Program Officer

Position: Program Officer

Status: Full-time, indefinite

Team: Global Programs

Reports to: Director, Program Strategy

Language(s): English, Arabic

Location: Remote within Canada

Starting Salary Range: $87,000-90,000 CAD

Deadline for Applications: 29 June 2025, 11:59pm ET

ABOUT THE EQUALITY FUND

The Equality Fund is transforming the way that resources—and power—flow into the hands of women, girls, and gender expansive people worldwide. Designed by feminists for feminists, it is a model for sustainably resourcing feminist movements everywhere, through global grantmaking, gender-lens investing, policy advocacy, and feminist philanthropy. Launched in 2019, the Equality Fund has activated $100 million to date which flows to more than 1,000 organizations working across 100 countries.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Under the leadership and supervision of the Director of Program Strategy on the Global Programs team, the Program Officer will play a key role in the analysis of trends related to women’s rights and feminist movements and advancing gender equity, particularly in the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and grantmaking mechanisms that include systems, policies, and practices.

The successful candidate will bring knowledge of regional and thematic trends in women, girls, and trans rights—including feminist organizing—with competencies in grantmaking design and implementation, feminist and participatory approaches, and partnership development and relationship building. The Program Officer liaises with and provides direct support to grantee partners, organizes capacity-building opportunities, and represents EF work across the ecosystem. The Program Officer also contributes to our grantmaking meeting compliance requirements, including financial and narrative reporting to donors and other relevant stakeholders. This role requires a strong understanding of results based management and contributes to preparing key program deliverables such as work plans, budgets, and reports.

SCOPE & RESPONSIBILITIES

Partnerships in Grantmaking

• Maintains good knowledge of trends in geographies where EF works and thematic specialization. The Equality Fund supports and strengthens feminist organizations and movements through feminist grantmaking, accompaniment, amplification, knowledge building, and mutual learning. Areas and issues where Equality Fund is looking to strengthen expertise includes LGBTQI movements, youth movements, disability movements, and climate justice;
• Supports development of programming and collaborations within EF and with external partners and stakeholders to advance the work of women’s rights and feminist organizations and movements, sister funds, in ways that strengthen the feminist funding ecosystem;
• Oversees and manages all aspects of designated grantmaking portfolios, including grantmaking plans, writing and/or contributing to docket preparation, receiving and reviewing grant reports, and collaborating with the grants operations and finance teams;
• Provides ongoing support and accompaniment to grantee partners;
• Acts as the main liaison for grantee partners and maintains strong and flexible relationships in the field to inform EF’s work;
• Supports efforts to bring the voices of grantee partners to discussions of resourcing feminist movements, advancing women’s rights and gender equity, and movement building to diverse audiences—including philanthropy, policy makers and the international development sector;
• Represents EF with external partners and stakeholders, including in affinity groups, meetings, and conferences as required;

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

• Contributes to EF’s feminist monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems in collaboration with the Learning and Impact team;
• Documents progress, lessons learned, and success stories, and reports to funders, working closely with the Learning and Impact team, and GP staff.
• Supports other program needs as required;

Other horizontal organizational activities

• Leads in the documentation and dissemination of program experiences and lessons learned; contributing to organizational communications needs;
• Participates in the onboarding of new staff members and mentors team members who may be working remotely in multiple locations across multiple time zones;
• Acts in accordance with our policies around nurturing a safe and respectful work environment; never engaging in harassment, coercion, sexual exploitation or abuse of any form, or anything else contrary to our code of conduct.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 5 years of programmatic grantmaking experience, preferably in a similar program officer role; other relevant professional experience in international development, programming for gender equity, program design, and implementation is an asset.
• Knowledge of and experience working on global feminist issues relating to women, girls, and trans rights in the global majority and current trends relating to gender equity, the rollback of rights, women’s rights, social justice, and international development
• Substantive knowledge of and experience with Middle East and North Africa feminist movements and networks is required; Central and Eastern Europe and Balkans knowledge is an asset.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate in-depth knowledge of intersectionality and awareness of complex power dynamics
• Demonstrated success in building positive, trust-based relationships
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation communication skills in English plus professional working competency in written and spoken Arabic is required.
• Ability to work and communicate with diverse audiences and stakeholders including activists, donors, and community members
• Strong digital proficiency, including GSuite, MS Office, and experience with database/reporting tools. CRM experience is an asset.
• Knowledge and experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning, with knowledge of both quantitative and qualitative methods and the ability to analyze data, interpret, and communicate findings is an asset

CORE COMPETENCIES for Adaptive Leadership

• Adaptive competencies including self-awareness, systems thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and accountability are core to success in this role.
• Adaptable and Open to Change: comfortable when things shift and can adjust plans or priorities without getting stuck; curious and like finding ways to make things work better.
• Strong administrative and organizational skills; attention to detail; ability to maintain detailed and organized files
• Team Player: communicate clearly and respectfully, listen well, and comfort working with people who have different roles, backgrounds, and perspectives across time zones.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a dynamic, complex and diverse work environment, and adhere to tight deadlines
• Demonstrated capacity to work with integrity, confidentiality, and alignment with EF’s feminist principles.
• Trustworthy and Discreet: handle sensitive information with care, respect boundaries, and show up with integrity in the work.
• Commitment to the work and values of the Equality Fund, which include Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, and Intersectionality; Feminist Leadership; Accountability; and Radical Love

REQUIREMENTS

• Must be legally eligible to work in Canada
• Able and willing to travel within Canada and to regions were EF has partners, for up to 3-4 weeks per year
• Willing and able to work remotely on mostly computer-based work
• Occasional evening and weekend work may be required.

OUR ENVIRONMENT OF CARE

• We trust our talented team and are pleased to offer a flexible and virtual work environment.
• We are driven by our values: anti-racism, anti-oppression, and intersectionality; feminist leadership; accountability; and radical love. We believe our values are realized through collaboration, a growth and learning mindset, emotional intelligence, diversity, authenticity, a global perspective, care, and building networks. We work to share power and create space for everyone to lead.
• Equality Fund is proud to offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits package which has no waiting period and includes 4 weeks paid vacation, paid sick time, parental leave top up, medical benefits, life insurance, Group RRSP, paid birthday off, and more.
• Equality Fund is committed to providing and maintaining a safe and respectful workplace. We do not tolerate harassment, coercion, sexual exploitation, or abuse of any form. We recognize that those behaviours are often rooted in abuse of power, which is contrary to EF's mission to make a more equitable world for women, girls, and gender expansive people.
• Equality Fund is an equal opportunity employer. We believe deeply in equality and value diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, disability, and all other protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and positionalities, and are committed to providing an accessible candidate experience. To let us know how we can make an accommodation or adjustment to facilitate the selection process and beyond, please reach out to people@equalityfund.ca.

SELECTION PROCESS

• Equality Fund’s People, Equity, and Culture team will work with the hiring manager to do an initial screening of applicants. Please make sure to detail your experience in your resume/cover letter to ensure the committee has the information they need to assess your qualifications for the role. This process takes about 1 week from the application deadline.
• When there are many candidates who pass the initial screening, the People, Equity, and Culture team may conduct 15-30 minute phone screening calls.
• The hiring committee will conduct first-round interviews with selected candidates. Candidates may be sent the interview questions 48 hours in advance of their scheduled interview. Candidates are welcome, but not expected or required, to send any questions they have for the hiring committee in advance of the interview.
• The hiring committee may conduct a second round of interviews, which may include an assignment.
• The People, Equity, and Culture team will send the selected candidate an Employment Agreement, which the candidate will have time to review and return.

JOIN US!

Though we work to respond to all applicants, at times we may only be able to follow-up with those selected for an interview.