exhibits.

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