The European Journalism Centre is hiring a People Officer

The European Journalism Centre is looking for a talented, ambitious and driven People Officer to join our leadership team and be responsible for our organisation’s staff, culture and community. You will help develop our values, ethics and mission and ensure that they live in every project we deliver. By creating a working environment and professional development framework in which diverse employees can thrive, you will put our people at the heart of how we serve our communities.

This job opening is now closed (as of August 1st 2017).

Why work at the European Journalism Centre?

The European Journalism Centre is an international non-profit that connects journalists with new ideas. Since 1992, through grants, events, training, research and media development, we have been building a sustainable, ethical and innovative future for journalism. Our team is diverse, multicultural, multilingual and passionate about our mission.

Last year we estimate we reached over 100,000 journalists with our events, training and programmes. Partners like Google News Lab, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the European Commission, Facebook, Free Press Unlimited and Thomson Foundation work with us because we are independent, well-connected and at the centre of European news innovation.

We enjoy flexibility in our working hours, and we pride ourselves in being a great place to work for parents with children of all ages. Generous holidays, competitive benefits and new computer equipment are standard for all employees.

What does the role involve?

This is a senior role in which you will shape our strategy and help build a team and culture to deliver it. Hiring both full-time employees and freelancers, you will find the right people for the job and help them thrive with professional development. We believe in unlocking the capacity of everyone who works with us, whether you are an intern or an experienced member of the team.

Human resources responsibilities are a clear part of your role, but we prefer to focus on people over process and policy. You’ll lead on managing benefits, holidays and working hours with a human-centred approach. Making the European Journalism Centre a great place to work is key. The role involves some basic office and service contract management in order to do that.

This role will promote a culture of collaboration, accountability and initiative inside the organisation through work environments, activities and performance reviews. Working closely with the Director, Chief Finance Officer, and Projects Officer, you will map in-house skills and support project proposals, reviews and reports.

Finally, we believe we are an extension of the communities we work with every day. Keeping information flowing is vital — you will improve the ways our team engages with each other and the outside world through project management tools (like Basecamp and Awardforce) and social media (by developing guidelines to allow team members to take responsibility for external communication).

Who are you?

This is a senior, dynamic and challenging role that requires someone with exceptional people skills, emotional intelligence and the ability to resolve conflict productively. You must love leading teams, facilitating creativity and working with people to solve problems.

While an operations or human resources background would be beneficial, it is not essential. We are more interested in someone who can demonstrate a proven track record of leading projects, managing multiple stakeholders and communicating effectively to a wide range of people. Typically, this would involve at least five years experience leading teams or projects at an NGO, media company or start-up. Many of us have taken unconventional career routes to get to where we are and so we value culture, personality and a willingness to learn more than formal qualifications.

We offer two locations for you to be based, Brussels or Maastricht. Travel between the two will be required on, more or less, a weekly basis.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, parental status, national origin, ethnic background, age, disability, political opinion, social status, veteran status, union membership or genetics.

Full responsibilities list

• Promoting and developing culture, values and mission
• Managing hiring process for staff, contractors and interns
• Career development planning and performance reviews
• Developing internal training and policies
• Overseeing staff contracts, benefits, payroll and working hours
• Office management and managing services contracts
• Mapping of in-house skills for strategic resource and project planning
• Creating more effective internal communication
• Overseeing community engagement and communication frameworks

Location: Brussels or Maastricht. Excellent English essential. Other languages will come in handy!
Salary: Commensurate with experience. Full time preferable.
Line Manager: Director

To apply

Send a letter of motivation (300 words max) and a CV or LinkedIn profile to jobs@ejc.net. Deadline: August 1 2017.