Global Surge Team Roster: Emergency Country Director

International Rescue Committee

16d

About The Position

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. The IRC’s Global Surge Team (GST) is a roster of esteemed and highly qualified humanitarian professionals who deploy on short notice to non-emergency and emergency contexts to support the IRC’s mission. Members of the GST provide specialist support where talent is most needed for short-term deployments of up to three months. The GST is a flexible employment opportunity for staff, requiring members to be available for deployments only 50% of the year (with opportunities for additional deployments if incumbent is interested). 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.

Requirements

You should have strong leadership abilities and interpersonal skills, and be able to deploy strong communications effectively, both internally and externally. You should enjoy developing networks to build partnerships and diversify program resources.
Graduate degree in a relevant field preferred, or equivalent level of experience.
Minimum 12 years of progressive international experience, including senior leadership or Country Director level of complex, multi‑site multi-sectoral humanitarian operations.
Prior experience working within organizational structures in transition.
Demonstrated experience in conflict, post‑conflict, or disaster response settings.
Professional fluency in written and spoken English. Working knowledge of French, Arabic, and/or Spanish is strongly preferred.
Proven ability to lead security management in volatile contexts.
Strong representation, partnership, and donor engagement skills.
Demonstrated success managing large budgets, grant portfolios, and compliance.
Established capacity to handle stressful situations in a healthy, constructive manner.
Strong strategic leadership and decision-making skills.
Ability to build relationships and influence at senior levels.
Demonstrated success developing, coaching, and empowering diverse teams.
Ability to represent complex contexts clearly to senior stakeholders, media, and partners.
Innovative mindset with ability to adapt to rapidly evolving environments.
Opportunity-awareness. A successful innovative approach to unpredictable programming, operational, and funding contexts.

Nice To Haves

Experience with organizational capacity strengthening and partnership building is helpful.

Responsibilities

Provide overall leadership to country response teams, fostering a professional, inclusive, and accountable culture.
Represent IRC with senior government officials, donors, UN leadership, NGO partners, and coordination bodies.
Develop and maintain strong partnerships with local actors, promoting IRC’s partner‑first approach.
Position IRC as a trusted, high‑impact humanitarian actor.
Develop and maintain a high level of understanding of donor priorities and planned funding streams.
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.
Lead strategic planning for the emergency response and ensure alignment with IRC’s global strategy.
Ensure the strategy action plan is of quality, implemented and guides decision-making.
Ensure assessments, program design, and proposals meet high standards of quality, accountability, and evidence‑based practice.
Remain current on national and regional issues impacting the country program and partners and develop responsive strategies to changing contexts.
Guide expansion or scale‑up decisions and ensure coherent, high-quality delivery across sectors.
Champion a culture of effective and respectful partnerships. Promote partner-led programming in line with IRC’s “why not partner?” and “partner as equals” approach in emergencies.
Develop staffing structures with the appropriate number of staff to effectively manage and support partnerships.
Ensure that partnership considerations are incorporated into the overall emergency response plan and that local partners are actively engaged in response design, budgeting and program delivery.
Maintain awareness of evolving political, security, and humanitarian trends and adjust strategy accordingly.
Hold overall responsibility for safety and security of staff and operations.
Ensure security protocols, contingency plans, and staff briefings are current and rigorously applied.
Coordinate closely with regional security leadership (country, regional and HQ) to monitor risks and ensure appropriate mitigation.
Build and support high-performing teams; mentor senior leaders; provide regular performance feedback.
Drive staff well‑being actions and model healthy work‑life balance.
Oversee succession planning and develop national leadership capacity.
Ensure People & Culture policies and practices are followed across the response.
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.
Offer leadership support for successful adherence by all staff to IRC’s country, regional and Global HR Operating Policies and Procedures.
Work with regional HR staff to identify and implement recruitment and retention strategies.
Ensure strong financial management, compliance, and budget oversight.
Strengthen operational systems in supply chain, HR, finance, and field support.
Drive efficiency and responsible stewardship of IRC and donor resources.
Lead risk management and ensure adherence to internal and donor policies.
Ensure responsiveness and appropriate levels of in-person and remote support to all offices, especially in the areas of HR, finance and supply chain.
Provide timely and effective oversight of the country program’s financial position.
Promote transparent, timely communication across teams, regions, and HQ.
Ensure staff understand and uphold IRC’s Code of Conduct and professional standards.