Strategic Advisor for Social Services

• You will advise the City Director of Social Affairs on key issues in the social sector, such as addressing inequality of opportunity, investing unequally to promote equal opportunities, and the Southeast Master Plan.
• You can channel your passion for the city and help improve the living conditions of Amsterdam’s most vulnerable residents.
• You will be working in a small, professional team reporting to the Director of Social Services.

The position

As a strategic advisor, you will be working in a dynamic field: the social sector. Through the Social Cluster, we are driving major changes in the social system through various projects and programs. As a strategic advisor, you will tackle the most urgent and complex issues facing the social sector. In doing so, you will interact with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. Examples include integrated approaches to improve quality of life in neighborhoods with greater disadvantages, reducing inequality of opportunity, or simplifying the healthcare system. You contribute to the progress of these issues in various ways. For example, you support the urban director in managing and steering programs. You make proposals for improvements in the implementation of the programs. You bring people together to achieve progress and, when necessary, take on the coordination yourself. You facilitate complex decision-making processes, contribute substantive input, and implement interventions where necessary.

Here's what you do on an average day

• On Tuesday morning, you have a meeting with the city director and your colleagues from the staff department. After a brief personal check-in, you discuss an important meeting the city director will have later this week with the Alderman for Social Affairs. You have prepared a number of recommendations and present them to him. He asks you to have one of the recommendations further developed by the relevant department head.
• After the staff meeting, you join a program meeting. There is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the roles and responsibilities within the program, which is hindering its progress. You propose developing a new governance structure and schedule a follow-up meeting to work this out with a few colleagues, with you serving as the lead and coordinator.
• You receive a call from the mayor’s administrative advisor to prepare for an administrative meeting on integrated approaches. Time is of the essence. Thanks to your decisive action, natural authority, and clear grasp of the situation, you keep things moving smoothly and steer the discussion in the right direction.
• Late in the afternoon, you step in for the city director as the delegated client for a study on labor market shortages. The project proposal is on the table for approval. You know that labor market shortages are an issue at the GGD, but you feel this department is missing from the proposal. You ask the research team to address this and make the connection to the GGD. With this change, you approve the proposal.

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!

Your supervisor is the City Director of Social Services. You will be working as part of the Social Services Cluster staff. This small team enjoys a pleasant working atmosphere. There is a sense of mutual support, and there is always room for an informal chat. Click here for more information about the Social Services Cluster.

The City of Amsterdam has significant responsibilities in the social sector, including in the areas of healthcare, youth services, and employment. The city strives to provide excellent and consistent services to all Amsterdammers, with a particular focus on vulnerable residents at various stages and in various aspects of their lives. The Social Services Cluster operates within a complex sector that encompasses a wide range of issues and social partners.

The Social Cluster consists of the departments of Work and Participation, Income, Education, Youth, Care and Diversity, Sports and Forestry, Social Grants and Procurement, the Municipal Health Service (GGD), and Information Services. The directors jointly oversee strategic issues.

What you bring

For this position as Strategic Advisor in the Social Sector, you must have:

• Experience as a consultant in the social sector. You have worked in a municipality, healthcare institution, social services organization, or other public organization.
• Demonstrable work experience in the (semi-)public sector with complex advisory projects/processes, both for city directors and administrators.
• Experience with project-based and programmatic work.

You should have the following skills:

• Collaboration: Makes a constructive contribution to a shared outcome, particularly to the atmosphere and relationships within the group or team.
• Empathy: Able to put oneself in another person’s shoes. Adjusts one’s own behavior to take others’ feelings into account. Is sensitive.
• 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.
• Analytical skills: Able to distinguish between main and secondary issues, break down a problem into its components, and establish logical connections between the various aspects.
• Creativity: The ability to come up with original or new ideas and solutions; finding perspectives that differ from established ways of thinking.
• 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 Strategic Advisor in the Social Sector, you will join our team for 36 hours a week and can expect the following terms of employment.

• A gross monthly salary ranging from €5,625 to €7,659 (pay grade 14) 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 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.
• 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, up to a 45-kilometer one-way commute, for the number of days you work in the office, and/or 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 the Amsterdam Municipal Personnel Regulations (PGA):www.amsterdam.nl/pga.

Apply for this job

• If this job opening interests you, please submit your application by February 14 at the latest usingthe 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.
• If your resume meets the job requirements, we would be happy to invite you for an interview.
• The selection process begins immediately after the application deadline and consists of two rounds.
• The interviews will take place in person at our office located at Amstel 1 in Amsterdam.
• We require a recent Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG) from every colleague who joins our team.

Do you have any questions about this job opening?

Do you have any questions about this job opening? Please contact Hannah Schaafsma at h.schaafsma@amsterdam.nl or 06-34-16-42-39. Do you have any questions about the procedure? Please contact Menno de Haan at menno.de.haan@amsterdam.nl or 06-5389-6952.

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.