SURGE Coordinator

 Are you SRC’s new SURGE Coordinator? 

About the role

The main purpose of the role is to coordinate in-country and on-site response to emergency operations of the IFRC, ICRC or a National Society in the disaster or crisis affected country at the time of crisis, by supporting the surge capacity of the Swedish Red Cross and enhance the localized capacities of volunteers and staff of National Societies. The role may include, but is not limited, to:

• Deployment into early onset of an IFRC or National Society led response operation;
• Short-term support to SRC bilateral and multilateral programs in various types of missions and roles;
• Representation of the Swedish Red Cross in the RCRC Movement forums on global tools.

You will be in charge of disseminating the International Guidelines for IFRC and National Society deployment of rapid response personnel and ensure the compliance of the SRCs Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for International Emergencies. You will work in close collaboration with other Thematic Advisors at the SRC International Department, with focus on Disaster Management, Emergency WaSH and Emergency Health.

You will be carrying out other duties including aspects of supporting the development of learning, of new or revised tools, organizing selection committees for candidates to participate in relevant trainings, contribute or coordinate the SRC’s contribution to trainings on relevant subjects and to support other delegates as well as give relevant and needed support to the work of the Global Response Unit.

As part of the Global Response Unit, you will be the liaison with Human Resources with the support of a Disaster Management Desk on disseminating alerts, missions and deciding on potential surge contractual modalities.

Who are we looking for?

You have a solid background in international disaster response, at a coordination level. Strong experience in the implementation of response programs is required as well as substantial management experience.

You are very strong in your ability to take the initiative to solve problems and create results. You thrive in a dynamic and unpredictable work environment; you are flexible and quickly adapt to new situations. You like a job where cooperation and dialogue are essential, and you can network. You are comfortable working in international settings and in different cultural environments, and you have capability to generate trust, encourage and give support to your colleagues. You also have good teaching and communication skills.

We highly appreciate your ability to analyze complex situations and reach logical conclusions. You should have a strong sense of organization, as well as ability to identify and define structures and connections. Ability to contribute to effective teamwork and to share knowledge and information with colleagues is of great value. You are stress resilient.

Main Duties

Coordinate Swedish Red Cross Emergency Workforce Planning and Deployment

• Provide strategic contributions to the operation workforce plan, including defining roles, needs assessments and coordinating inputs from key stakeholders (IFRC Global Surge, other NS and ICRC Rapid Response) for the medium and long-term structure
• Connect the Swedish Red Cross strategic priorities with the regional HR plans of action and roadmaps, setting up emergency response support interventions.
• Develop and maintain the organizational structure for the Rapid Response team as well as the longer-term structure in conjunction with the Thematic Pool managers: WASH, Health CEA and PGI.
• Assess and support the rapid response personnel learning pathway in the Swedish Red Cross, including deployments, trainings and core competency development based on assessment and appraisals.

Provide advice and guidance on methodologies for recruitment and selection, including support on the development of key tools and processes to enable efficient, effective and safe recruitment processes.

• Together with global surge, engage with the National Society to ensure compliance with national labour law and regulations for national staff recruitment and localization of surge.
• Coordinate with Geographical Heads of Unit on their responsibilities in HR related tasks e.g., workforce planning, job profile design, interview, participation for emergency response

Coordinate with other NS harmonizing agreements to cover emergency workforce gaps in the Swedish Red Cross in non-prioritized areas such as logistics and procurement.

Staff onboarding

• Oversee the response staff on-boarding process to ensure compliance with required trainings and experience, including vetting together with the Security Advisory team, Sustainability Platform and Human Resources.
• Engage with in-country/regional HR and host National Society in the development and implementation of a tailored induction when required.
• Working in collaboration with QARMA and STAB, coordinate for debrief with relevant Swedish Partners.

Disaster Management Support

• Provide in-country and on-site coordination and management assistance to emergency operations of the IFRC, ICRC or a National Society in the disaster or crisis affected country at the time of crisis.
• Connect the Disaster Management surge capacity of the Swedish Red Cross with global tools such as DREF, SIMS or other relevant response workstreams of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement

Our culture

In order to create results and effect and make a difference for our target groups every day, we have developed four approaches clarifying and strengthening our working culture:

• Drive– we dare prioritize and have the courage to take decisions
• Compassion– we see the individual and listen with curiosity in meetings others
• One red Cross – we act for collaboration and co-creation and see to the whole picture
• Development and learning – we try and test new things and reflect, we dare make mistakes

Required Qualifications

• Higher academic education, preferably within Disaster Risk Management or in a relevant thematic area such as Emergency Health or Emergency WaSH;
• A minimum of five (5) years’ experience from international humanitarian settings and
  disaster response including insecure settings;
• Experience in setting up structures and operations in a disaster response context;
• Experience in project cycle management including budget work
• Proficient knowledge of written and spoken English;
• Experience from the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement;
• HEAT (Hostile Environment Awareness Training), equivalent security training or demonstrated working experience in complex security environments.
• Swedish work permit;
• International Driving License (manual transmission).

Merit Qualifications

• Experience in Protection, Gender and Inclusion as well as Community-Based Approaches in response work.
• Team leading and management experience from a disaster response context
• Knowledge of Swedish;
• Knowledge of other languages such as Arabic, French or Spanish;
• Experience of security assessment in emergencies.

General Information: 

This is a full-time permanent position, starting as soon as possible, based in Stockholm.

The work involves travelling internationally, sometimes to complex and potentially dangerous areas of disaster and conflict. 

You must share the values of the Red Cross Movement.

You need to be a resident in Sweden and carry a Swedish work permit to be selected for this position.

Our recruitment process

We welcome your application by 27 April 2025.

Please contact the recruiting manager Roger Alonso at [email protected] if you have any questions about the position.

The Swedish Red Cross strives to be an inclusive organization with employees who contribute to diversity in perspective, experience and background. We believe that it makes us more relevant. Therefore, we are happy to recruit people from different ethnic and social backgrounds, gender identity and expression, faith, age, disability and sexual orientation.

Our recruitment process starts with an initial selection based on the established requirements profile and is then followed by interviews, and in some cases online tests. Background and reference checks are done for top candidates. 

As the Swedish Red Cross is part of the Inter-Agency Scheme for the Disclosure of Safeguarding-related Misconduct to protect our sector from sexual abuse, we ask specific questions about this to your references. Final candidates may also be screened against EU and UN sanctions lists.

Here you can find contact details of the trade unions represented by us. You can also find out more about us as an employer on our careers page here.

We do not accept calls from sellers of recruitment-related services.