International Disaster Response Operations Management Roster Candidate

Position description

The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates suffering by providing disaster relief (shelter, food), supplying about 40% of the nation’s blood, teaching life-saving skills (First Aid, CPR, swimming), supporting military families, and offering international humanitarian aid, all through volunteers and donors to help communities prepare for and recover from emergencies.

International Disaster Response Roster

The American Red Cross provides essential humanitarian support worldwide for people affected by disasters and crises. To ensure rapid response, we maintain an International Disaster Response (IDR) roster of qualified professionals who can be deployed within 72 hours when urgent needs arise. Joining the IDR roster means you may be called upon to deploy as part of a surge team for emergency operations anywhere in the world. Deployments typically last a minimum of six weeks and up to three months and involve working in challenging, low-resource environments alongside international and local partners. You will work in challenging environments where resources, infrastructure, and systems may differ significantly from those in your home country, while adhering to international humanitarian standards. Collaboration, adaptability, and cultural sensitivity are key.

American Red Cross Safeguarding Statement

At the American Red Cross, we are committed to creating and maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all, especially children and vulnerable adults. We have zero tolerance for abuse, exploitation, or harassment of any kind. The American Red Cross aspires to be an organization fully committed to diversity and inclusion by creating and maintaining a diverse, high-performing workforce of employees and volunteers who reflect all communities we serve; by cultivating a collaborative, inclusive and respectful work environment that empowers all contributors; and by leveraging diverse partnerships – all of which helps to ensure culturally competent service delivery supported by effective community leadership and engagement.

Duties

We are seeking highly experienced Operations Managers to join our IDR roster. In this role, you will provide strategic and operational leadership within IFRC response operations on behalf of the affected National Society. You will ensure effective coordination, assessment, analysis, and planning with key stakeholders, including National Societies, other Red Cross Red Crescent partners, government agencies, and NGOs.

Responsibilities:

Your duties will include, but are not limited to:

• Leading operational planning, monitoring, and reporting.
• Defining operational strategy and priorities.
• Managing the overall operation, including security and risk management.
• Coordinating with Movement partners and external actors to ensure alignment and collaboration.
• Overseeing budgets, HR decisions, and logistics.
• Ensuring Red Cross services evolve to meet changing community needs, including transition to recovery.

Time Commitment:

Roster members must be able to commit to deploy for a minimum of eight consecutive weeks within a calendar year. In addition, members are expected to participate in learning and development activities (virtual or in-person), especially during the initial months of joining the Roster.

Qualifications

Required:

• Available for deployment for 8 weeks to 3 months within the next two years.
• Combined experience of 7+ years in: Disaster management leadership (international or domestic), including field experience and staff management
• Budget oversight, HR decisions, and logistics.
• Project and program cycle management (proposal development, budgeting, reporting, monitoring, and evaluation).
• Fluency in English and an IFRC priority language (French, Spanish, Arabic) at a C1 or higher level.
• International experience within the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement (e.g., surge deployments, relief/recovery delegations, or regional/country office roles).
• Comfortable working in ambiguous and rapidly changing environments.
• Experience in managing, training, mentoring, and supporting staff or volunteers.
• Current passport and willingness to comply with American Red Cross health and safety policies.
• Submission of resume.

Preferred:

• Proficiency in additional languages (C1 or higher).
• Experience in internal and external coordination, especially with government and NGOs.

Application instructions

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