Response Director, Florida

World Central Kitchen is seeking a tenacious and adaptable Response Director who excels at quick, strategic decision-making, thrives at triaging competing priorities, and is a master at building relationships, leading and motivating large teams, and teaching a diverse team of people. The Response Director embraces chaos and ambiguity while implementing WCK responses, and oversees all ground activities of the activation. The Response Director is responsible for ensuring food aid rapidly reaches communities in need in alignment with WCK’s North Star values. 

The ideal candidate is a resourceful, compassionate hands on leader, facilitator, and collaborative team player who thrives in fast-paced, unpredictable environments. You should excel at building trust with communities in crisis, leading teams under pressure, and adapting to complex, evolving situations. Your role includes:

• Operational and Events Field Management: Experience in orchestrating large events with multiple stakeholders. Background in managing logistics under pressure and in unpredictable conditions.
• Rapid Team Building and Management: Recruit, train, and lead dynamic, large scale response teams to deliver efficient, effective food aid in fast-changing environments.
• Problem Solving in Crisis: Proven ability to adapt to evolving challenges and drive mission success.
• Bi/Multilingual Communication: Lead inclusive communication, coordination, and culturally aligned relief response engagement across diverse populations.

Duration: The Response Director is a three (3) year term exempt position with the opportunity for renewal, offering a unique chance to lead and shape WCK's responses.

This position reports directly to the Chief Relief Officer.

Preferred Location(s): Florida. Must live within one (1) hour of an international airport.

• Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Miami, FL
• Tampa, FL

Key Responsibilities:

Activation Management

• Respond within four (4) hours notice to a disaster area to act as Response Director, managing relief operations on the ground, or in rare cases, remotely.
• Direct Activation Managers and oversee the work of their teams, including Culinary, Distribution, Community Outreach, and Procurement/Logistics. Manage multiple additional departments represented on the ground, when needed.
• Ensure strategic and streamlined implementation of relief activities on the ground, operationalizing WCK’s North Star.
• Build and train local teams to meet our human capacity needs to feed the need, embracing our accordion model.
• Direct the scope of responses, programmatic changes, and activation timelines, in conjunction with the Chief Relief Officer.
• Facilitate and implement cross-departmental collaboration and information sharing between WCK departments and Activation Managers on and off activation, including, but not limited to, Safety and Security, Communications, Data & GIS, Technology, Volunteers, Communications, Development, Finance, and Human Resources.
• Ensure smooth transitions and complete handovers with other Response Directors, and between Activation Managers, when rotating field teams through phases of the activation.
• Complete the After-Action Report process immediately following activation wind-down, collating and drawing learnings for process improvement.

Budgeting and Logistics

• Work with the finance team to share cost projections for activations, focusing on meal production and logistical needs. 
• Adhere to WCK’s financial policies while adapting to on-the-ground requirements. 
• Collaborate with the procurement and logistics team to source materials and supplies efficiently and ensure timely delivery to affected areas.

Community and Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong relationships with local communities first.
• Ensure the teams conduct outreach and engagement activities that contribute to WCK’s reputation as an effective, compassionate, and reliable relief organization.
• Represent WCK in the field, acting as an ambassador to beneficiaries, partners, and the media, as required.

Requirements

• Ability to spend up to 70% of the time in the field. The typical duration of an activation is four (4) weeks, though timelines could be longer. 
• Must live within one (1) hour of an international airport or be willing to relocate. 
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently to remote and potentially hazardous locations within four (4) hours notice.
• Masters degr