Job Description

Internships at SOS Children’s Villages International

Location: Vienna, Austria 

Duration: 9-12 months, full-time (38,5 hours/week)

About SOS Children’s Villages

SOS Children's Villages, founded in 1949, is the world's largest non-governmental organization focused on supporting children and young people without parental care, or at risk of losing it.  

Child neglect, abuse and abandonment is everywhere. Families are at risk of separation. Locally led, we work in more than 130 countries and territories to strengthen families who are under pressure so they can stay together. When this is not in a child or young person's best interests, we provide quality care according to their unique needs.  

Together with partners, donors, communities, children, young people and families, we enable children to grow up with the bonds they need to develop and become their strongest selves. We speak up for each child's rights and advocate for change so all children can grow up in a supportive environment. 

About the Internship  

The aim of the internship is to offer a first-hand experience of what it is like to work at a global NGO like SOS Children’s Villages. Through this internship, you will be able to provide general support to a function/department or a strategic project (e.g. attend and organise meetings, prepare presentations, draft proposals, etc.).

Tasks and responsibilities:

• Manages operational and administrative aspects for the leadership team, including but not limited to calendar management, general correspondence, organising meetings, organizing travel, leave and travel requests, and managing the department’s virtual collaboration platform

• Supports with the budget including coordinating the planning and monitoring process and liaising with finance

• Coordinates larger scale internal events with multi-country participation

• Supports with external and internal networks, meetings and strategic projects

• Maintains good communications and relationships with different stakeholders internally and externally

• Provides content support in the preparation of meetings including research and presentation materials

Requirements 

• Bachelor's / master's studies (ongoing or graduate) or equivalent

• Project management, budget management and/or event management previous experience through studies volunteering, internships or work experience

• Good administration and organization skills. Any practical experience would represent a strong advantage

• Sensitivity of multicultural environment and commitment to the organisations’ values

• Open-minded approach to global issues 

• Self-motivated and good team player 

• Good knowledge of MS Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint  

• Strong written and oral communication skills in English. German would be an asset

• You need a valid working permit to work full time in Austria

We offer

• A diverse and international working environment with a social and thriving team culture 

• Insight into the functioning of an international NGO 

• Training possibilities 

• Flexible working times

• Home-office possibility

• Overtime – does not get lost and can be taken as hours off 

• Possibility to work from abroad max 25% of your working time after onboarding

• SOS Children´s Villages International believes that interns undertake a valuable role in our organization. We offer a fixed gross salary of €1.350 per month on a full-time basis.

Process  

Please prepare in advance all supporting documents (CV, motivation letter and certificates/diplomas/proof of enrollment).

If your profile corresponds to our requirements, you will be contacted and invited to an interview and possibly asked to complete a written assignment.

Ways of working:

• Global collaboration and communication – Working effectively across countries, cultures, and time zones by maintaining clear communication, transparency, and shared understanding within distributed teams.

• Cross-functional collaboration – Working closely with colleagues across different functions and areas of expertise to combine knowledge, solve problems collectively, and deliver meaningful outcomes aligned with the organisation’s mission.

• Effective collaboration within matrix structures – Working constructively within solid and dotted reporting lines by maintaining open communication, aligning priorities with both line and functional managers, and ensuring clarity on roles, responsibilities, and expectations to support coordinated delivery across teams.

• Flexibility and adaptability – Remaining responsive to evolving contexts and adjusting priorities, approaches, and ways of collaboration as projects, services, or organisational demand evolve.

• Ownership and accountability – Taking responsibility for advancing tasks and initiatives, proactively addressing obstacles, and ensuring that commitments, decisions, and actions are carried through to completion, taking initiative within your scope of responsibility rather than waiting for direction.

• Strengthening member associations and their autonomy – Ensuring that knowledge, tools, and lessons from projects and services are shared with member associations so they can learn from the work carried out and progressively strengthen their capacity and independence.

• Continuous feedback and transparency - Contributing to a culture where feedback and data are shared openly and constructively, enabling teams and stakeholders involved to reflect, learn, and continuously improve their work and impact.

What We Stand For 

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to creating and maintaining a caring and protective environment, which promotes its core values, and prevents and addresses child abuse and exploitation. We strongly condemn all forms of child abuse and exploitation, be it within or outside of our organization, and always respond to any case of proven, alleged or attempted abuse within our sphere of influence according to its nature. Efforts ensure that mechanisms are in place to raise awareness, aid prevention, encourage reporting and ease response. They range from human resource development actions such as training and counselling to measures such as suspension, dismissal, and legal action. 

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to creating and maintaining a safe working environment for our staff, the children and young people and the communities that we work for. The organization prohibits harassment, exploitation and abuses by or of any employee, supervisor, manager, child, young people, community, contractor, applicant, or other individual with whom SOS Children’s Villages employees come into contact by virtue of their work. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our prevention and protection against Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse policy. 

In addition, SOS Children’s Villages apply zero-tolerance concerning any fraud situation. The organization does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. 

Successful candidates will have to submit a criminal record certificate, current within the last three years. In accordance with the organisation’s child protection policy, these positions will be subject to criminal record checks.

For more information about our work please visit: Our work - SOS Children's Villages International (sos-childrensvillages.org)