External Affairs & Strategic Partnerships Specialist

Teso Life•New York, NY

13d•$72,000 - $80,000•Onsite

About The Position

This position is responsible for researching, planning, and executing external affairs and strategic partnership initiatives to support the Company in establishing and maintaining relationships with a wide range of external stakeholders including government agencies, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, business associations, community organizations, schools, and corporations. The role involves analyzing the external environment, identifying priority markets and relationships, developing action plans, and coordinating execution and ongoing relationship maintenance. It also provides support for new market entry, routine communications, event coordination, strategic partnership identification, and tracking of external contacts and relationship progress. The position does not assume responsibility for site selection, permits, licenses, legal matters, finance, brand communications, or business operations, and cannot make formal commitments on behalf of the Company without authorization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or above; Public Affairs, Government Relations, Business Administration, International Relations, Marketing, Communications, or a related field preferred.
2-4 years of experience in external affairs, government relations, economic development, chambers/associations, community relations, strategic partnerships, Business Development, or related work.
Proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, and BI tools.
Strong Chinese and English research, written communication, and verbal communication skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience in chain retail, consumer products, multi-site companies, commercial real estate, or regional market entry preferred.
SQL, Power BI, Tableau, mapping, or demographic-data analysis skills preferred.
Stakeholder management, business partnerships, project management, meeting and event management, market-entry support, fundamentals of public affairs, and external risk identification.
Relationship building, business communication, cross-cultural communication, resource integration, project execution, issue closure, integrity/principled judgment, confidentiality, and results orientation.

Responsibilities

Analyze external-relations needs based on the Company’s annual expansion and strategic priorities, and develop annual and quarterly external affairs and strategic partnership plans for CSO approval.
Build a stakeholder map covering government agencies, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, business associations, communities, schools, companies, and key partners.
Classify external organizations based on strategic importance, partnership value, influence, and current relationship status, and recommend priority relationships and resource allocation.
Define the Company owner, contact point, communication objectives, action plan, and next follow-up date for each priority relationship.
Continuously update contacts, meetings, commitments, opportunities, risks, and partnership outcomes so external relationships do not rely solely on individual memory.
Establish and maintain routine contacts with government agencies, economic development organizations, and investment-promotion organizations in priority states, cities, and regions.
Research government resources, policies, and partnership opportunities that support retail investment, employment, new-market entry, business development, and community development, and provide timely information to the CSO and relevant departments.
Support communication of development plans, employment contribution, community value, investment plans, and long-term direction within approved Company messaging.
Coordinate internal departments in preparing non-sensitive business information required by government or economic development organizations.
Coordinate review with the CFO, CAO, Expansion, and external professional advisors for tax, grant, incentive, legal, or formal application matters and track progress.
Analyze external-relations needs across target markets based on the Company’s market-entry plan, identify cities and regions where priority relationships should be established in advance, and recommend relationship-building priorities and start timing.
Build government, chamber, community, and business-resource networks in target cities in advance.
Research and build networks with government agencies, economic development organizations, chambers, communities, and business resources for priority target markets, and develop a New Market External Relations Support Plan.
Support the Expansion team in understanding the city’s business environment, community characteristics, regional resources, and key stakeholders.
Identify in advance community concerns, business-association issues, government coordination needs, and external-relations matters that may affect major store projects, and provide timely alerts.
Assist in resolving issues affecting project progress due to community communication, public relations, regional resources, or external-agency coordination.
Collect feedback from government agencies, chambers, communities, and partners after store opening and develop relationship-maintenance and improvement plans.
Identify national, regional, and local chambers of commerce, business associations, and industry organizations relevant to Company growth.
Recommend Company membership, participation, sponsorship, and partnership opportunities based on business value, cost, and expected outcomes, defining business value, budget, owner, and expected results.
Represent the Company at approved industry, business, and community events as authorized, and build long-term relationships in priority regions within the approved scope.
Partner with stores and Operations teams to establish relationships with community organizations, schools, apartment communities, businesses, and local organizations.
Review event and membership relationships to assess whether they generate market intelligence, government resources, business opportunities, talent, or community value, and recommend continuing, adjusting, or discontinuing participation.
Identify potential strategic partners related to new markets, store traffic, merchandise, supply chain, technology, talent, membership, and brand development.
Gather information on partner background, resources, capabilities, reputation, partnership needs, and potential risks and prepare an initial assessment.
Work with the Strategy & Business Analysis role to assess partnership value, target customers, business model, resource requirements, costs, benefits, and feasibility and develop an initial recommendation.
Support the relevant Business Owner in developing a partnership proposal defining objectives, responsibilities of both parties, budget, key milestones, measurement metrics, and exit conditions, and submit it to the CSO and relevant approvers for evaluation.
Coordinate follow-up communications and internal reviews for approved opportunities.
Establish and maintain the Strategic Partnership Pipeline and regularly report key opportunities, current stages, risks, next actions, and decisions needed to the CSO.
Support the Business Owner in establishing a project plan that identifies the business owner, partner contact, timeline, deliverables, and measurement metrics for approved strategic partnerships.
Continuously track responsibilities, resources, promotion, systems, stores, and other implementation items for both parties and promptly update project progress and action items.
Identify delays, unclear responsibilities, insufficient resources, or partner non-performance and drive the appropriate owners to address them.
Coordinate relevant departments to collect actual results and organize reviews of revenue, traffic, resources, cost savings, market entry, brand, talent, or community value generated by the partnership, based on approved partnership objectives and metrics.
Prepare issue analysis and recommendations to adjust, pause, or terminate partnerships with prolonged lack of substantive progress, failure to achieve expected value, or limited value from continued investment, and submit them to the CSO and relevant Business Owner for decision.
Represent the Company at general external meetings and events involving government agencies, chambers, industry organizations, universities, and communities, as approved.
Define communication objectives, approved Company messaging, attendees, sensitive issues, and matters that cannot be committed to, and prepare necessary background materials and Talking Points before meetings.
Prepare meeting minutes and action items documenting the other party’s concerns, approved Company commitments, owners, and due dates after meetings, and continuously track items through closure.
Support the Company in coordinating consistent internal information and external communications in the event of a major external incident.
Continuously monitor government policies, the external environment, and stakeholder changes that may affect Company expansion, retail operations, employment, imports/exports, business development, and community relations.
Collect original policy texts, official information, and feedback from external organizations and promptly flag potential impacts to the CSO and relevant departments.
Maintain an issue log and continuously follow up on matters that may affect major store projects, Company reputation, or external relationships.