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Regional Director of Programmes Europe

  • ClientEarth
Brussels, Belgium
Full-time
Published:
Application Deadline: April 21, 2025
  • ClientEarth
Brussels, Belgium
Full-time
Published:
Application Deadline: April 21, 2025
Apply now
CONDITIONS:

  • Salary: Brussels €8 317 gross per month/London £89,750 gross per annum;

  • Contract Type: Indefinite;

  • Hours: Full Time;

  • Closing Date: 21 April 2025;

  • First Interview Dates: Starting from the 30th of April.


ABOUT THE ROLE:

The Regional Director of Programmes for Europe is accountable for the development and execution of programme strategies in Europe1 in line with ClientEarth’s global mission and strategy. As a member of ClientEarth’s Global Leadership Group, the Regional Director of Programmes for Europe plays a key leadership role in driving ClientEarth’s mission, values, and strategy, while also contributing to global impact strategic oversight and decision-making.  

MEET YOUR MANAGER:

In this role you will be managed by Adam Weiss. Adam joined ClientEarth in 2020 and is based in Brussels. He originally came to the organisation as Head of Ocean, Plastics, and Chemicals, and was most recently in the role you are applying for. His background is in human rights and anti-discrimination law.

MAIN DUTIES:

  • Champion ClientEarth’s Regional Strategy: Is accountable for ClientEarth’s programme strategy for Europe, which is co-created with regional Systems Heads, Country Heads, and the Associate Director for the EU;

  • Regional Programmatic Delivery: Ensures effective resource prioritisation and capacity planning decisions across regional programmes to maximise impact against global systemic objectives. Manages significant and complex budgets;

  • External Leadership & Partnerships: Fosters and grows ClientEarth partnerships across the region to amplify the organisation’s impact in the region.  


JOB PURPOSE:

The Regional Director of Programmes for Europe is accountable for the development and execution of programme strategies in Europe1 in line with ClientEarth’s global mission and strategy. As a member of ClientEarth’s Global Leadership Group, the Regional Director of Programmes for Europe plays a key leadership role in driving ClientEarth’s mission, values, and strategy, while also contributing to global impact strategic oversight and decisionmaking.

The Director of Programmes for Europe currently has six direct reports: four Regional Systems Heads, the Head of UK, and the Associate Director for the EU (who in turn line manages three geographic Heads: for Germany, Poland, and Spain & the Mediterranean). The Regional Director of Programmes supports this cohort to deliver activities and impact in their region, making resource prioritisation decisions to enable the highest possible impact. The Director of Programmes for Europe has ultimate line management responsibility for over 70 colleagues (mostly legal and policy experts) working on ClientEarth’s European programmes from our offices in Berlin, Brussels, London, Madrid, and Warsaw.

WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:

The Regional Director of Programmes works collaboratively with stakeholders across the organisation to embed ClientEarth’s global impact goals at a regional level. Key relationships are with the:

  • Chief Programmes and Impact Officer, the Executive Team, and the Global Programme Leadership Team – The Regional Directors of Programmes report to the Chief Programmes and Impact Officer (based in Brussels) and work regularly with the other members of the Executive Team (the CEO, the Chief Financial and Operations Officer, and the Chief People Officer). The post-holder works closely with and alongside the Directors for Americas, China, and Japan & Southeast Asia, and the Head of Food, Ocean, and Land Use for Africa, to maintain alignment to ClientEarth’s Global Impact Strategy;

  • Regional Systems Heads – The four Regional Systems Heads report to the Regional Director of Programmes for Europe develop and coordinate region-focused programmes of work and report into the Regional Director of Programmes. They work with the Regional Director of Programmes to maintain strong alignment to the regional strategy and enable cross-region orchestration of programmatic initiatives;

  • Associate Director for the EU and Head of UK – These two geographic leadership roles report into the Regional Director of Programmes for Europe. They work closely together with the regional System Heads to co-create regional and country strategies that maximise ClientEarth’s impact in the region and effectively make use of country relationships, expertise and impact opportunities. The Regional Director of Programmes, Europe is a more inward-facing role compared to these geographic leaders, who are the face of the organisation in their respective jurisdictions, representing the organisation with the European and UK institutions respectively;

  • Programme Quality – the Regional Director works closely with the Programme Managers for Europe and, when needed, the Deputy Chief Programmes and Impact Officer, the Head of Innovation Lab, and the Programme Management Group Lead and the Impact & Learning team;

  • Regional Development, Communications, Policy, Digital, and Business Support Heads and Leads – the Regional Director of Programmes works closely and flexibly with relevant colleagues outside Programmes to foster alignment towards regional goals and objectives. 


KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Champion ClientEarth’s Regional Strategy

  • Is accountable for ClientEarth’s programme strategy for Europe, which is co-created with regional Systems Heads, Country Heads, and the Associate Director for the EU. This involves monitoring trends and developments in the region and ensuring alignment with the Global Impact Strategy and the regional impact framework;

  • Vigorously champions alignment of all programmatic work to programme strategy, rallying teams behind a unified purpose;

  • Drives overall delivery of the regional strategy through co-creation and collaboration with Regional Systems Heads, Country Heads, and the Associate Director for the EU, as well as colleagues from outside Programmes;

  • Ensures effective communication about the organisation’s work in the region between senior leadership and programmatic colleagues.


Regional Programmatic Delivery

  • Ensures effective resource prioritisation and capacity planning decisions across regional programmes to maximise impact against global systemic objectives. Manages significant and complex budgets;

  • Is accountable for the effective delivery of programmatic initiatives across Europe employing the full range of ClientEarth’s tools, including litigation, building the field, collaboration with partners and through legal advocacy and influencing;

  • Is accountable to the Exec Team and the Board for the well-being and motivation of Programmatic colleagues (mostly legal experts) and for ensuring high standards for leadership among line managers in the region.


External Leadership & Partnerships

  • Fosters and grows ClientEarth partnerships across the region to amplify the organisation’s impact in the region;

  • Leads region-focused external stakeholder engagements, where appropriate, including with key regional partners or donors;

  • Serving as the key contact point for certain funder relationships and otherwise supporting ClientEarth’s fundraising efforts in close coordination with the Development team.


LOCATIONS:

  • The Director of Programmes for Europe position will be located in one of ClientEarth’s offices in Europe (Berlin, Brussels, London, Madrid, Warsaw).


PERSON SPECIFICATIONS:

Education and training 

Essential

  • Law degree or other legal qualification;

  • Evidence of continuous professional development including current thinking on legal strategies.


Desirable

  • A professional legal practice qualification;

  • Currently or formerly a practising lawyer;

  • Leadership and management training.


Experience and knowledge

Essential

  • Strong leadership skills and substantial strategic leadership and senior management experience with large teams;

  • Substantial and demonstrable experience and working knowledge of the region, strong knowledge of local political and cultural context in one or more countries in the region;

  • Strong commitment and understanding of environmental issues, and a demonstrated track record in driving positive change for the environment.


Desirable

  • Substantial experience as a practising lawyer and/or legal academic, in any jurisdiction;

  • Experience of working in the not-for-profit sector including working on programmatic strategy and impact measurement;

  • Experience engaging in monitoring and evaluating programmatic activities in an NGO environment, facilitating organisational learning, and/or reporting to donors or boards;


Skills and competencies 

Essential

  • Fluent (CEFR level C2) in English;

  • Holistic approach with a big-picture mindset;

  • Strong relationship-building and team leadership;

  • Exceptional verbal and written skills for high-level representation;

  • Experience in legal/NGO risk identification and mitigation;

  • Willing to take calculated risks for impact;

  • Practical, solutions-oriented mindset;

  • Adaptable across regions and cultures;

  • Comfortable with matrix management in a global organisation;

  • Strong alignment with ClientEarth’s values and commitment to our vision, and mission and equity, diversity and inclusion strategy objectives.


Desirable

  • Fluent (CEFR level C2) in a strategically relevant language, particularly French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, or Turkish;

  • Monitoring, evaluation, learning, and donor/board reporting.


FURTHER INFORMATION:

Have a question about this job? Please visit our Careers site for advice on applying, FAQs, and more.

  • Flexible working: We are proud to be a Flexa accredited Employer. Visit our Flexa Employer page for more information on our approach to flexible working. Our flexible working policy allows our people the choice to decide to work from home/another location in the country where their contract of employment is issued for 80% of their month, with the other 20% of their month being office-based  See our Benefits page for more;

  • ClientEarth values diversity and inclusion and the benefits this brings. We aim to appoint the most suitable candidate at all times and welcome applications from people from all different backgrounds;

  • Please note that ClientEarth is only able to employ those who have the pre-existing legal right to work in Belgium or the UK;

  • ClientEarth is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services to third parties.

Apply now
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