Help Desk for America is a free assistant any resident can call or text to solve a government problem. We are looking to partner with direct aid organizations on a 90-day pilot starting winter 2026 in New Mexico. This role joins a product lead and a user-experience (UX) researcher. The role runs 25 hrs/week for 90 days, with consideration to extend if the pilot is successful. The role is remote, with working hours that overlap with Mountain Time. Living in New Mexico is a plus. Experience with large language models (LLMs) is also a plus but not required; we train every hire to use them for research and for building software. Help Desk for America is a product of Portfolio. Portfolio Holdings (https://portfolio.sc/) is a special projects studio for democracy. We form small teams that take an idea, test it under live conditions, and, if it works, spin it out as an independent organization.
The role:
Why this role exists: The Partnership Manager owns our relationships with the organizations that bring us every caller in the pilot, and is the first person those organizations meet. They will sign the partners who send us callers, give those partners what they need to refer a client, map every office we route callers to, and keep the partners' trust. We work through partners because we want to add to the help that exists, not replace it. Organizations that serve people well today should not be disrupted, and the pilot exists to learn which gaps in that help we can fill.
What you will do:
Sign referral agreements with New Mexico food banks, community health centers, and local help lines.
Write the materials a partner needs: what the service does, how a referral works, and what the partner's staff will see about their client's case.
Build and maintain the service map: every government program and office we route a caller to, who runs it, and how we reach it (web portal, phone, or a named person). The assistant and the call center use this map on every case.
Our assistant never contradicts a partner in front of the partner's client. When a partner has a problem, you are the person they call, and you repair it.
Required qualifications:
Negotiation: has closed referral, data-sharing, or cooperation agreements with public agencies or nonprofits, and can name the terms that made them sign.
Domain knowledge: knows how benefits delivery works in practice, from food banks and community health centers to 2-1-1 lines (the three-digit local help number) and state benefits offices, including who decides and who does the work.
Writing: produces a one-page offer and a step-by-step referral procedure that front-line staff follow the first time, without a follow-up call.
Relationship management: keeps trust when something goes wrong, by hearing the complaint, owning it, and reporting back what changed.
Preferred qualifications:
Existing working relationships with human-services organizations in New Mexico.
Spanish, spoken and written. The pilot serves English-speaking callers first, and Spanish-speaking referrals follow the Spanish launch.
Work environment. Remote. Partner meetings may be in person in New Mexico.
