Senior Programme Manager

European Food Banks Federation

Hours
40 hours per week

About the Organisation

European Food Banks Federation (FEBA) unites 350+ Food Banks across 30 countries to fight food waste and reduce food insecurity. Every day, FEBA helps recover and redistribute millions of meals to people in need, bridging the gap between surplus and solidarity. 

About the role

EBA is seeking a Senior Programme Manager to lead the development, coordination, and continuous strengthening of FEBA’s programmes, ensuring that both new and ongoing initiatives are well designed, well managed, and effectively implemented across the network. This is a senior management role with a strong focus on people leadership, cross-departmental coordination, network engagement, and organisational coherence.

The Senior Programme Manager supports programme teams throughout the full programme cycle from design and planning to implementation, monitoring, and learning while ensuring alignment with FEBA’s strategic objectives and member needs. Working closely with the CEO, the role acts as a central management anchor across programmes, helping FEBA scale its impact through strong internal coordination, empowered teams, and trusted relationships across the network.

Responsibilities

Programme Leadership & Delivery:

• Lead and coordinate the development of new programmes, ensuring they respond to network needs, are operationally realistic, and aligned with FEBA’s strategy.
• Provide senior-level support and oversight to ongoing programmes, helping teams address challenges, manage risks, and maintain delivery quality.
• Ensure consistency in programme design, planning, and implementation approaches across FEBA.
• Support programme teams in translating strategic priorities into clear objectives, workplans, timelines, and deliverables.
• Ensure programmes are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget, in line with donor agreements and organisational priorities.
• Oversee programme budgets, financial tracking, and donor reporting in close coordination with Finance and Fundraising teams, including EU-funded programmes.
• Contribute to programme design for new funding proposals, providing operational and delivery input at the proposal stage.

Team & People Management:

• Line-manage programme staff (Project Manager, ESG Manager, Research Officer), setting clear objectives, performance indicators, and development plans.
• Foster a collaborative, results-oriented team culture focused on delivery, accountability, and learning.
• Coordinate internal resources across policy, communications, fundraising, and operations to ensure integrated programme execution.
• Support the professional development, performance management, and autonomy of team members through coaching and regular feedback.
• Foster a collaborative, results-oriented working culture based on trust, learning, and shared responsibility.

Cross-Departmental Coordination:

• Act as a key coordination point between programmes and other FEBA functions, including policy, communications, fundraising, and finance.
• Ensure programmes are well integrated with fundraising efforts, donor requirements, policy objectives, and communication priorities.
• Facilitate regular cross-departmental planning and information-sharing to improve organisational efficiency and coherence.
• Support internal processes that strengthen programme governance, decision-making, and operational clarity.

Network & Stakeholder Engagement:

• Establish and maintain strong working relationships with FEBA member food banks, supporting their engagement in programme design and implementation.
• Act as a trusted senior interlocutor for members, ensuring programmes reflect diverse national contexts and capacities.
• Support collaboration and peer learning across the network through structured exchanges, workshops, and joint initiatives.
• Coordinate relationships with external partners, consultants, and service providers involved in programme delivery.

Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning:

• Ensure robust monitoring frameworks are in place across programmes, including KPIs, milestones, and outcome indicators.
• Use programme data and lessons learned to inform continuous improvement, strategic decisions, and future programme design.
• Support the translation of programme results into organisational learning, policy insights, and impact narratives.

Skills, Competencies, Experience & Attributes

Qualifications and Experience:

• Minimum 8 years of relevant professional experience, including substantial experience in programme or project management within an international NGO or European network.
• Proven track record managing multi-country programmes, teams, and complex stakeholder environments.
• Proven experience in people management and team leadership, including line management responsibilities.
• Familiarity with EU-funded programmes and donor environments (LIFE, Horizon, ESF).
• Strong understanding of organisational processes, coordination, and programme governance.
• Excellent command of English; additional European languages are an asset.

Skills & Competencies:

• Strong programme and project management skills, with a focus on delivery and results.
• Confident people manager with experience leading multidisciplinary teams.
• Strategic and structured thinker, able to manage complexity and competing priorities.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, adaptable to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Comfortable working in a small, agile organisation with high levels of responsibility and autonomy

Our Culture

FEBA, we believe in purpose-driven excellence. Our team is dynamic, mission-oriented, and committed to tangible impact. We work best with people who are:

• Go-getters who turn ideas into results and see challenges as opportunities.
• Hands-on and pragmatic, willing to roll up their sleeves in a small but high-performing international team.
• Independent thinkers who also thrive in collaborative, cross-cultural environments.
• Entrepreneurial and proactive, not afraid to question the status quo to make systems work better.
• Aligned with FEBA’s values of solidarity, accountability, and innovation.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Public Policy, International Development, Sustainability, Business Administration, or a related field.

Compensation & Benefits

• Meal vouchers (Monizze) are provided with a face value of €8 per effective working day.
• Monthly transport allowance of €50 per month
• Monthly home working allowance of €150.
• Hospital Insurance (DKV).
• Group Pension Scheme (Securex) with a 3% employers contribution.
• 20 legal holidays per year the previous year in Belgium.
• 12 additional holidays (RTT) per annum, each being credited per effective working month.
• Year-end bonus based on the CP337.

Conditions of employment

• All candidates must hold the right to work in Belgium

Working locations

• Brussels, Belgium (FEBA Office)

How to apply

• Send your CV and cover letter in PDF to [email protected] with the subject line "Senior Programme Manager Application."

Interviews

• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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