Strategic Planning & Execution Officer

Van Leer Foundation; Den Haag; Hybrid; EUR 47,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Van Leer Foundation in The Hague, Netherlands, is seeking a Strategic Planning & Execution Officer to join the Programme team and work closely with the Chief Programme Officer to strengthen programme effectiveness.

The role focuses on turning priorities into action, coordinating across geographies, and ensuring decisions are followed through with strong analytical, organisational and communication skills. Based in The Hague, it reports to the CPO and supports cross-team collaboration.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or equivalent professional experience in international development, management, public policy, organisational development or a similar degree.
• 7–10 years of relevant professional experience, with increasing responsibility in programme management, strategy, organisational development, executive support or a related field.
• Strong capabilities in working across multiple teams in a complex organisation.
• Experienced in building trust, supporting senior leaders and coordinating organisation-wide priorities.
• Excellent analytical, writing and communication skills.
• Strong planning and organisational skills.
• The ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining attention to detail.
• Sound judgement and able to work with independently and with discretion.
• Experience in philanthropy, international development, government or a similar environment is an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Act as the CPO’s key point of contact for programme planning and coordination and ensure progress is continually being made.
• Track progress across programme priorities and identify risks, opportunities and issues requiring the CPO’s attention.
• Ensure timely and accurate flow of information across the Programme team and with other Foundation teams.
• Follow up agreed actions and help ensure that priority initiatives stay on track.
• Support organisation-wide implementation of the Foundation’s programme strategy.
• Coordinate initiatives that involve more than one portfolio or Foundation team.
• Bring together information from across programme portfolios to support timely decision-making.
• Monitor progress on key CPO-led priorities and commitments, ensuring issues are identified early, resolved or escalated where needed.
• Support improvements to programme planning, decision-making processes and ways of working.
• Identify opportunities to simplify processes and improve collaboration across teams.
• Support the introduction of new ways of working, including the use of digital tools and AI where appropriate.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Organisational skills

Communication skills

Strategic thinking

Cross-team collaboration

Executive support

Report writing

Education

Master’s degree or equivalent

7–10 years of experience in programme management/strategy

Job description

Position: Strategic Planning & Execution Officer

Team(s): Programme

Reports to: Chief Programme Officer

Based in: The Hague, The Netherlands

Closing Date: 29 October 2026

Salary range: Korn Ferry level 15 (EUR 4,200 – EUR 5,800 gross per month excluding 13th month and vacation allowance)

The Position

The Strategic Planning and Execution Officer works closely with the Chief Programme Officer (CPO) to strengthen the effectiveness of the Foundation’s Programme team.

Our programme strategy focuses on six geographies, where we work with partners to improve the lives of young children and parents through policies and programmes that can reach scale. We support this work through funding, networks, executive education, technical assistance and knowledge, while also building and sharing ideas globally through exchange and learning.

The Strategic Planning and Execution Officer plays a critical role in turning programme priorities into action. The role supports programme planning and execution, coordinates priorities across teams, and helps ensure that decisions are followed through.

We are looking for someone with strong analytical, organisational and communication skills, sound judgement, and the ability to work effectively across teams. The role reports directly to the CPO.

Prin ci pal responsibilities and tasks

Programme planning and coordination

• Act as the CPO’s key point of contact for programme planning and coordination and ensure progress is continually being made
• Track progress across programme priorities and identify risks, opportunities and issues requiring the CPO’s attention
• Ensure timely and accurate flow of information across the Programme team and with other Foundation teams
• Follow up agreed actions and help ensure that priority initiatives stay on track
• Support organisation-wide implementation of the Foundation’s programme strategy
• Coordinate initiatives that involve more than one portfolio or Foundation team
• Bring together information from across programme portfolios to support timely decision-making
• Monitor progress on key CPO-led priorities and commitments, ensuring issues are identified early, resolved or escalated where needed
• Support improvements to programme planning, decision-making processes and ways of working
• Identify opportunities to simplify processes and improve collaboration across teams
• Support the introduction of new ways of working, including the use of digital tools and AI where appropriate.

Executive support

• Work closely with the CPO to prepare Board papers, presentations, speeches, briefing notes and other strategic materials
• Prepare research and analysis to support programme decision-making
• Coordinate follow-up to decisions from the Board, Management Team and Programme meetings
• Support the CPO in preparing for external engagements with partners, governments and other stakeholders

Professional Contacts

Inside the Foundation: Programme team, Programme Support & Learning, Finance, People & Culture, ICT

Outside the Foundation: Partners, academic institutions as well as consultants and service providers

Qualifications, Skills and Competencies

• A Master’s degree or equivalent professional experience in international development, management, public policy, organisational development or a similar degree
• At least 7 – 10 years of relevant professional experience, with increasing responsibility in programme management, strategy, organisational development, executive support or a related field
• Strong capabilities in working across multiple teams in a complex organisation
• Experienced in building trust, supporting senior leaders and coordinating organisation-wide priorities
• Excellent analytical, writing and communication skills
• Strong planning and organisational skills
• The ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining attention to detail
• Sound judgement and able to work with independently and with discretion
• Experience in philanthropy, international development, government or a similar environment is an advantage.

Personal qualities The successful candidate will be:

• Organised and proactive
• Able to see the bigger picture while paying attention to detail
• Show sound judgement and discretion
• Practical, thoughtful and curious
• Committed to the Foundation’s values and mission.

Van Leer Foundation Competencies:

• Teamwork
• Learning ability
• Result-oriented

Job Specific Competencies:

• Planning & organising
• Organisational sensitivity
• Judgement

About the Van Leer Foundation

The Foundation aims to contribute to inclusive societies where all children and communities can flourish. We do this by bringing people together with different perspectives and supporting them to achieve large-scale impact. Our work covers three main activities:

A Good Start. Giving all children a good start in life sets the foundation for inclusive societies. Through our flagship programme on early childhood development, we work globally to improve the wellbeing of babies, toddlers, and their caregivers. We provide investment and knowledge to help leaders develop and scale effective policies and services.

Van Leer Institutions. We believe the human sciences and the arts are powerful tools to promote inclusive societies because they can help make space for divergent views and mutual understanding. This underpins our support for the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Jerusalem Film Center. We support both through recurring annual grants.

The Endowment. We rely on our endowment to finance our philanthropic activities and do not raise funds. The endowment invests in a highly diversified portfolio of public market equity and debt and has a substantial allocation to private equity. The full portfolio is screened to meet ESG criteria. We also have an allocation for mission-related investments (MRI) through which we invest in funds aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals closest to our work on early childhood development.

Our team consists of 40+ professionals representing more than 20 nationalities. We have offices in Brazil, India, Israel, Jordan, Senegal and the Netherlands. The team has a wide array of expertise including in early childhood development, urban planning, effective philanthropy, public policy, executive education, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy, strategic communications, impact investing and financial management.

Applications from outside the EU or without a valid existing work permit for The Netherlands will not be considered.