Global Surge Team Roster: Emergency Country Director

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

IRC Global Surge Team:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 30 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure.

The IRC’s Global Surge Team (GST) is a roster of highly qualified humanitarian professionals who deploy on short notice to emergency and non‑emergency contexts to support the IRC’s mission. GST members provide specialized, time‑bound support where capacity gaps exist, typically for deployments of up to three months. The GST is a flexible, occasional employment opportunity. Deployment needs vary based on demand. Staff can take on additional deployments as opportunities arise and if they are interested.

Deployment opportunities depend on organizational and operational requirements and may vary over time; as such, deployments cannot be guaranteed. Staff supporting emergency responses must be prepared to deploy within 72 hours as needs arise.

Members of the GST who specialize in emergencies are deployed to support either existing country programs in their emergency response, or to initiate a new program in the crisis zone. The overall responsibility of the team is to design, develop, and manage the IRC’s on-site humanitarian response, allowing us to meet the immediate needs of the affected population rapidly and effectively.

Job Overview:

The Emergency Country Director, Global Surge (ECD) leads all programs implemented in the assigned Country Program during an emergency. The ECD is responsible for overall leadership and supervisory management of IRC staff, programming, and operations in an emergency context, including program quality and accountability, stewardship of resources, staff safety and security, performance management and external representation.

In this role, you will be directly responsible for the program's overall coordination and strategic direction; providing oversight and coaching for senior managers; leading country program teams to identify, design and deliver responsive, high-quality programs; ensuring efficient management of public grants and private funds for results, compliance, and timely reporting; and oversight of financial management and compliance systems.

Emergency Country Directors are expected to be deployed in the field, either in an emergency or roving capacity, and must be able to deploy to the site of an emergency within 72 hours of notification.

Major Responsibilities:

Leadership and Representation

• •Lead the country program by maintaining open and professional relations with colleagues, promoting a strong team spirit, oversight, and resources to enable staff to perform successfully.
• •Develop and carry out strategies that result in strong representation with: government ministries at various levels; UN OCHA; donors including OFDA, USAID, DFID, BPRM, ECHO, UNHCR, UNICEF and other international organizations; international and local NGOs; and networks such as SIRF.
• •Ensure that IRC remains a partner of choice for major international donors.
• •Develop and maintain a high level of understanding of donor priorities and planned funding streams.
• •Initiate and sustain strong, mutually beneficial and authentic partnerships with local organizations.
• •Seek out and pursue opportunities to raise the profile of the work of IRC and its partners, as well as the lives and the needs of the people IRC seeks to serve.
• •Play a leadership role in efforts to improve humanitarian coordination
• •Lead country program collaboration with colleagues to deliver regional programming and advocacy.
• •Ensure leadership and management processes enable the IRC to effectively adapt to contextual changes and fully make use of opportunities to expand humanitarian access and assistance.

Strategic Direction, Quality, and Growth

• •Ensure the strategic vision and direction of the country program is aligned with IRC2020 to serve people with responsive, high-quality and accountable programming, and secure the resources necessary for realization.
• •Ensure the strategy action plan is of quality, implemented and guides decision-making.
• •Ensure quality through consistent use throughout the country program of: rigorous assessment, design, and proposal development and review processes; comprehensive monitoring & evaluation, accountability and learning systems; staff development investments; and partner organization capacity strengthening.
• •Remain current on national and regional issues impacting the country program and partners, and develop responsive strategies to changing contexts.
• •Ensure the SMT delivers the leadership, management structures, staffing skills and approaches, and operational systems required to ensure a coherent ‘one IRC’ approach to achieve regional objectives.
• •Find opportunities for appropriate expansion and growth of programs, supported by the acquisition of and investment in human resources.

Safety and Security Management

• •Take primary responsibility for overall management for the country program.
• •Oversee the management of all security issues, including appropriate response to emergency situations as they arise.
• •Maintain a culture of safety throughout the country program, including trainings and briefings that prepare all country program staff for security incident prevention and response.
• •Keep security, evacuation, and contingency plans current and accessible to country program staff.
• •Maintain close coordination and communication with the Regional Safety and Security Advisor on relevant concerns and evolving issues that could adversely affect IRC staff or operations.

Staff Management, Learning and Development

• •Oversee the management, coaching and development of national and international staff to build a team of skilled, committed, and motivated staff. Coach, train, supervise and mentor direct-report staff, including communicating clear expectations, setting quarterly performance objectives, providing regular and timely positive and constructive performance feedback, and providing documented semi-annual performance reviews.
• •Provide a measurable development plan including on-the-job learning with the aim of strengthening technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team and offering guidance on career paths.
• •Hold high-quality meetings with each direct report on a regular and predictable basis, at least bi-weekly.
• •Approve and manage all time, attendance and leave requests of direct reports to ensure adequate departmental coverage.
• •As part of succession plan and nationalization goals, identify, train and develop capability and capacity of a national staff to successfully transition role and responsibilities, by end of assignment.
• •Promote and monitor staff care and well-being. Model healthy work-life balance practices. Support appropriate interventions in response to identified staff care needs of both national and international staff.
• •Offer leadership support for