Customer Advocacy Manager

Customer Advocacy Manager 

Upwork ($UPWK) is the world’s work marketplace. We serve everyone from one-person startups to large, Fortune 100 enterprises with a powerful, trust-driven platform that enables companies and talent to work together in new ways that unlock their potential.

Last year, more than $3.8 billion of work was done through Upwork by skilled professionals who are gaining more control by finding work they are passionate about and innovating their careers.

We are looking for a Customer Advocacy Manager to help bring Upwork’s product to life through customer stories and by showcasing the transformative opportunities that our work marketplace unlocks. Customer stories are at the heart of so much of what we do, from integrated brand campaigns to product launches to customer events. In this role, you’ll help identify, nurture, and amplify the voices and experiences of our most passionate clients and talent. You’ll be a key partner to multiple teams, working in lockstep with them to source and develop compelling advocates and customer stories and identify the right moments for them to shine.

This role is highly visible and cross-functional, requiring regular communication with Marketing, Sales, and teams across Upwork, as well as a deep understanding of their priorities, goals, and unique segment of the business. To succeed, you need to be a strategic thinker and relationship builder. You must embody a solutions-first approach, find new and creative ways of highlighting customers and fulfilling requests, and be proactive in surfacing stories of customer success to spark ideas and inspiration among your partners.

Your responsibilities

• Support key initiatives, including integrated marketing campaigns, brand activations, product launches, and other projects by collaborating with cross-functional colleagues to identify the most relevant customer stories and the right moments and channels to promote them. Intake, prioritize, and fulfill multiple requests simultaneously. At the same time, serve as a consultative and strategic partner by proactively identifying and sharing amazing customer stories outside of direct requests to help others understand how their programs and projects can benefit from customer storytelling.

• Liaise with customers and internal teams to develop marketing and sales assets and materials, including case studies, customer videos, testimonials, and quotes. Coordinate advocate participation in activities such as reference requests, virtual and in-person events, social media campaigns, PR, and investor relations opportunities. 

• Build a community of Upwork customers who meet the needs of your internal partners today and in the future. Anticipate what customers must be in the pipeline 6-12+ months ahead and proactively recruit them. Identify gaps in the pipeline and establish a plan to fill them. 

• Coordinate and conduct customer interviews to gain a deeper understanding of their Upwork experience and bring their voice to life.

• Develop long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with customers so they become active and enthusiastic participants in Upwork’s advocacy program. Understand each customer’s unique priorities and goals to match them with the most relevant and rewarding opportunities.

• Identify and collect customer insights through interactions with them and help to make these insights visible and actionable for the rest of the organization.

• This role may require management of a Customer Advocacy Coordinator to assist with customer outreach, customer research, request fulfillment, data entry and maintenance, and other activities.

• Some travel may be required.

What it takes to catch our eye:

• 3+ years of experience in customer advocacy or customer marketing

• Poise, discretion, and a demonstrated ability to interact with individuals at all levels of an organization, including VP and C-level executives

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to influence and excite customers and internal stakeholders 

• Strong interviewing and storytelling skills; the ability to extract key nuggets from customer stories to show business impact in a compelling way

• Customer steward mindset and mentality as well as customer-facing experience (particularly with senior level audiences), and experience initiating and fostering relationships with customers

• Team player who can work effectively and efficiently with multiple stakeholders and contributors at various levels

• Strong project and program management skills; experience in prioritizing, organizing, and tracking multiple projects of varying complexity and completion dates

• Bias toward action

Come change how the world works.

At Upwork, you’ll shape talent solutions for how the world works today. We are a remote-first organization working together to create exciting remote work opportunities for a global community of professionals.  While we have physical offices in San Francisco and Chicago, currently we also support hiring of corporate full-time employees in 19 states in the United States. Please speak with a member of our recruitment team to determine whether you are located in a state in which we are hiring corporate full-time employees. 

Our vibrant culture is built on shared values and our mission to create economic opportunities so that people have better lives. We foster amazing teams, put our community first, and have a bias toward action. We encourage everyone to bring their whole selves to work and grow together through development opportunities, mentorship, and employee resource groups. And oh yeah, we've also got amazing benefits - including medical insurance for you and your family, unlimited PTO, 401(k) with matching, 12 weeks of paid parental leave, and a generous Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Check out our Life at Upwork page to learn more about our benefits and the employee experience.

Check out our Life at Upwork page to learn more about the employee experience.   

Upwork is proudly committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse and inclusive workforce. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we never discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.