Impact Manager

Impact Manager

28-32 hours per week | 6 months maternity cover | mid November through May 2027

Holistic landscape restoration at scale is complex, long-term work; and good evidence help to make it legible. As our temporary Impact Manager, you will help build that evidence. Do you find meaning in supporting learning, making the case to funders, and shaping policy? Then we warmly invite you to apply for this position.

Your role

Commonland's Policy & Impact (P&I) team builds the evidence base to learn from our work, influence policy and demonstrate impact. We work across landscapes in Europe, Africa, India and beyond, using the Four Returns framework to guide holistic landscape restoration. We are looking for an experienced and forward-looking Impact Manager to cover a maternity leave. You will be a core member of the P&I team and work closely with the team lead, colleagues and partners on monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) across Commonland's landscapes and programmes.

We are at an exciting moment in how we think about impact. We have recently developed an impact framework that moves beyond traditional MEL approaches. It integrates contribution-based reasoning, developmental evaluation approaches, layered evidence, and a Theory of Change as a working hypothesis rather than a fixed blueprint. We are looking for someone who is energised by this kind of thinking: someone with genuine expertise in MEL and impact measurement who brings their own views, is comfortable challenging assumptions, and can help us go further in this field. You understand what good evidence looks like in complex, systems change contexts, what it can and cannot show, and how to make it genuinely useful for learning, fundraising and policy influencing.

Your impact

Impact reporting

• Lead the internal impact reporting cycle: data collection, analysis, writing and set up reflection across Commonland's clusters and landscapes.

• Contribute to funder reporting, and help improve how we report on impact.

MEL for leadership labs

• Further develop and align the ME&L approach for Commonland's leadership labs, in close collaboration with the learning team.

Research agenda and case studies

• Contribute to the development and implementation of the research agenda, particularly through the development of case studies together with team members.

• Connect MEL insights to the broader evidence base the team is building.

Impact data management

• From an ME&L perspective, you help map and improve how monitoring and evaluation data moves across teams and reporting streams; identifying where things can be simplified and ownership made clearer.

Partner support

• Depending on what is happening across Commonland’s landscapes during the period, there may be a need for ME&L support to partners. The scope and focus of this will be determined in conversation with the team lead.

What You Bring

You are someone who:

• Analytical skills – You are able to systematically understand and deconstruct complex information, identify underlying patterns and root causes, and evaluate data with critical objectivity to make sound, evidence-based decisions.

• Communication - You translate complex evidence for different audiences, including partners and funders.

• Collaboration – You work effectively across boundaries, leveraging diverse perspectives, strengths, and roles to co-create solutions and achieve shared goals.

• Project management – You initiate, plan, execute, and monitor initiatives efficiently, balancing scope, resources, timelines, and risks to deliver measurable outcomes.

• Shared purpose - You articulate and embed a clear, inspiring 'why' behind organizational transformation, aligning individual and collective motivations to foster ownership, resilience, and sustained commitment.
  

What you also bring:

• Master's degree or equivalent level of working and thinking, with a proven track record in impact measurement, monitoring, evaluation & learning, or a related field.

• Knowledge regarding system change and/or holistic landscape restoration.

• Located and eligible to work in the Netherlands.

• Fluency in English

We Offer you

• The opportunity to contribute to meaningful work at the intersection of evidence, learning and policy influencing.

• Ideally, this would be a 6-month temporary contract starting 1 December 2026 at the latest,

• A salary range between EUR 5000-6000 gross based on a full-time contract (40 hours), depending on your level of work experience.

• We are also open to working on a freelance basis, discussing together the number of hours and hourly fee.

• A dynamic, international environment with passionate colleagues.

• Holiday allowance of 8%, and a pension scheme.

• Healthy Monday team lunches, monthly drinks, inspiration sessions and a great office with good coffee and a stunning view.

Commonland Foundation

Commonland is an international non-profit organisation that supports people in restoring landscapes and shaping a regenerative future for all. With our holistic approach – underpinned by the 4 Returns Framework – people and organisations worldwide are working with nature and their communities to restore landscapes.

Our core values are empowering each other, putting words into action and being compassionate & honest. These guiding principles help us to guide our actions, strengthen our culture and determine if we are on the right path in fulfilling our ambitious goals.

How to Apply

We are excited to learn more about you and how you and your competencies fit this role. Please submit your CV via the application link before 5 October 2026 and answer a few questions related to the key criteria for this position. Your responses will help us assess all candidates fairly and consistently. We are committed to an inclusive and fair recruitment process and encourage thoughtful, authentic responses. We kindly ask applicants not to use AI tools such as ChatGPT when completing their application. All applications are reviewed by our team, not by AI systems. As we carefully review each submission and have limited capacity, we may close the application window once we receive enough applications. We therefore encourage interested candidates to apply as early as possible. If you have any questions about this position, feel free to contact Fedes van Rijn, fedes.vanrijn@commonland. The first-round interviews will take place on 12 and 13 October.