about the job
The greatest waste of our time is the waste of talent. There are millions of people who once had the ambition to do great things with their career, but got stuck in jobs that don't make the world better. The School for Moral Ambition helps people turn their ideals into action. We run fellowships, community programs, and campaigns that empower talented people to work on the world's most pressing problems. From ending factory farming to fighting the tobacco industry and advancing tax fairness.
You can read our founding principles here.
The School for Moral Ambition is getting ready for its third year. In 2026, we will grow to three policy fellowships, adding Tax Fairness to the existing fellowships of Tobacco Free Future and Food Transition. We are also broadening the programs to create more career pathways for more people into our cause-areas. This means making our curriculum accessible to more people, creating new collaborations, and developing new opportunities to put more people into careers where they can make the most impact. That’s why we are evolving the fellowships programs into policy pathway programs, with the fellowships as part of the broader program.
about the role
The food transition is one of the most powerful levers we have to address the climate crisis, animal suffering, social inequality, public health and the biodiversity collapse, yet it remains one of the most neglected policy areas in Europe. Animal agriculture drives 41% of tropical deforestation, uses 77% of agricultural land while producing only 18% of calories, and accounts for emissions comparable to the entire transport sector.
For too long the debate has been stuck in a false binary: keep industrial animal agriculture or go fully vegan now. We're building a different path, one that depolarizes the discussion and focuses on solvable bottlenecks for the enormous opportunities the protein transition offers Europe: economic competitiveness, food security, animal welfare, biodiversity restoration, climate resilience, and farmer prosperity.
As the Senior Program Manager Food Transition, you'll own the Food Transition Fellowship from end to end. But here's what makes this role unique: you're not just running a fellowship. You're building broader pathways into the food transition movement — developing collaborations, accelerating new initiatives, creating opportunities for professionals at all career stages. The fellowship is our flagship program, but it's one tool in a larger strategy to redirect ambitious talent into the cause-area of the food transition.
This role sits within a self-managing structure using Holacracy, meaning you'll have significant autonomy to shape your work. Beyond your core Program Manager accountabilities, you take on additional team-level responsibilities based on your skills and interests — anything from legal coordination to shared event design. We work in a system where roles are clear but fluid, allowing you to contribute where you can add the most value.
Key responsibilities
- Program Strategy: Write and continuously update the strategy for the Food Transition program through ongoing learning and expert consultation. Identify the most promising policy levers and strategic interventions across the EU food system. Help define learning agendas and use real-world data to refine strategy.
- Fellow Selection & Supervision: Design cause-area specific interview questions and evaluation criteria for fellow selection. Conduct interviews with applicants and propose final fellow selections to the team. Provide ongoing supervision through regular check-ins, updates on opportunities in the field, and follow-up on fellow needs.
- Host Organization Relations: Manage end-to-end host organization selection: research potential organizations, outreach, decision frameworks, and final proposals. Negotiate contracts and secondment agreements with host organizations. Conduct regular check-ins during placements and resolve any fellow-host organization tensions.
- Training Program Development: Write cause-area specific curriculum based on defined learning objectives. Coordinate with guest speakers, experts, and practitioners to deliver high-quality training.
- Create pathways beyond Fellowship: Make our new strategy a reality and create additional pathway opportunities beyond the fellowship for professionals to contribute to food systems change.
- Budget Management: Define and monitor program-level budget. Submit budget proposals and quarterly updates.
- Fundraising & External Engagement: Deliver input for cause-area specific fundraising proposals. Engage directly with funders
- Community & Movement Building: Deliver cause-area specific content to the SMA community (events, resources, career guidance). Build relationships with key stakeholders across the European food transition ecosystem.
- Team Support: Contribute to overarching Policy Pathways team accountabilities (operational coordination, legal support, cross-program initiatives) based on your skills and team needs.
What We’re looking for
We value talent and a can-do attitude above traditional credentials. Even if you don't meet every requirement, and especially if you think we might oversee an aspect that might make you a good fit, we welcome you to challenge us and apply. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and non-traditional career paths. If you have any questions or uncertainties about the role, reach out to Jan-Willem (janwillem@moralambition.org) directly.
- 8+ years of professional experience in roles requiring strategic thinking, stakeholder management, and project execution (consulting, policy, advocacy, nonprofit management).
- Demonstrated ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder projects from conception to delivery, including the skills to build pragmatic cross-sector coalitions
- Experience with the EU policy process and/or food systems thinking (including agri-food policy, environmental policy, alternative proteins).
- Strong written and verbal communication skills — comfortable engaging with diverse audiences from fellows to funders to senior NGO leadership and EU policymakers.
- Alignment with SMA's principles and an eagerness to (learn to) work in a self-managing environment using Holacracy and GTD
- A coaching style of leadership towards fellows.
- A knack for impact prioritization and efficiency, including enjoying to leverage AI tools for your program goals.
- Above all: someone who combines professionalism with curiosity to learn what really works, motivated to build and improve.
- Bonus: Track record of fundraising, writing proposals, or engaging with philanthropic funders. Understanding of value chain analysis. Experience designing learning programs or curricula.
NB: You should already have the right to work in the Netherlands or Belgium, as we're not able to sponsor visas for this role.
What we offer
- A role at the heart of one of Europe's fastest-moving nonprofits, working on one of the highest-leverage interventions for good.
- Flexible environment with clear roles, autonomy, and a Holacracy-based self-management structure. We care about our high-trust/high-performance culture, documentation, scalability, and automation, in line with the Action founding principle in Moral Ambition.
- Hybrid work setup (min 2 days a week in-office) and an office in the heart of Amsterdam or Brussels, including a daily vegan lunch (in Amsterdam).
- Full coverage of your public transportation costs between home and work, 25 days of paid holiday per year and a pension plan with 8% employer contribution.
- €62,000 - €82,000 gross annual salary based on 40hrs/week incl. holiday allowance, depending on experience. For a Belgium-based position, an equally valued compensation package structured according to local tax and benefit standards.
- Network opportunities: we will organize various touchpoints for you to meet people from the School for Moral Ambition, as well as our partners in the cause area you will work in.
- A lot of fun. As we try to convey in our founding principles: 'We're not driven by feelings of guilt, but by sheer enthusiasm. We're simply excited about making the world a wildly better place, and about building a legacy that matters.'
Application process
We run a relatively fast process so you can start on April 1 or May 1, and we assess candidates on a rolling basis, so applying early is recommended.
- Application (30 minutes, deadline March 5)
No need for a long motivation letter, just answer a few focused question here - Test task (90 minutes)
Show your strategic thinking in a written test task. - Interviews (45-60 minutes)
Two interviews with Jan-Willem van Putten (Executive Director) and one program manager
Questions? Reach out to janwillem@moralambition.org
