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Lie Detectors is Europe’s journalist-led, award-winning news literacy project. We are looking for a highly organised, resourceful and clear-thinking Chief Operating Officer (COO) to lead the scaling up of our rapidly growing and evolving organisation. We are an enthusiastic, highly motivated and competent team who are currently active in Germany, Austria and Belgium. In the coming years we will be deepening our existing programmes and expanding our country coverage with a focus on English-language and Central European countries.

The COO role is a crucial one that will ensure we have efficient systems frameworks in place and are equipped to handle and coordinate growing levels of work in more locations. As COO, you will work closely with the CEO and the highly motivated Brussels headquarters team as well as with the heads of our country programmes. You will, among other things:

• Manage our budget, accounting and HR systems, pulling together the strands also of our national budgets and accounts and presenting management accounts and financial reports to the CEO and Board';
• Support grant making applications;
• Have a pivotal role in identifying, commissioning and embedding robust data-management and IT systems to facilitate our expansion;
• Ensure the consistency of operations across our country programmes;
• Liaise with our legal teams on issues of HR, privacy/data protection & compliance;
• Create systems across our areas of operations to manage logistics, relationships with and feedback from educators, journalists and our international partners;
• There will be some regular travel to the country programme offices...

This position and its responsibilities may eventually expand to include development and fundraising as well as some external representative responsibilities.

This position will suit a strategic thinker with a proven flair for creating systems and for the problem-solving skills required for a dynamic and fast-growing organisation. You will need to be judicious in your choice of suppliers and entirely reliable and strict in safeguarding the interests of our organisation. You must be adept at prioritising, at knowing what to delegate, when to outsource to suppliers/consultants. Together with the CEO you will be making strategic decisions to guide our expansion for years to come. You will enable the rapid growth of the organisation along structured, clear and orderly lines and ensure the coherence of the project and its processes across national and language boundaries.

You will have excellent verbal/written communication skills in English and, ideally, an extensive understanding of pan-European media landscapes.

You will be happy and capable of tackling tough negotiations with contractors and partners. Because a large proportion of our operations currently occur in German, we have a strong preference for candidates who have a working knowledge of German.

This position is based in Brussels, Belgium and is envisaged as an 80% position, with full Belgian employment benefits and development prospects. We offer the opportunity to make a significant societal and organisational impact in a professional, friendly and financially secure NGO, flexible working hours and a central Brussels location.

To apply please send your CV and a cover letter in English outlining how your past experience equips you for the role by midnight CET on 10 May 2020 to jobs@localknowledge.be.

this job offer is not open for applications