Executive Director - UAEM Europe

Are you passionate about leading change within a grassroots organisation dedicated to health equity? Do you see yourself as someone who can make a genuine difference through your vision, drive, and commitment to social impact?

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is hiring an Executive Director who will be in charge of taking the organisation forward in its exciting new chapter. Whether you’re a seasoned leader with experience or someone with a strong commitment of driving impact, this could be the opportunity for you to make a significant difference.

Job Details

• Location: Berlin, Germany (remote work possible upon further discussion)
• Contract length: 12 months, renewable upon availability of funds.
• Working Hours: 32 hours a week.
• Salary: 44-47,000 €/ year (depending on experience)

This role is an excellent opportunity to develop leadership and management skills and to lead strategic initiatives across UAEM. You will be at the heart of the student-led community, driving change and shaping the future of global health equity.

You will lead on transformational change, providing programme leadership with various stakeholders and a broad portfolio spanning several themes and countries.

This role will enable you to advance your leadership and global health skills, including project and grants management, monitoring, finance, new business development, and training.

About UAEM

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines Europe (UAEM) is an international nonprofit organisation dedicated to mobilising student advocacy for global access to affordable medicines. With hundreds of passionate students across a dozen European countries, from diverse fields—including medicine, law, and public health. UAEM works to change the norms and practices around university patenting and licensing to ensure that medical research meets the needs of populations worldwide.

Our origin story began 20 years ago at Yale University, where students mobilised as part of a demand to lower the prices of HIV/AIDS medication, resulting in a 95% price drop for key medicines and impacting hundreds of thousands of lives. Today, access to essential medicines remains a critical challenge, as many people around the world cannot pay their arbitrarily high prices. We believe that medicines are a right, not a privilege, and should be created for people not profit. UAEM members are committed to:

1. promote access to medicines and medical innovations where barriers exist primarily by changing norms and practices around academic patenting and licensing, supported by our own independent research,
2. ensure that university medical research meets the needs of people worldwide and actively supports the creation of new needs-based approaches to R&D and
3. empower students to respond to the biomedical access and innovation crisis by advocating for the most promising global biomedical R&D system that works for all.

UAEM's ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all. We aim to create, nurture, and sustain an inclusive culture where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our organisation and wider communities. We do this by celebrating and protecting differences, removing barriers, and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

Key Responsibilities

UAEM is seeking a new Executive Director to lead the organisation forward into its next chapter. This will include developing and implementing our new strategic plan, being a leader and galvanising our membership in their activities, in addition to securing funding to ensure the organisation can continue to advocate for essential access to medicines.

The Executive Director will be working as part of a global network of international NGOs and UAEM representatives, including close collaboration with other UAEM regions to ensure a cohesive strategy. UAEM Europe is transitioning into an exciting new phase; with the reboot of UAEM’s advocacy following the pandemic, and inception of novel technical research projects and campaigns at a local, national and regional level. The new Executive Director will play a key role in supporting current initiatives, whilst expanding the organisation’s scope and activities.

The post-holder should have experience in organisational and fundraising elements (e.g. university societies, non-profit volunteer management) due to the strategic oversight the role possesses. Additionally, they will also be a good communicator; the role includes external advocacy as well as managing internal relationships, so the post-holder will be confident in influencing stakeholders from students to grant managers.

Leadership and Vision:

• Co-leads development process for 2026-2030 UAEM Global International Strategic Plan with Executive Directors in other UAEM Regions.
• Guides UAEM Europe in the successful implementation of our strategic plan across Europe.
• Fosters collaboration with all parts of UAEM’s network, including the Board, european leadership, european membership, international chapters, advisors and allies to refine strategies and policies.
• Oversees and empowers student volunteers in advocacy campaigns addressing access to medicines.

Operational Management:

• Oversees the organisational delivery of multiple concurrent projects across various European countries, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and timely achievement of milestones.
• Manages members to execute their duties effectively across fundraising, communications, and administration.

Financial Management

• Develops and presents the yearly budget for the Board’s approval.
• Administers UAEM funds responsibly according to the organisational action plan and budget and in concordance with UAEM governance best practices and applicable laws and regulations.
• Oversees the maintenance of up-to-date administrative bookkeeping as well as statutory, tax and legal reporting or requirements.

Fundraising

• Maintains relationships with existing funders and develops annual narrative and budget reports for organisational grants.
• Seeks new partnerships with organisational funders and oversees the development of novel revenue schemes to support the longevity of the organisation.

External Relations:

• Builds and maintains strong relationships with civil society groups, funders, policymakers, and other stakeholders and acts as an effective spokesperson and inspiring public representative for UAEM
• Communicates effectively with UAEM stakeholders to keep them informed of our initiatives and successes.

Desired Candidate

We welcome applications from candidates from a diverse and varied set of backgrounds and experiences as well as recent graduates/young professionals.

Please note, that we do not require or expect you to meet all criteria to be considered for this role. If you want to contribute to our work with your unique experiences and competencies, please apply!

You should have:

• An undergraduate degree or relevant professional experience.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey complex issues clearly and effectively.
• The ability to empower and strategically oversee a group of diverse students across Europe.
• Organisational skills, with the ability to manage finances and oversee operations.
• A commitment to activism and advocacy in social justice and health equity.
• A propensity for leadership and implementing a vision.
• The ability to independently meet deadlines and be flexible with timings.
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required, and proficiency in additional languages, especially German are a plus.

Ideally, you also have:

• Coordinated volunteer/nonprofit/outreach programmes.
• Technical knowledge of access to medicines, university led research, and intellectual property.
• An understanding of the German NGO environment and international health equity funders.
• Experience of diverse fundraising.
• The ability to relocate to or are already based in Berlin.

We are committed to being an employer of choice where Everyone Matters. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, especially from groups currently underrepresented in our organisation and are dedicated to making reasonable adjustments required during the application process and in the workplace.

Selection process:

Please submit your application:

• By completing the application form
• Sending an email eu_board@essentialmedicine.org with the subject ‘NAME: Application to UAEM Europe ED’ and the following attached:
  • Your CV.

At UAEM we believe candidate’s qualities and experience are best showcased in evidence-based questions, ensuring a fairer and more efficient recruitment process. We believe this will give you the best opportunity to demonstrate your qualifications and strengths. Candidates that do not complete the application form will not be considered for an interview.

Shortlisted candidates will be offered an interview in November, which will involve a presentation and competency based questions.

Note: the application process is run on an ongoing basis, we reserve the right to close the advert if we believe we have found a suitable candidate, so we advise that you apply as soon as possible.