Executive Director

Position description

€109,925 - €123.907 or £90,500 - £104,000

The Good Food Institute Europe (GFI Europe) is a nonprofit think tank at the forefront of the movement to transform meat production in order to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, from climate change and global hunger to antibiotic resistance and animal suffering. Our vision is a thriving world, fed sustainably.

With a nonprofit entity in Belgium, a branch in the UK and colleagues working from seven other countries that make up GFI Europe, we are also part of an international network of affiliates. We advance the science, policies and investment needed to make plant-based, cultivated and fermentation-made meat delicious, affordable and accessible across Europe. Please check out the rest of our website, our 2025 Year in Review and our 2025 Europe highlights blog post to find out more about who we are and what we do.

We are looking for an Executive Director to lead GFI Europe’s strategy and team, play a key role in shaping and advancing GFI’s global strategy, and foster the relationships and organisational strength needed to accelerate the shift towards a resilient and sustainable food system.

How you will make a difference:

You will have high responsibility and high impact. Reporting to, and appointed by, the Board of GFI Europe, you will lead a ~50-person team working from nine European countries.

You will:

• Enable strategic focus:
  • Align the team around a clear and compelling organisational direction that aligns with the GFI network’s mission and theory of change;
  • Translate organisational direction into high-level priorities in collaboration with GFI Europe’s Leadership Team;
  • Ensure Europe’s strategic decisions are made well – soliciting the right input from the right people, preserving autonomy in areas of specific expertise, and making decisions when organisation-wide trade-offs are required;
  • Take ultimate responsibility for maximising outcomes and impact in pursuit of our mission.
• Provide leadership to the team:
  • Empower, develop and inspire a high-performing, people-centric team;
  • Lead GFI Europe’s Leadership Team, formed of six department heads, ensuring they continue to function on a ‘first-team’ basis to achieve organisational objectives;
  • Champion and uphold a values-driven culture built upon transparency, autonomy, collaboration, accountability, and psychological safety. Champion the integration of diversity, equity and inclusion into the team’s day-to-day work.
• Represent GFI Europe in GFI’s international network:
  • Participate in international strategic and coordination workstreams as a member of GFI’s Regional Leadership Group, comprising GFI’s affiliate leads;
  • Act as the primary liaison between GFI’s affiliates and European teams on strategies, processes and goals. Ensure the Europe team can successfully connect with, influence, support and navigate a complex international network, including global workstreams such as fundraising and impact reporting;
  • Participate in discussions about global strategy and resource allocation so as to maximise GFI’s overall mission impact, including communicating GFI Europe’s strategy, resourcing needs and contributions as part of the international GFI network.
• Represent GFI Europe in front of donors and external stakeholders:
  • Work closely with global and Europe-based fundraising teams to help ensure GFI achieves its fundraising goals;
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with donors, prospective supporters and key stakeholders;
  • Serve as a public representative of, and spokesperson for, the organisation by speaking at conferences, events, and with the media.
• Oversee organisational health:
  • Ensure strong governance, legal compliance, financial sustainability and reporting in partnership with the Board and the Head of Operations;
  • Be the main legal representative of the organisation, reviewing and signing all legally relevant agreements and organisational documents.
• Perform other duties as appropriate.

Qualifications

Core capabilities needed to succeed in this role:

• Mission alignment. A passion for GFI’s philosophy and mission.
• Strategic judgement. Strong analytical skills and sound judgement, being able to absorb and process a range of types of information, understand the activities that GFI undertakes, and provide leadership and guidance to team members. You have the experience and ability to make strategic trade-offs across projects, functions, teams, countries/regions, programmes, etc. – weighing resource allocation, prioritising impact, and communicating those decisions clearly and inclusively to stakeholders;
• Thoughtful leadership. You align teams behind a clear and impactful vision. You know when to persevere and when to change course, and have led people, both directly and indirectly, to deliver impact. You trust the people closest to the work to make decisions, and you address hard topics when they truly matter. You own mistakes and make a genuine effort to learn and grow from them. You are intentional about remote leadership;
• Understanding the wider context. You can make sense of the political, economic and cultural forces shaping Europe’s food system today and are adept at drawing on patterns and ideas from outside our field to identify possible implications for GFI Europe’s next move;
• Excellent people skills. High emotional intelligence and an ability to diplomatically engage across perspectives, being able to build and maintain trust with colleagues and stakeholders across multiple cultures, viewpoints and needs within Europe and beyond;
• Financial literacy. Skilled at overseeing substantial financial resources, including partnering with the operations team on resource allocation. You have held accountability for a significant organisational budget and can interpret financial data to make sound, well-informed decisions;
• Fundraising acumen. You understand how GFI’s strategy, culture, and mission impact shape the organisation’s ability to raise funds and steward donors, and you’re enthusiastic about partnering with the fundraising team to make this happen. You bring an understanding of the philanthropic sector and donor relationships, or of fundraising in other sectors (eg, the private sector or government), while deferring to the fundraising team’s expertise on how donor relationships are best managed;
• Strong communication skills. An ability to convincingly articulate and explain our mission and work and to represent the organisation in the media, with programmatic stakeholders, and with donors. Comfort adapting your tone and message for different audiences across diverse cultures, and excellent verbal and written English skills;
• Flexible approach to work. We estimate that travel will account for approximately six weeks of the year. This will likely consist of two GFI Europe team-wide retreats (3-5 days each), one leadership retreat (2-3 days), other sporadic trips generally lasting 1-3 days, and occasional longer trips of approximately 5-7 days (for conferences and donor or partner meetings across Europe and internationally). In addition, you will need occasional flexibility in your working hours to accommodate coordination with other affiliates around the world;
• Integrity. You do what you say you’ll do, and are discreet when handling confidential information.

It would be an advantage to have the following, though none are prerequisites:

• Sector familiarity. Familiarity with or experience working in the food system, alternative proteins or an adjacent sector in Europe;
• Impact leadership. Strong knowledge and/or experience of being part of the leadership team of a nonprofit, think tank or other social impact-focused organisation;
• Governance and compliance experience. Experience with legal representation and board reporting, and/or experience working on nonprofit compliance, especially in Belgium;
• Fundraising partnership experience. You’ve contributed to fundraising in a supportive capacity – whether managing a fundraising function, advising on donor and prospect strategy, joining donor conversations alongside a development team, or shaping fundraising strategy at an executive level;
• Network experience. Experience working in one or more network models (eg, affiliate or franchise-style, federation, confederation, etc.);
• Languages. The ability to work in European languages in addition to English.

The Fine Print:

• Terms of employment: Full-time (flexible hours), permanent;
• Location: This role can be based in either Belgium or the United Kingdom, where GFI Europe has established entities and where you must have the right to work. We actively encourage applications from people across Europe, and a relocation package is available for candidates moving to either country if necessary:
  • Relocation support will be provided with a budget of up to £8,000 in the UK or €8,700 in Belgium, which can be used for transport, temporary housing, and other relocation expenses deemed necessary.
• Salary and benefits: The salary and benefits packages for all of our roles are researched and benchmarked based on similar nonprofit roles in the country/location of hire.
  • Belgium: €7,900-€8,900 gross monthly salary (€109,925-€123.907 annually, including 13^th month and holiday pay). Plus benefits including home-working allowance (if applicable), meal vouchers, eco vouchers, and professional development allocation;
  • United Kingdom: £90,500-£104,000 gross annual salary.
• You can read more about our wider benefits offering here;
• Right to work requirements: The successful candidate must, by the start of the employment, have permission to work in the country where they are based for the role, and be able to travel within the EU and internationally;
• Application Deadline: 13 September 2026, 11.59pm CEST. We will get back to all candidates after that date, no matter the outcome of their application.

Application instructions

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