Associate, External Affairs

Associate, External Affairs

Location: Spartanburg, SC
Employment Type: Direct Hire

Overview

We are seeking an Associate, External Affairs to support a growing external affairs and community relations team in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

This role will provide hands-on coordination across communications, community engagement, stakeholder relations, events, and day-to-day team operations. The Associate will work closely with senior External Affairs leadership to help keep priorities organized, communications polished, stakeholder activity tracked, and community-facing initiatives moving forward.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, an excellent writer, comfortable interacting with external stakeholders, and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment. This is a strong opportunity for someone looking to build a career in external affairs, public affairs, communications, or community relations while gaining exposure to a growing technology and infrastructure organization.

Responsibilities

Communications & Content

• Draft and maintain FAQs, talking points, messaging documents, briefing materials, presentations, and reports.
• Support development of external-facing communications, including social media content, newsletters, website updates, and community materials.
• Translate technical, operational, or business updates into clear and accessible communications for external audiences.
• Help ensure messaging is consistent, professional, and appropriate for community and stakeholder engagement.

Community & Stakeholder Engagement

• Support relationships with community organizations, government representatives, business groups, educational institutions, and other external stakeholders.
• Track stakeholder inquiries, concerns, requests, and follow-up activity.
• Maintain stakeholder and partnership tracking systems and help identify potential new relationships.
• Assist with ongoing community engagement, sponsorships, partnerships, and outreach initiatives.
• Represent the organization at community events and stakeholder engagements as needed.

Event Coordination

• Coordinate logistics for community events, sponsorship activations, meetings, and external engagements.
• Manage event details including venues, vendors, materials, signage, attendance tracking, and follow-up.
• Maintain the team's calendar of events, deadlines, meetings, and external commitments.
• Coordinate scheduling and logistics for leadership participation in community and stakeholder activities.

Team & Administrative Support

• Provide day-to-day coordination support across External Affairs priorities and workstreams.
• Maintain organized records of communications materials, stakeholder activity, partnerships, events, and team documentation.
• Support research, drafting, scheduling, and special projects as needed.
• Help ensure follow-up items, deadlines, and commitments are tracked through completion.

Qualifications

• 2–4 years of experience in external affairs, public affairs, communications, community relations, government affairs, public relations, or a related role.
• Bachelor's degree in communications, public relations, business, public affairs, political science, or a related field preferred.
• Strong written communication skills with experience developing external-facing communications, talking points, FAQs, presentations, or similar materials.
• Experience coordinating events, meetings, community programs, or stakeholder activities.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a professional presence when interacting with community members, business leaders, government representatives, and other external stakeholders.
• Comfortable working as a hands-on contributor in a fast-moving and evolving organization.
• Experience with CRM, stakeholder management, social media scheduling, corporate philanthropy, or community engagement platforms is a plus.
• Experience within government, technology, data centers, manufacturing, energy, construction, infrastructure, or other complex operating environments is highly desirable.

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