Supervisory Board member/Chair

Systemic Justice is looking for three new Supervisory Board members, including a Supervisory Board Chair to help further develop our governance, provide oversight, and support an organisation that seeks to live its values of anti-oppression, justice, and intersectionality as it works to fulfil its mission.

About Systemic Justice

Systemic Justice works to radically transform how the law serves communities campaigning for racial, social, and economic justice. We believe that those most impacted by systemic injustices should be at the centre of efforts to dismantle them. That’s why we partner with communities to co-create and co-implement litigation strategies and litigate cases that challenge the structures perpetuating inequality and harm.

We created a two-tiered governance structure in 2024, having worked with a single-tier structure since the organisation’s founding (read more about this change and what a Supervisory Board does here). As the organisation is moving from startup to a more mature organisation and adjusting to a rapidly evolving environment when it comes to racial and social justice activism, we are working to expand the Supervisory Board and develop ways of working for the Supervisory Board and Management Board that enable good governance for a changing organisation.

About the Supervisory Board

Systemic Justice is a young organisation looking to build its governance and developing its practices and working methods with intention by grounding them in our values of anti-oppression, justice, and intersectionality. This includes active questioning of perceived “best practices” in the NGO field, and exploring different ways of creating the accountability, oversight, and compliance structures needed.  The Supervisory Board is integral in helping us make this happen together with our team and Management Board.

As a member of the Supervisory Board, we expect that you will participate in 3-4 meetings per year, one of which will be in person alongside our team retreat (location: the Netherlands or elsewhere in Europe). We expect the time commitment to be 1 day per month on average. Part of the initial journey is for the Supervisory Board and Management Board to develop their working methods and processes, which will require some additional hours during the months of April – June 2025.

Supervisory Board members are compensated for expenses made in the course of exercising their duties, including travel expenses for meetings. We can offer compensation within the parameters allowed for non-profit organisations with ANBI status (“vacatiegeld”) to those for whom this could help take away any barriers in applying for the role.

The statutory Supervisory Board term is three years, after which members may be reappointed for another three-year term.

About the roles

For both the Supervisory Board member and Chair roles, we are looking for individuals who

• share our values of anti-oppression, intersectionality, and justice, and for whom embodying these in practice is an exciting prospect. Familiarity with anti-oppression frameworks and applying these to organisational settings is therefore a strong plus;
• are ready to actively participate in shaping their roles and the Supervisory Board’s role in Systemic Justice’s governance structure. In doing so, they need to come prepared to question existing models and practices and ready to jointly develop a vision and practices to establish a governance model that is firmly grounded in our values;
• have affinity with at least one of the areas of Systemic Justice’s substantive work – strategic litigation; racial, social, and economic justice; and/or human rights – within the European context;
• are comfortable working with an organisation that is in active development. Understanding of (small) non-profits, and understanding of and experience with change management are strong assets in this context;
• are excited about Systemic Justice’s mission and enthusiastic about contributing to its fulfilment;
• are located within the CET time zone +/- two hours. Please note that we can only support travel to the annual in-person meeting from within Europe.

For the Chair role, we are looking for a candidate who, in addition to the above

• has experience chairing a non-profit Supervisory Board;
• has solid knowledge of Dutch non-profit governance regulations, and curiosity about challenging traditional non-profit governance practice through an anti-oppression lens;
• has international experience, ideally with work spanning multiple jurisdictions in Europe;
• is excited about working closely with the organisation’s leadership and especially the Founder in this important stage of its development. The Chair therefore needs to be in the position to make this role one of their priorities for the duration of the appointment term.

How to apply 

Deadline: The deadline for applications is 9 March 2025, 23:59 CET.

Application

Please apply via our online recruitment platform: https://systemicjustice.bamboohr.com/careers/62?source=aWQ9MjA%3D
Key dates

• First interviews (online) with shortlisted candidates: week of 17 March
• Final interviews (online): week of 24 March
• Invitations to join the Supervisory Board extended: end of March/early April
• Onboarding and induction of new Supervisory Board members (online): week of 14 April – week of 21 April
• Consultant-supported process for establishing working methods (online): April – June
• In-person Supervisory Board meeting and conclusion of working methods development process (location: Portugal): week of 16 June

Remuneration 

Board members are compensated for expenses made in the course of exercising their duties, including travel expenses for Board meetings. We can offer compensation within the parameters allowed for non-profit organisations with ANBI status (“vacatiegeld”) to those for whom this could help take away any barriers in applying for the role.

Our work is rooted in our foundational values of anti-oppression, intersectionality, and justice. We invite anyone who does not have lived experience with systems of oppression to reflect on their suitability for this role before applying, and to address this as an introduction to their responses to the above questions if they choose to apply.

Equal opportunities statement

Systemic Justice is deeply committed to building an organisation that reflects the communities with which we work. We understand that creating transformative change requires bringing together diverse perspectives, experiences, and expertise. Decisions related to hiring, compensation, training, evaluating performance, and termination are made fairly and transparently. We provide equal opportunities to all qualified candidates and employees. This commitment to equity extends across every aspect of our employment practices and organisational culture.

We strongly encourage applications from people with lived experience of the injustices we work to address, as well as people who examine their unconscious bias and take responsibility for creating diverse, equitable, inclusive work environments.

We recognise that people from marginalised communities often hesitate to apply for positions unless they meet all the criteria. We want to emphasise that we are committed to supporting growth and development. If you are excited about this role and our mission, we encourage you to apply, even if you don’t meet every qualification listed.

Contact information

Should you require accommodations during the interview process or for any queries regarding this role or the application process, please contact: Nani Jansen Reventlow, Founder, SBrecruitment@systemicjustice.ngo