Associate Director, Emergency Response

Position Summary:

Building on its long history of resettlement, protection, and advocacy support for refugees, HIAS seeks an Associate Director, Emergency Response to build its capacity to engage in emergency responses globally and within the US. HIAS’ emergency response efforts will focus on displacement crises, providing critical assistance to vulnerable refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), primarily in HIAS’ four Signature Approaches: gender-based violence (GBV), community-based mental health and psycho-social support (MHPSS), economic inclusion, and/or legal protection.

HIAS seeks a motivated Associate Director, Emergency Response with demonstrated experience in the humanitarian and/or emergency programming field to join its team. This position will join the small, but growing Emergency Department and contribute to the rollout of HIAS’s five-year Emergency Response Strategy. S/he will work closely with the Director, Emergency Response to drive forward HIAS’ five-year Emergency Response Strategy and operational plan, monitoring that all benchmarks are achieved as planned.

Essential Functions:

• Serve as emergency subject matter expert across all departments in HIAS – inclusive of Programs, Operations and Public Affairs – to incorporate humanitarian best practice into external and internal tools and communication materials produced by HIAS that may include recommendations to Director, Emergency Response on necessary changes within divisions to ensure programmatic capacity to respond to emergencies
• Ensures deliverables of rapid onset and on-going emergency assistance and early recovery programs are met through coordination with relevant teams and departments.
• Supports or in select circumstances, leads effective program financial management and adherence to financial and contractual policies and procedures.
• In coordination with Programs and Institutional Development and Policy, supports new business development as a technical writer, technical advisor and reviewer on relevant humanitarian program to support development initiatives.
• Participates in field humanitarian needs assessments in rapid-onset and on-going emergency settings and serves in various roles on emergency response teams as required. Produces succinct written and oral summaries and analyses of humanitarian conditions.
• Contributes to the continuous review and implementation of the overall HIAS Emergency Programming strategy.
• Represents HIAS at relevant coordination and partnership forums. Establishes and maintains excellent working relationships with other emergency and humanitarian assistance personnel.
• Work in tandem with Director, Emergency Response to coordinate with International Programs, Executive Office, Institutional Development and Policy, Operations, Public Affairs and Country Offices to assess capacity and produce a gap analysis for use in identifying needs for capacity development of country office team’s understanding of humanitarian principles, operating systems and ability to flex in times of emergency.
• In coordination with SAM, coordinate and draft written Emergency Response Tools for use with deployments that will include, logistical, technical and sectoral recommendations.
• In countries with HIAS Office presence, coordinate with International Programs, Institutional Development and Policy and Country Offices to review and draft concept notes key humanitarian donors.
• In countries with no HIAS Presence, lead on identifying opportunities to build partnerships for potential response activities in coordination with the Director, Emergency Response and relevant HIAS departments.
• At the discretion of Director, Emergency Response, participate in cross sectoral working groups.
• During emergency deployments, support and in some cases lead coordination between humanitarian and response activities, drafting site reps and provide routine updates to HQ
• Support and in some cases lead on collection of data for Rapid Needs Assessments and socializing concepts with emergency and humanitarian donors while coordinating closely with SAM.
• Work with the Director, Emergency Response to identify, broker and develop potential partnerships for emergency and humanitarian program implementation.
• Coordinate with the Emergency Department to review, develop and update systems with HIAS’s emergency response policies, SOPs, emergency response index, risk assessments, needs assessment tools, and manuals.
• As needs arise, work within all divisions and Surge Funds to respond to emergencies.
• Undertakes all other duties and projects as may be assigned from time to time.
• Serve as Acting Director, Emergency Response in the absence of the Director, Emergency Response.

Qualifications & Requirements:

• Minimum of 5-7 years related experience, with at least one year working in an international humanitarian setting ideally in a leadership role.
• Bachelor’s degree in emergency management, international affairs or related field. Master’s level degree preferred.
• Experience managing humanitarian interventions in an international disaster context across the entire disaster management cycle to include emergency response, early recovery and transition, disaster risk reduction, and resilience.
• Demonstrated experience developing, designing, or evaluating proposed humanitarian interventions against response or disaster risk reduction strategies and identified need.
• Demonstrated skills and abilities in coordinating relief, transition or disaster risk reduction activities with host governments in the midst of humanitarian crisis situations.
• Demonstrated skills and abilities in coordinating relief, transition or disaster risk reduction activities with the international humanitarian community (e.g. donors, clusters, INGOs, NGOs) in the midst of international humanitarian crisis situations.
• Demonstrated skills and abilities in coordinating relief, transition or disaster risk reduction activities.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex humanitarian issues to a range of audiences through written products.
• Experience in providing briefings and communicating effectively in meetings.
• Demonstrated understanding of humanitarian principles, (core humanitarian standards, Sphere, etc).
• Experience designing rapid needs assessments and leading teams to assess, design and manage disaster response and early recovery activities.
• On the ground field experience working in volatile areas and complex emergencies.
• Experience leading a diverse team of program, technical, and administrative staff as part of a in international humanitarian crisis.
• Experience leading team members in person and remotely located at different sites.
• Experience leading teams in a high threat environment.
• Experience brokering successful partnerships with NGOs.
• Experience coordinating with emergency and international humanitarian donors.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated knowledge of the emergency management cycle and/or international humanitarian preparedness, response and early recovery program methodologies, monitoring and evaluation techniques, and grants administration.
• Ability to manage, track and report on budgets and program financial data.
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Suite. Comfortable working with large amounts of data and Excel spreadsheets.
• Strong program design and management skills in a complex, humanitarian environment.
• Demonstrated technical abilities in any of the following areas preferred: GBV, MHPSS, livelihoods, cash programming and legal aid in humanitarian contexts.
• Experience working successfully in cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary settings.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills, alongside the ability to interpret documents and spreadsheets, analyze information, and develop strategies.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, written and oral. Foreign language skills preferred, especially French or Spanish.
• Excellent organizational skills. Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment and meet conflicting deadlines with a minimum of supervision.
• Ability to mobilize within 72 hours to challenging and insecure environments. Willingness to travel up to 40% of the time.
• Ability to establish and maintain excellent working relationships with other humanitarian assistance actors, including donors.
• Experience or demonstrated knowledge of work with refugee, IDP and host community contexts strongly preferred.
• Experience with strategic planning, change management and organizational management is a plus.
• Experience in effectively dealing with international and headquarters staff. The ability to deal with a broad spectrum of people;
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions independently.
• Ability to work effectively in an atmosphere of shifting priorities and deadline pressure.
• Excellent ability to handle multiple tasks and many administrative details in a fast paced and constantly changing environment.
• Ability to exercise sound judgement, extremely flexible, and have the ability to cope with stressful situations and frustrations.

About Us:

HIAS is a global Jewish nonprofit organization working across five continents to ensure that refugees and displaced persons are protected. Throughout the United States, we help refugees reunite with families, resettle and become self-sufficient. Guided by our values and history, we help refugees rebuild their lives in safety and security and advocate to ensure that all displaced people are treated with dignity.

HIAS is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. As an equal opportunity employer, all qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, ethnic background, citizenship status, religious creed, sex, gender, sexual orientation, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, familial status, pregnancy, childbirth, age, protected veteran status, political orientation or other legally protected status.