Event Manager (maternity cover) at COMMONLAND · Amsterdam

Event Manager

24 hours per week | 6 months maternity cover | January through June 2027

Do you bring people and planet together through events that truly matter? Is organising in your blood? Then we’d love to meet you, and we warmly invite you to apply for this position.

Your role

As the Event Manager at Commonland, you develop and deliver events that advance our mission to restore landscapes and move communities towards a regenerative future. You are part of the Communications team and work closely with the Fundraising team, making sure every event is strategically aligned, professionally executed and tailored to its audience, whether that’s restoration practitioners, funders, policymakers or the wider public. Your events help us strengthen local organisations working on landscape restoration, spark collaboration, share best practices and connect them with funders, policy actors and fellow changemakers. In doing so, you help amplify their impact at local, regional and global scale, and support our work with partners across sectors to shift financial flows and public policy toward regenerative land use systems.

Your impact

• Execute the event strategy with the team lead, as part of the wider communications strategy.

• External events production (on the ground or preparing colleagues to attend pending on Commonland’s involvement) of different sizes at local, regional, and global levels; e.g. side events at Amsterdam Climate Week, London Climate Action Week, United Nations Climate Change Conference, New York Climate Week.

• Support various teams to develop event impact strategies and actively seeking for participation opportunities, for example:

  • Inspiration events for funders, e.g. landscape visits, and the Commonland team.
  • Organizing (side) events or seeking speaking opportunities, where we aim to spread our message to specific audiences, including the wider public, funders, and policymakers.

• Responsible for project managing the communications plan for each event, overseeing key deadlines and briefing the other comms team members (notably the creative/digital team) to, for instance, create invitations, develop event brochures, select prominent invitees like press and influencers, and develop digital content around the event.

• Evaluation of events and tracking objectives and achievements once they have finished for optimisation of the event production process over time and adding a learning perspective to events evaluations.

What you bring

You’re an organiser at heart, someone who sees an event as a way to move people and ideas forward. You bring:

• A talent for making things happen (project management) - Whether it’s a small field visit in a restored landscape or a side event at a global conference, you plan it, coordinate it and deliver it. You keep timelines, budgets and deadlines under control, even with several projects running at once.
• An instinct for people (stakeholder management) - Funders, policymakers, press and influencers each want something different from an event. You sense what matters to them and shape the programme and communication so it lands with each group.
• A strategic eye (strategic thinking) - You turn the bigger communications picture into a sharp event approach. You know which stages are worth stepping onto, which speaking slots are worth chasing, and you look honestly at what worked so the next event has more impact.
• A team-player attitude (collaboration) - You brief colleagues clearly, offer flexible support, and make sure every event is a shared success rather than a solo performance.
• A drive to take the lead (proactive) - You own an event from the first spark of an idea to the last stacked chair. You enjoy launching new concepts and turning them into results that work in practice. A curious mind. In a fast-moving, international setting, you ask good questions, pick up new insights quickly and put them to work straight away.
• A curious mind (ability to learn) - In a fast-moving, international setting, you ask good questions, pick up new insights quickly and put them to work straight away.

What you also bring:

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree or equivalent level of working and thinking, with a proven track record in international event management.

• Located and eligible to work in the Netherlands.

• Fluency in English.

We offer you

• The opportunity to contribute to meaningful work at the intersection of evidence, learning and policy influencing.

• Ideally, this would be a 6-month temporary contract starting 1 January 2027 at the latest.

• A salary range between EUR 4000-5000 gross based on a full-time contract (40 hours), depending on your level of work experience.

• We are also open to working on a freelance basis, discussing together the number of hours and hourly fee.

• A dynamic, international environment with passionate colleagues.

• Holiday allowance of 8%, and a pension scheme.

• Healthy Monday team lunches, monthly drinks, inspiration sessions and a great office with good coffee and a stunning view.

Commonland Foundation Commonland is an international non-profit organisation that supports people in restoring landscapes and shaping a regenerative future for all. With our holistic approach – underpinned by the 4 Returns Framework – people and organisations worldwide are working with nature and their communities to restore landscapes.

Our core values are empowering each other, putting words into action and being compassionate & honest. These guiding principles help us to guide our actions, strengthen our culture and determine if we are on the right path in fulfilling our ambitious goals.

How to Apply

We are excited to learn more about you and how you and your competencies fit this role. Please submit your CV via the application link before 00:00 CET on 5 November 2026 and answer a couple of questions related to the key criteria for this position.
Your responses will help us assess all candidates fairly and consistently. We are committed to an inclusive and fair recruitment process and encourage thoughtful, authentic responses. We kindly ask you not to use AI tools (such as Claude) when completing your application. All applications are reviewed by our team, not by AI systems. As we carefully review each submission and have limited capacity, we may close the application window once we receive enough applications. We therefore encourage you to apply as early as possible.  If you have any questions about this position, feel free to contact Jolien Sanders, jolien.sanders@commonland.com.