Project Manager, Land Affairs, Area Development

The position

Our city is growing and constantly evolving. It is a dynamic and diverse city where people live and work. Urban development plays a crucial role in this and contributes to Amsterdam’s quality of life.

As a Project Manager for Land Affairs in Area Development, you are the driving force behind all land-related matters within a project. You are responsible for the acquisition and valuation of land for all area development projects in the city. You negotiate these matters with market parties and draft contracts. In addition, on behalf of the Land & Development department, you are responsible for implementing applicable policies within various projects. This includes, for example, correctly applying the 40-40-20 housing development program within your project.

The area development projects you’ll be involved in vary in scale and increasingly address themes such as ecology, sustainability, and the energy transition. You’ll work closely with a project manager, who has final responsibility, and with colleagues such as a planning economist and leaseholders, whom you’ll supervise and coordinate. A large portion of the projects takes place through transformation (modification of an existing leasehold) or through a tender (granting of a new leasehold). As a Project Manager for Land Affairs in Area Development, you thus make a significant contribution to the administrative goal of adding 7,500 new homes to the city each year.

As part of the Project Management department, you’ll work on projects in areas such as Sloterdijk, IJburg, Hamerkwartier, Amstel III, and the Zuidas. You’ll be part of a department with about 70 project managers with diverse areas of expertise. You’ll share knowledge, draw on each other’s insights, and work toward a single common goal: making Amsterdam even more beautiful and future-proof!

Here's what you do on an average day

• You will contribute ideas on strategic spatial plans within Amsterdam. You will identify potential scenarios and safeguard the municipality’s financial and legal interests. Together with the project manager and planning economist, you will work on new area and real estate developments. You will spend most of your time with your project team(s).
• You will visit project sites to verify that developers are adhering to the contractual agreements. When necessary, you will make adjustments and consult with colleagues from Policy or Land Valuation.
• You negotiate housing development projects in your area, review ground lease agreements, or advise on the relocation of established businesses. You draft legal agreements and then have them reviewed by the Legal Department.
• You will initiate and oversee municipal tenders. You will advise the administrative client in your area of responsibility on strategies, compile the tender document, oversee the selection of contractors, and supervise the contract drafting and implementation.

This is where you get started

We strive to be a great employer that ensures all our colleagues feel seen and valued. We embrace the differences among our colleagues; these differences lead to better results for both our organization and our city. We aim to build a workforce that reflects Amsterdam’s diverse population. So, whoever you are, you’re more than welcome here!

Within our municipality, the Spatial Planning and Economy cluster creates the spatial and economic conditions necessary for Amsterdam to grow into a strong metropolis. Within this cluster, the Land and Development division oversees area and real estate development. The Land and Development division has two pillars of products and services for the city: Area Development and Transformation on the one hand, and Leasehold and Land Allocation on the other.

Area Development and Transformation focuses on urban development and construction. Leasehold and Land Allocation manages leasehold contracts in the city and enters into new contracts for the allocation of land. We are the experts in land allocation, granting land under leasehold, preparing municipal lots for construction, transforming real estate, and providing financial and economic project support. From our Project Management department—your home base—we assign land affairs project managers where needed.

Although they work on a variety of projects throughout the city, they feel like a cohesive team and help each other out whenever needed. We also want to give you the freedom to do your work in a way that works best for you. Our headquarters is centrally located on Weesperplein in Amsterdam. 

What you bring

For this Project/Program Manager position, you must have:

• A completed associate's degree. A background in urban planning, economics, or law is a plus.
• Proven experience in strategic work within urban and real estate development. You know how to take the lead and can demonstrate this with recent examples from your professional experience.
• At least 5 years of experience with the financial, economic, and/or private law aspects of land-use planning. You can provide specific examples of projects to which you have contributed.
• You have a strong command of the Dutch language, both spoken and written. For this position, this means you can communicate clearly and persuasively, and you can understand and draft complex texts.

You should have the following skills:

• Persuasiveness: Uses personal authority to influence people and situations, with a focus on gaining acceptance and overcoming resistance. Communicates ideas clearly and confidently.
• Environmental Awareness: Demonstrates a solid understanding of professional, organizational, social, and political developments, as well as other environmental factors, and knows how to effectively apply this knowledge to one’s own role or organization.
• Collaboration: Makes a constructive contribution to a shared outcome, particularly to the atmosphere and relationships within the group or team.
• Results-oriented approach: Setting specific goals as a starting point for one’s own behavior and sticking to them until the goal is achieved.

What we offer you

As a Project/Program Manager, you will join our team for a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 36 hours per week, and you can expect the following terms of employment.

• A gross monthly salary ranging from €5,070 to €6,862 (pay grade 12) based on a 36-hour workweek. The exact salary will be determined based on your education, knowledge, and experience.  
• A one-year employment contract, with the possibility of a permanent contract thereafter, if you do not currently have an employment contract with the City of Amsterdam, or if you have only a temporary one. 
• If you already have a permanent employment contract with the City of Amsterdam, you will retain it and be transferred. 
• Opportunities for professional development and training. Our in-house training center, the Amsterdam School, offers a variety of training programs, professional development tracks, and on-the-job coaching to help you continue to challenge yourself.
• A carefully designed onboarding program that helps you quickly get up to speed with your new role and the municipal organization.
• An individual flexible budget (IKB) equal to 17.05% of your salary, which you can use for things like additional pension contributions or extra days off.
• A pension plan with ABP, the pension fund for the public sector and education.
• A travel allowance of €0.10 per kilometer for travel by car, €0.15 per kilometer for travel by bicycle, and €0.21 per kilometer for travel by public transportation. This applies to a one-way commute of up to 45 kilometers and for the number of days you work in the office.
• For days you work from home, you will receive a work-from-home allowance of €3 net per workday that you work from home.
• A monthly contribution toward health insurance.

Want to know more about our employment terms and conditions? Check out theCity of Amsterdam Personnel Regulations(PGA).

Apply for this job

• If this job opening interests you, please submit your application by May 18 at the latest via or by filling out the application form on our website.
• We would like to receive your cover letter, in which you explain, in no more than one A4 page, why your work experience and skills are a good fit for this position. Your cover letter will be taken into consideration during the selection process.  
• The selection process consists of two rounds of interviews. For each interview, a selection committee of two people is formed: the manager, an HR advisor, and/or a direct colleague with whom you will be working in the role. If both interviews go well, a discussion regarding the terms of employment will follow as soon as possible.
• Are you seriously interested in this position, but don’t quite meet all the requirements at this time? If so, we’d still love to talk with you to explore the possibilities.
• The interviews will take place in person at our office located at Weesperplein 8 in Amsterdam.  
• We require a recent Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG) from every colleague who joins our team.

We do not appreciate unsolicited solicitation from recruitment agencies, and such actions may result in exclusion from our other recruitment initiatives. We also consider the unsolicited submission of resumes by agencies to our employees to be solicitation. We will not review these resumes.

Do you have any questions about this job opening?

For questions about the position, please contact Bart van Woudenberg, Account Manager for Market & Capacity, at Bart.Van.Woudenberg@amsterdam.nl or call 0613930934. For questions about the application process, please contact Jurian Hoogendoorn at jurian.hoogendoorn@amsterdam.nl.