Emergency Operations Officer

Position Start Date : February 1st, 2024

Duration : Open Ended

Working time : 100%

Location : Lausanne HQ, Switzerland Lausanne HQ, Switzerland – 2 days teleworking per week

Terre des hommes does not set closing dates for this position; recruitment is on-going until the position is filled

Tdh :

Terre des hommes Foundation (Tdh), with headquarters in Lausanne and an office in Zurich, is the leading Swiss organisation for child rights. In 2022, we supported 2.6 million children and members of their communities around the world. We trained people who in turn supported a further 4.5 million children and members of their communities.

Context :

The RED Unit (Response to Disaster Unit) mainly supports the operational teams (portfolio, programs and expertise) to deploy field operations in context of humanitarian crisis. The main goals of the RED Unit are the following:

• To integrate the emergency component into the strategic reflections underway at the regional level and, when existing, country strategies (in strong coordination with portfolio managers).
• To help priority programs to integrate emergency objectives and activities in their updated Theories of Change and adapted tools (in strong coordination with programs and expertise managers)
• To confirm and strengthen Tdh capacity to respond to emergencies and humanitarian crisis.
• To develop an on-off emergency deployment capacity to intervene in complex crisis with suitable human resources and operational setup.

General Responsibilities :

Under the responsibility of the Emergency Response Service Manager, the Emergency Operations Officer will be required to regularly travel to the field and is responsible for:

• Contributing to build the internal capacity in terms of response to emergencies via the provision of workshops and trainings in countries facing regular humanitarian crisis.
• Contributing to the development of institutional and philanthropic funding, including through the writing of project proposals.
• Contributing to the external and internal reporting and communication of the RED Unit.
• Contributing to the development of good practices and tools related to emergencies in terms of Quality and Accountability.

Specific Responsibilities :

Depending on the period and the evolution of the context, the Operations Officer will be in charge of all or part of the following tasks :

• Capacity Building
• Rapid Needs Assessments (RNA) & exploratory missions
• Institutional and philanthropic funding
• Reporting
• Quality & Accountability

The position requires field missions which may take place over several weeks and represent a significant percentage of working time over certain periods. These missions aim to support or strengthen the delegations, particularly for the development of projects responding to humanitarian emergencies and proposals.

The full job description will be shared with the short-listed candidates.

Profile :

Education :

• Master’s/Equivalent diploma from a recognized university/school in international development, social sciences, development studies or any other related field (Bioforce is a plus)
• PMP or other diploma in project cycle management desired.

Experience & Competencies :

• 2 years experiences in the field in contexts of humanitarian emergencies or crisis.
• 2-3 years experiences in an iNGO recognized in the field of emergencies.
• Management experience in securing and managing funds from institutional donors, such as ECHO, EU, UN agencies, SDC, DFID and USAID.
• Good understanding of program cycle management in emergencies, and protracted crisis environments.
• Experience strongly desired in implementing participatory approaches, and the promotion of gender and diversity as well as in the implementation of non-sensitive complaint reporting systems.
• Experience in team management.

Languages : English and French essential. German wish. Arabic is a plus.

IT : Proficiency in using Microsoft Office package.

Salary :

Salary between CHF 5’700.- and CHF 6’000.- gross x 13 depending on the level of experience.

Tdh Global Code of Conduct and Risk Management Policies :

• Fully complies with Tdh’s Global Code of Conduct and systematically reports any breach to the Code through the whistleblowing procedure: raises awareness within the Foundation on abuse and violence and the rights deriving therefrom, respecting the rights and dignity of children, members of the communities and our own Staff
• Commits to respecting Risk Management Policies including: Safeguarding Policies (Child Safeguarding Policy, Policy on the Protection against Sexual Exploitation and the Directive on Staff Misconduct at the Workplace), Safety and Security Policy and Anti-Fraud/Corruption and Prevention of the Financing of Criminal Activities Policies
• Commits to reducing the risk of abuse and harm by developing a culture of open and informed leadership within the organization and in our work with children and the communities in which we intervene in.

We offer an exciting and varied work, useful and meaningful, in a team that wants to make a difference for vulnerable children.

Are you interested? Do you want to face this challenge?