Position: Audience and Marketing Officer

Team(s): Communications Team

Reports to: Head of Communications

Based in: The Hague, The Netherlands

Salary range: Korn Ferry level 15 (4221 – 5804 EUR gross per month)

Desired start date: Summer 2026

The position

We are expanding our communications team with an experienced audience development and marketing professional who is both a creative thinker and a practical problem‑solver. You will grow the Foundation’s digital reach, deepen reader engagement with our flagship journal Early Childhood Matters, and strengthen our strategic storytelling efforts through owned channels and earned media.

This is a new role to advance strategic thinking on audience engagement across the Foundation’s portfolios and projects on early childhood and parent wellbeing and support content needs for idea dissemination, in‑person events and executive education programmes.

We are looking for someone who knows how to reach and connect with diverse audiences and who uses AI tools with skill and thoughtfulness where they add value. This role requires the ability to work independently to achieve results and collaboratively to align with colleagues across the organisation.

Principal responsibilities

Bring a new strategic skillset into our thought-leadership and influencing work

• This role aims to bring expertise in audience development, community management and marketing inhouse into the Foundation.
• You will be responsible for developing and executing new pathways for growing and engaging audiences through digital media storytelling and dissemination partnerships for strategic projects such as a new documentary, podcast and executive education courses.
• This role will also support other teams and provide technical assistance on areas related to content marketing and storytelling across digital platforms.

Develop creative and human storytelling content

• Bring a clear voice, good judgement and a human touch to all written and visual content.
• Transform the Foundation’s knowledge and resources into content that stands out in a crowded media landscape.
• Work closely with the Visual Communications Officer to create more short video content such as interviews, clips, highlights and story-driven pieces.
  

Grow the audience for Early Childhood Matters

• Increase the number of people who subscribe, return and meaningfully engage with content.
• Improve engagement rates such as time spent on pages, newsletter opens and interaction with content.
• Integrate insights from analytics to guide decisions and improve performance.

Make Early Childhood Matters active all year

• Build a steady flow of digital storytelling based on ECM content that feels relevant and engaging.
• Explore new formats, ideas and channels to help more people discover and return to the platform.
• Work with author contributors, dissemination partners and colleagues to build a collaborative energy around the journal.

Make our systems simpler and more efficient

• Build or update workflows and lean processes for outreach and marketing so the team can work in a fast and aligned manner
• Create a blueprint for using AI tools for drafting, translation, summarising, organising content or reducing repetitive tasks.

Professional contacts

Inside the Foundation: Communications Team and Programme Team.

Outside the Foundation: Communication partners, media organisations, creative agencies, consultants and authors who are part of Early Childhood Matters.

Qualifications, skills and competencies

• At least 5 years’ experience in content marketing, digital communications or audience growth.
• Track record of growing audiences especially through owned channels.
• Strong experience with data‑driven decision making. Able to interpret simple analytics and use them to guide priorities.
• Experience creating clear storytelling for websites and digital platforms.
• Advanced skills in using AI tools to support planning and workflow efficiency.
• Can bring creativity through fresh angles, formats and ideas that help our content stand out.
• Comfortable working in a fast‑changing environment and shifting focus when needed.
• Works well with programme teams, designers, leadership and external partners.
• Able to manage several moving pieces and deliver on time.
• Experience with website content systems (such as WordPress, newsletter platforms and social media).
• Basic design, video or multimedia skills are an advantage.
• Experience supporting and leveraging live events, workshops or learning programmes is an advantage.
• Excellent English (spoken and written).
• Additional languages used in our work (Arabic, Dutch, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish) are an advantage.

Van Leer Foundation Competencies: Teamwork, Learning ability, Result-oriented

Job Specific Competencies: Client‑oriented, Planning & organising, Creativity, Written communication

What we offer

• Flexible working hours
• 13th month and vacation allowance
• Inspiring office spaces
• The ability to partially work from home
• 30 days per year of remote working beyond commuting distance
• Reimbursement of public transport costs for work travel
• Paid professional development opportunities
• A vitality allowance of EUR 500 per year to cover physical or mental health activities

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, 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.

About Early Childhood Matters

Early Childhood Matters is a global storytelling platform connecting voices and ideas that advance collective thinking on early childhood development. Published since 1998, it is read in more than 190 countries by over 40,000 policymakers, advocates, civil society organisations, civil servants, practitioners, and researchers