Associate, Upstream Business Development

Position Summary

The Associate, Upstream Business Development will serve as the operational backbone of the Upstream Business Development (BD) function, ensuring seamless execution, coordination, and momentum across all Upstream BD activities. This role is internally focused, responsible for maintaining pipeline tracking and visibility, driving workflows and processes, and coordinating cross‑functional efforts across Commercial, Legal, Finance, and Technical teams. The position is designed to enable BD leadership to focus on strategic partner relationships and deal structuring by owning the "how" and "when" of execution.

As the business pipeline matures, this role may expand to support less complex partner engagements, while strategic partner ownership remains with senior BD leadership.

• Maintain centralized BD pipeline tracker and monitor progress against milestones and targets.
• Provide clear visibility into deal status and risks and deliver executive summaries and reports.
• Maintain standardized templates and documentation systems to improve efficiency and execution consistency.

• Support document workflows including drafting coordination, version control, and approvals for LOIs, MOUs, and commercial agreements.
• Prepare internal briefing materials, meeting agendas, and briefing notes.
• Able to manage a portfolio of concurrent agreements and track milestones, renewals, and obligations without losing quality.
• Potential to lead coordination for less complex partner engagements as directed by senior BD leadership as pipeline matures.

• Coordinate across Commercial, Legal, Finance, and Technical teams to align stakeholders on timelines and deliverables.
• Drive timelines and identify blockers to ensure no gaps in follow‑through across active deals.
• Track and close action items across stakeholders.

• Strong written and verbal communication; able to synthesize complex information into concise, executive‑ready outputs.
• Demonstrated ability to manage cross‑functional workflows and drive execution across multiple concurrent work streams.
• Excellent organization, prioritization, and attention to detail.
• Intellectual curiosity and comfort with ambiguity and a fast‑moving environment.
• Knowledge of leading AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot) as day‑to‑day productivity multipliers.

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, plus 2+ years of relevant experience in business development operations, project management, or a related function.
• In lieu of a bachelor's degree, 5+ years of progressively responsible experience in business development operations, project management, or a related function is acceptable.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States and able to satisfy any export‑control or eligibility requirements applicable to USA Rare Earth's business.

• Familiarity with commercial agreement structures including LOIs, MOUs, and offtake agreements.
• Experience with a CRM or comparable sales management system.
• Experience in the critical minerals, energy, or industrial manufacturing sectors.

The work environment will be a typical office environment. Noise level:
Normal office and lab noises.

USA Rare Earth proudly supports Equal Employment Opportunities. USA Rare Earth's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and will provide reasonable accommodations according to applicable federal, state, and/or local laws. For assistance applying for employment through this site due to disability, please contact Human Resources, , to discuss reasonable accommodations.

78,000 - 95,000 USD per year (Wheat Ridge, CO)