Senior Project Officer - EmpowHER Fund

Aidsfonds - SOA Aids Nederland strives for a world where there are no longer any deaths from AIDS, where people enjoy good sexual health, and a cure is available for all people living with HIV. A world in which everyone can love freely and without fear. For all that is love.

As one of the largest HIV-specific funders in the world, we raise funds and fund to directly support communities with long-term, flexible, and core funding and funding for advocacy. We recognise that funding alone is not sufficient to address the complex challenges of HIV. We put communities in the lead to address challenges and inequalities by giving them the power to decide on funding and programming to make the most effective investments to end AIDS. We encourage innovation by piloting and scaling approaches and models to make the biggest impact.

We focus on communities of populations living with or affected by HIV (including LGBTIQ+ people, sex workers, people who use drugs, young people, women and children) in ten countries and two regions worldwide. To join our Children, Women & Key Populations Team in the International Department, we are looking for a:

Senior Project Officer - EmpowHER Fund
32 hours per week, starting date a.s.a.p.

This is not a remote position and only open to candidates who are based in the Netherlands.

About the EmpowHER Fund

The EmpowHER Fund envisions a world where women and girls in all their diversity can use the HIV-prevention method of their choice. Yet, in sub-Saharan Africa girls and young women still bear the greatest burden of HIV infections. Too many of them, especially those experiencing intersecting vulnerabilities, face limited options to prevent themselves from HIV, leaving them stuck with methods that don’t fit their lives or worse, no methods at all. New and emerging HIV-prevention options, including the 6-monthly Lenacapavir, the two- monthly Apretrude, the Dual Prevention Pill and the Dapivirine vaginal ring, offer a critical opportunity to expand choice and make sure women and girls find the method that best fit their needs.

However, choice isn’t just about having these products available. It’s about giving women and girls the knowledge, confidence, and power to make decisions and to demand the prevention methods they want. It’s about creating safe, stigma-free services, backed by policies and systems that truly protect and prioritize women’s health. And it’s about centering the leadership of women and girls, ensuring they are the ones shaping the HIV-prevention landscape themselves.

The pooled fund was established in 2026 with €10 million for a five-year period and has already grown to a funding envelope of €32 million. This growth creates an exciting opportunity to further develop a strong, impactful, and learning-oriented portfolio of partners and investments.

Your role

As Senior Project Officer, you play a key strategic and operational role in the management of the EmpowHER Fund, working closely with the Fund Manager and project team. You provide oversight of the Fund’s grants portfolio and ensure that the Fund’s strategy and governance decisions are effectively translated into high-quality grantmaking and portfolio management. You provide guidance to Grant Officers, oversee grantmaking processes, identify and synthesise results, lessons learned and trends across the portfolio to inform strategic decision-making.

The Fund Manager is responsible for the Fund’s overall strategic direction, governance, and external relations. As Senior Project Officer, you are a key link between strategy and implementation: you translate strategic priorities into effective grantmaking approaches and bring insights from portfolio management back into the Fund’s strategic development. You act as a strategic sparring partner to the Fund Manager, contributing to the ongoing development, positioning, and direction of the Fund.

Key responsibilities

Sparring & fund development

• Act as a sparring partner to the Fund Manager on the direction and development of the Fund, bringing insights, emerging trends, risks and opportunities from partners and the grant portfolio into strategic discussion
• Develop and contribute to the Calls for Proposals, funding cycles and grantmaking approaches
• Translate strategic and governance decisions into practical implications for grantmaking.

Grant & portfolio management

• Oversee the day-to-day management of the grants portfolio, including progress, results, risks and compliance
• Lead the assessment, development, monitoring, renewal, and closure of grants
• Identify opportunities to strengthen the quality and coherence of the portfolio.

Partner management

• Build and maintain strong, trust-based relationships with implementing partners
• Act as a senior sparring partner to partners on programme implementation, organisational development and challenges
• Facilitate learning and collaboration between partners.

Project team leadership & quality

• Guide and coach Grant Officers and ensure consistent, high-quality grant management
• Support Grant Officers with complex grants, partner relationships and risks
• Work closely with PMEL, finance and other colleagues to ensure grantmaking insights feed into the Fund’s monitoring, evaluation, learning and reporting.

External engagement

• Represent the EmpowHER Fund on grant-making, portfolio and partner-related matters, networks, meetings, and events.
• Provide the Fund Manager with portfolio evidence and insights for donor and other external engagements.

We offer: 

An ambitious, inclusive, and diverse organisation in which we work together in an accessible, open, and inspiring atmosphere. We deliver quality based on appealing goals and clear roles. You are welcome as you are, who you love or what you believe. We are curious about your talents and your  drive to work with us on our mission. You look at issues from different perspectives and you connect with girls and women communities, because you can draw on your own experience, or have become acquainted with them.

In addition, we offer:

·         An exciting position in an international team and ambitious organisation

·         An initial one-year employment contract, subject to potential extension

·         This position is based in Amsterdam Sloterdijk (hybrid work from office/home, this is not a remote position and we do not facilitate relocation)

·         A salary in scale 11 that lies between € 4.095 and € 6.238 gross per month (for 36 hours), grading takes place depending on your experience

·         An individual choice budget (IKB) of 16.96%

·         208 hours of leave on a full-time basis (36 hours), and the option to buy extra leave via IKB

·         A NS business card for all public transport for your commute and for to work

·         A personal development budget of €650 per year (for 36 hours).

Good to know
As of 1 January Aidsfonds – Soa Aids Nederland and Rutgers will merge into one new organisation dedicated to sexual health. You will start at Aidsfonds - Soa Aids Nederland and transition to the new organisation in the new year. We are therefore looking for a flexible, proactive individual who can thrive in a changing (and new) organisational environment.

You bring

·         A minimum of 8 years of experience in international grant and programme management, in a senior or coordinating role

·         A demonstrated commitment to advancing women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights, including equitable access to HIV prevention, treatment and care, and broader health services

·      A strong dedication to feminist principles, women’s leadership and the meaningful engagement of women and girls in shaping decisions, policies and solutions that affect their lives

·         Demonstrated experience managing and overseeing complex grants and building strong partnerships with civil society and community organisations

·         Strong partner relationship and communication skills, including the ability to act as a constructive sparring partner

·         Experience guiding a project team on a daily base and ensuring quality in grant management

·         Strong analytical and organisational skills, including the ability to assess risks, identify opportunities and translate insights into action

·         Experience with PMEL and adaptive programme management including data-driven decision making, and preferably in international development, gender equality, SRHR, HIV, women's rights or a related field.

And you are:

·         Mission-driven

·         Optimistic, connecting and energetic

·         Not scared away by working in an uncertain and demanding context

·         Inclusive to all communities we work with

·         Fluent in English

·         Able to work independently and as part of a team

·         Based in the Netherlands.

How to apply?
You can apply until October 9^th 2026 by uploading your brief motivation letter highlighting your main reasons for applying and your CV on our application page by clicking on the following link:

https://soa-aids-nederland.inhroffice.com/nl/job/389332/apply

Interviews will be planned for the mornings of 20 & 21 October.

More information about our work and organisation? www.aidsfonds.nl, www.aidsfonds.org

If you have an urgent question about this vacancy, you can contact Haitske van Asten (team lead Children, Women & Key Populations team) via hvanasten@aidsfonds.nl.