Are you passionate about healthier cities, clean air, and climate action? Do you want your work to directly contribute to transforming how major cities tackle air pollution?

The Clean Air Fund is hiring an Analyst to support our Breathe Cities programme in Brussels.

This is a unique opportunity to join a dynamic, mission-led organisation using philanthropy to accelerate cleaner air and better health for all. As an Analyst, you’ll play a key role in supporting high-impact work across five major European cities, including Brussels, Paris and Milan, helping to shape how city governments and communities reduce air pollution and deliver lasting change.

You’ll be a great fit if you:

Have experience managing projects or grants in a philanthropic, public, or nonprofit setting
Are a strong communicator in both English and French
Are confident working across diverse stakeholders, from city officials to campaigners
Are curious, solutions-focused, and passionate about driving environmental and public health impact

Your work will include research, stakeholder engagement, grant oversight and support to city-level campaigns and policy change. You’ll be part of an ambitious, supportive team working to scale clean air action globally, with a real chance to see the difference your work makes.

Closing date – 22nd May 2025
Salary – 40,000 – 42,000 EUR
Contract – Full-time
Start date – ASAP

Who we are

Clean Air Fund is a global philanthropic organisation that brings together governments, campaigners, researchers, funders and businesses to create a world where everyone breathes clean air.

Clean air for all

We all need clean air to live, grow and thrive. Yet 9 out of 10 people breathe harmful and dirty air, making air pollution one of our biggest health threats. Globally, over 7 million people die every year because of air pollution — more than twice as many as from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined. The poorest communities, living in the most congested areas, are often hit the hardest. Babies, children, and older people suffer most. In addition to harming our health, air pollution is linked to climate change. It doesn’t have to be this way. Cleaning our air can be a solution to some of society’s biggest challenges, from public health to climate change, children’s development to sustainable economic growth.

How we work

From grassroots to government, Clean Air Fund supports partners to accelerate action on clean air. We do this by:

funding and partnering with organisations across the globe that promote air quality data, build public demand for clean air and drive action;
influencing and supporting decision-makers to act on clean air and to strengthen the air quality cause; and
working with communities that are disproportionately affected by air pollution.

What Clean Air Fund offers

We are a growing organisation that is clear about what we offer and what we expect from everyone in the team. We offer the opportunity to be at the heart of efforts to drive the air quality agenda and tackle air pollution across the globe. You would be joining an ambitious organisation that is expanding the scale of its work year-on-year and is making a real difference. We provide a competitive reward package, flexible working and a commitment to supporting your learning and professional development. Everyone who works with us shares our values — collaborative, dynamic and evidence-informed — and a commitment to our mission. We are growing rapidly, so comfort with change and the ability to work at pace is vital, as is a desire to learn, improve and develop with the organisation. Find out here about our values, offices, benefits, salary and commitment to diversity, inclusion and equality.

Breathe Cities

Breathe Cities is an initiative developed by the Clean Air Fund and C40 Cities, with the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. The initiative is expanding to at least ten new cities globally in 2023 and 2024 and plans to scale further in the coming years. Our goal is to support each city to achieve a 30% reduction in air pollution by 2030, compared to 2019 levels. The Breathe Cities Europe program spans five major cities: Warsaw, Sofia, Paris, Brussels, and Milan. The portfolio includes a diverse array of local grants and partnerships with grassroots organizations dedicated to reducing air pollution from transport and domestic heating, raising public awareness through data-driven insights, and providing technical support to local governments to advance policy changes. The Breathe Cities approach has been tested and proven through Clean Air Fund’s pilots in London and Warsaw and builds on established partnership with C40 Cities to provide direct support and capacity building to city governments. By working on the front line of the global air pollution crisis, this initiative has the potential to unlock urgently-needed change in cities and beyond.

Job purpose

The Breathe Cities Analyst will support the delivery of Breathe Cities initiatives in Europe, with potential to expand to other cities, as well as providing support to wider Breathe Cities global work. This includes the design, management and monitoring of philanthropic initiatives and programmes, project and grant management, as well as the design and management of partnerships and communication efforts. The post holder will also input into the strategy development of their main work area.

Scope of role

The post holder works on projects across multiple teams and task managers in a matrix system. This role will support the Breathe Cities Europe portfolio as well as some global grants and initiatives. Tasks will combine managing and supporting a set of grants, as well as managing and supporting a wide range of projects and workstreams across the breadth of the organization. The postholder is responsible for managing his/her own workload, reporting to task managers who hold ultimate accountability and budgets for the portfolio.

Key working relationships

Internally, the role will liaise with:

Breathe Cities Portfolio Manager EU.
The Finance team for budget management and contracting of projects and grants.
MEL lead to design and evaluate projects, grants and strategies.
Strategic Partnerships and Communications team for communications and dissemination of work and
The Programme Director for review and approval of grants and contracts.

Externally, the primary contacts will be:

Grantees and suppliers for grant and project development and management
Stakeholders such as policy makers and experts in the field

Key accountabilities

Project and Grant management (60%)

Working with guidance to support the design, management, monitoring, reporting, and evaluation of projects/grants, including proposal development, and taking action to help projects stay on track.

Support the relevant task managers in identifying, developing, and reviewing grant proposals.
Lead the end-to-end administration of the grant or project management process (from concept formation through to final grant payment and evaluation) including keeping the grant management system updated.
Track project performance through regular, structured conversations with grantees and through grantee reporting and report on the project performance to the relevant task managers.
Work closely with members of the Finance team to coordinate payments and review spend, to enable effective cash flow management and reporting.
Contribute to the Clean Air Fund’s reporting to funders for own area of work and support wider reporting and evaluation activities.
Support and/or lead on aspects of the Clean Air Fund’s direct delivery through management of internally delivered projects.

Stakeholder Management (25%)

Build effective relationships with stakeholders and grantees – through clear communication on performance expectations and constructive engagement throughout the lifecycle of the grant or project.
Be CAF’s point of contact for selected external stakeholders to inform portfolio-specific strategy and grant development.

Research and analysis (10%)

Support development of strategy by conducting research, collating information and/or synthesizing information in initial stages of the process and through close coordination with experts.
Support fundraising and business development through research and preparing supporting materials which may include inputting into fundraising documents, pitch decks and formulating new project ideas.

Sector Knowledge (5%)

Develop own capabilities by participating in development activities as well as formal and informal training and coaching.
Keep abreast of developments within the air quality field especially related to stakeholders, policy development, innovation, technology, and air quality analysis.
Contribute to function corporate planning in relation to own areas of responsibility and stakeholders.

Person Specification

Essential technical competencies

Experience in project management for an international non-governmental organisation or a philanthropic organisation in Europe.
Experience in working on environment, health and/or air quality issues.
Experience in networking and building strong working relationships with a range of stakeholders.
Articulate and proficient in both written and spoken English and French. Proficiency in additional European languages is considered an asset.

Desirable technical competencies

Experience with air quality data, campaigning or community organising.
Experience of budget tracking and financial reporting.
Sound understanding of principles of monitoring, evaluation and learning.
Degree in environmental, climate, air quality or public policy.
Experience in context research, data gathering, analysis and report writing.

Essential behavioural competencies

Evidence of capacity to work in range of cultural and socio-economic contexts, adapting style and approach appropriately and in a culturally sensitive manner.
Excellent communication skills including grant and report writing, minute taking, delivering presentations and keeping internal stakeholders updated.
Proficient in using the latest Microsoft 365 tools, comfortable with cloud-based platforms like Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, highly adaptable to new ways of working, and a good understanding of basic cyber security and data protection responsibilities.
Ability to manage a busy workload with fluctuating deadlines.
Proven teamworking skills, including flexibility and enthusiasm.
A self-starter, resilient, able to work at pace with agility and interpersonal flexibility.

Desirable behavioural competencies

Dynamic, confident, collaborative and with strong influencing skills.
Belief in the importance of evidence-informed decision making.
Courageous in expressing their views, providing input and feedback.

Further information

The postholder must have the right to work at the location where this position will be based.
Clean Air Fund will not be able to support visa applications.
Salary and benefits will meet local package.
The organisation facilitates working from home up to 50% for most of the roles. The Europe team, based in Brussels, has access to a coworking facility located in the European institutions district.
This role is full time.

Analyst – EU Breathe Cities (French-speaking)