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.
We believe that moral ambition — the drive to be one of the best, but measured by different standards of success — can become a cultural force. We’re not driven by guilt, but by enthusiasm: we’re simply excited about making the world a wildly better place.
You can read our founding principles here.
about the role
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.
The three new Policy Pathway Program Assistants are at the operational core of this evolution: every Program Assistant works closely with one of the three program managers to make this new ambition a reality. Program Assistants will help translate decisions into clear plans, timelines, and follow-through. This is a high-trust, high-impact role for someone who thrives on structure, coordination, and execution in complex, mission-driven environments. You bring a keen eye for communication, organization and coordination, making sure that we keep our heads cool and structured during this time of transition.
Key responsibilities
- Assistance in program management: Support the designing, planning and execution of the Fellowship programs. This includes implementing program objectives, help developing curriculum, administrative support, track budgets, handle contracts, keep overviews
- Fellow recruitment and selection: Help the recruitment process for fellows, ensuring a diverse and exceptionally talented pool of applicants. This involves screening applications, organizing interviews, and participating in vetting candidates.
- Stakeholder communication: Work closely with internal teams, external (placement) partners, funders, and mentors to create a supportive and enriching environment for career switchers. This includes coordinating logistics and communication with all partners to build relationships and create cause-area specific opportunities for our community.
- Event and Training Coordination: Organize and facilitate events and training that are integral to the fellowship and the additional pathways we are developing. This includes logistics planning, content creation, and ensuring participant engagement.
- Community Building: Help build a strong sense of community among fellows, alumni, and the broader moral ambition network. This includes organizing events, maintaining communication channels, and encouraging collaboration.
- Resource development: Create and curate resources, such as syllabi and career guides, to support career switchers in their journey.
- Between-program support: Next to your cause-area specific work, all team members have overarching team-support roles, as we co-organize a significant amount of our processes and activities with all three programs.
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 Barend directly.
For all three positions:
- Alignment with the School’s principles and an eagerness to (learn to) work in a self-managing environment using tools like Holacracy and Getting Things Done.
- Demonstrated skills in event- or project management, curriculum development, and stakeholder engagement. An education in administration, event organization, training development or project management is appreciated.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, capable of engaging effectively with a diverse range of stakeholders.
- Above all: someone who combines professionalism with curiosity: motivated to build and improve, even when things are still a little messy.
- Bonus: experience in the world of policy change and advocacy or experience in supporting leadership programs.
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.
Specific to the Tax Fairness Program Assistant position:
- Motivated by justice and equality, with a strong desire to help build fair tax systems, including ambitious approaches to taxing extreme wealth. Nice to have: an interest in democratic innovation.
- Strong organizational and project management skills with high reliability and attention to detail. Comfortable with repetition and detail.
- Someone who likes clarity, is social and creative.
Specific to the Tobacco Free Future Assistant position:
- Interest in fighting a highly polluting industry, considered the world's largest producer of deadly consumer goods.
- Someone who can clearly see the details of the big picture we are setting out and can make and implement a plan based on this.
- Pro-active, organised, out-of-the-box, creative, genuine, and cheerful.
Specific to the Food Transition Program Assistant position:
- Knowledge or education on animal welfare, food systems and alternative proteins is helpful, to tackle the biggest environmental threat of our time.
- Skills knowledge on coalition building, strategic messaging and depolarization is a plus.
- A people-centered steward, communication translator, adaptive problem solver, and action-oriented executor.
What we offer
- A role at the heart of one of Europe’s fastest moving nonprofits.
- 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 principle in Moral Ambition.
- Hybrid work setup 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, 8% holiday pay, a pension plan with 8% employer contribution.
- €33.828 - €41.592 annual salary based on 40hrs/week, depending on experience. For a Belgium located 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
- Application (19 December – 14 January)
Fill out the online form. No need for a long motivation letter, just answer a few focused questions (ca. 1 hour). - First-round interviews (19–23 Jan)
Shortlisted candidates will have a 30-minute online conversation with one of our program managers. - Second-round interviews (26–30 Jan)
You’ll meet the other Program Managers. - Trial day (2–5 Feb)
We will invite the last ca. six selected candidates to join us at our offices for a half day of trial collaboration. You’ll work on actual tasks together with us so we both get a deeper understanding for our match. We will reimburse you for your time and travel expenses. - (Optional) Final interview (9–10 Feb)
You’ll meet our Executive Director for a 30-minute conversation. - Decision & offer (by 13 Feb)
We aim to make our final decision and offer by February 13th 2025.
