Jobs and Careers

Director of safety & security

Congo (the Democratic Republic of)full_timeVerifiedPosted 9 Jan 2025

About the role

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

The Team

Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 2007, with a staff of approximately 400 people working in Eastern DRC and Kasai. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with sub-field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Kasai provinces. Mercy Corps’ key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs in order to: 1) Improve water service delivery and ensuring equitable access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services, in urban and rural areas; 2) Improve food security and nutrition; 3) Promote diversified livelihoods, economic recovery and development. Mercy Corps DRC’s humanitarian programs aim specifically to assist populations affected by the conflict and crisis in Eastern Congo with multi-purpose cash assistance and emergency WASH support to displaced and host populations. The Position The Director of Safety and Security is a member of the DRC senior leadership team. His/her primary focus will be providing strategic oversight and direction to the security teams, managing operational mechanisms of organizational safety and security policies and ensuring processes are up-to-date, communicated and effectively practiced and rolled-out by team members. Our expectation is that these are responsive to the context, adequate for the circumstances and designed to enable the activities and works in the Mercy Corps DRC portfolio. A second priority for this role includes the planning and support to safe access and when necessary, negotiations, for the security of our teams, partners and communities. The third priority for this role is support to the Country Director and senior leadership team (SLT) in managing the broader scope of risks which Mercy Corps faces in the DRC. In order to fulfill this role, the Director must maintain an acute awareness of the context and all threats as they relate to Mercy Corps operations. The Director is expected to understand all Mercy Corps DRC program activities across all operational areas, traveling regularly and frequently to the field bases and operations. The Director will oversee a team of access and security officers and is expected to coordinate effectively with the Heads of Office / Area Managers in our 10 locations as well as Mercy Corps’ Crisis Analytics Team (CAT Team). The Director will assist heads of Office (line managers) in prioritizing the time, effort and performance of local Field Security Officers. The Director is expected to travel across our 10 offices and have an intimate knowledge of each program, major objectives, activities, constraints and team members. S/he is expected to find value and integrate the learnings and outputs from our conflict and analysis teams into an enhanced security culture at Mercy Corps. Essential Responsibilities GENERAL POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

Stay informed and abreast of evolutions in the environment. This includes the acute changes and long, contextual arc of political, security, and economic situations in the DR Congo.
Have a thorough understanding of the agency’s capacity and strategy. Stay abreast of the needs and humanitarian situation in the country. Understand and help define Mercy Corps’ role and added value.
Provide strategic oversight and leadership to the development and implementation of a security department strategy.
Ensure that all Mercy Corps documentation and security management processes are up-to-date and socialized, promoting the use of digital tools to streamline documentation + promote user-friendly information sharing.
Manage the performance and coordinate the time of the core security team travel and focus so that it adequately serves the program teams. Undertake regular field visits in order to meet with team members and gain an independent assessment of the situation and to look for solutions and any mitigating measures needed to protect staff, assets and partners.
Work closely with the Area Managers and Heads of Office to schedule and prioritize support requests, the achievement of basic minimum standards and other needs.
Maintain technical management & support of all