Protein homeostasis and cellular fitness in the presence of proteotoxic stress is promoted by heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), which controls basal and stress-induced expression of molecular chaperones and other targets. The major heat shock proteins Hsp70 and Hsp90 in turn participate in a negative feedback loop that ensures appropriate coordination of the heat shock response with environmental conditions. Features of this regulatory circuit in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been recently defined, most notably regarding direct interaction between Hsf1 and the constitutively expressed Hsp70 Ssa1. We sought to further explore the complex nature of Ssa1/Hsf1 regulation. Ssa1 is found to interact independently with both the previously defined CE2 site in the Hsf1 carboxyl-terminal transcriptional activation domain as well as a novel site that we identify within the amino-terminal activation domain. Consistent with both sites bearing a recognition signature for Hsp70, we demonstrate that Ssa1 contacts Hsf1 using its substrate binding domain and abolishing either regulatory site results in loss of Ssa1 association. Removing Hsp70 regulation of Hsf1 results in global dysregulation of Hsf1 transcriptional activity, with synergistic effects when both sites are disrupted together on both gene expression and cellular fitness. Finally, we find that Hsp70 interacts with both transcriptional activation domains of Hsf1 in the related yeast Lachancea kluyveri, implying a conserved mechanism of regulation to promote cellular proteostasis. Overall design: Three biological replicates were analyzed for four different yeast strains at 30°C, and one strain (wild type) at 37°C for 15 min