Coordinator, Ebola Emergency

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian network, with 191-member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. IFRC uses the Triple R – response, resilience and respect – to deliver on Strategy 2030. IFRC responds to disasters and crises, ensuring timely, coordinated and locally led humanitarian action. IFRC supports its members in building community resilience in the areas of climate and environment, health and wellbeing, and migration and displacement. IFRC promotes respect for our fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality, including in our work on values, power and inclusion. The IFRC focuses throughout on our core mandate – our raison d’être – of strategic and operational coordination, humanitarian diplomacy, National Society development, and accountability.

IFRC is led by its Secretary General and has its Headquarters in Geneva and five regional offices in Africa (Nairobi); the Americas (Panama); Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur); Europe (Budapest); and MENA (Beirut) as well as representation offices, service centres and delegations across the globe.

IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.

The IFRC Country Cluster Delegation, based in Kinshasa, DRC, is the IFRC Secretariat’s frontline presence supporting Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, the Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda. It works to strengthen locally led, community-based humanitarian action as the foundation of effective, sustainable response.

The Ebola (BVD) Epidemic began with clusters of unexplained deaths in March 2026 and is spreading in a context of weak health systems, population movement, insecurity, and community mistrust, which together increase the risk of sustained transmission and cross‑border spread to neighbouring countries. The absence of an approved vaccine or specific treatment for this strain makes the outbreak particularly complex and heightens the urgency of rapid containment.

IFRC is scaling up a National Society-led response centred on community engagement, surveillance, and outbreak control, supported by an emergency appeal. Red Cross volunteers are mobilized in affected areas to conduct door-to-door awareness, counter misinformation, encourage early care-seeking, and support safe and dignified burials, key to breaking transmission. At the same time, IFRC is coordinating closely with governments and partners, strengthening preparedness, mobilising resources and surge capacity, and supporting logistics, infection prevention, and community-based surveillance to contain the outbreak and reduce spread.

The Ebola Emergency Coordinator supports the Head of Delegation in providing strategic leadership, risk oversight, humanitarian diplomacy, National Society engagement, donor engagement, and institutional representation for the Ebola (BVD) epidemic response. Operating within delegated authority, the post holder ensures strategic coherence and alignment of the response while delegating day-to-day operational leadership and implementation management to the designated operations leadership functions, namely the Operations Manager and the Health Coordinator, whom the post holder supervises.

Job Purpose

Reporting to the Head of Delegation and exercising delegated authority, the Ebola Emergency Coordinator provides overall day-to-day strategic leadership and oversight of the Ebola (BVD) Epidemic response, supporting effective decision-making, humanitarian diplomacy, members engagement, Movement coordination, donor relations, risk governance, and institutional representation. The position ensures strategic coherence and adaptation of the response while operational leadership and implementation management remain the responsibility of the designated operational team, in accordance with the IFRC Emergency Response Framework and relevant IFRC policies, procedures, and standards.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day strategic oversight of the Ebola (BVD) Epidemic emergency operation, ensuring the operations team is guided by a clear strategic vision, priorities, and direction.
• Make recommendations for setting the strategic direction, priorities, and objectives of the response.
• Represent the IFRC vis-à-vis agencies, public authorities and coordination bodies.
• Lead strategic analysis of the evolving outbreak context and support the development of response scenarios, prioritisation options, transition strategies, and recovery planning.
• Anticipate and address strategic challenges, risks, and bottlenecks affecting the response.
• Negotiate, plan and align priorities and interests across the in-country IFRC networks, and with the ICRC and the IFRC Secretariat global level for an effective collective response.
• Ensure compliance with IFRC Emergency Response Framework, as well as IFRC policies, procedures and tools.
• Ensure that decision-makers have access to timely and reliable operational analysis, information products and performance data to support strategic decision-making.

Support the DRC Red Cross by:

• Reviewing learnings from previous operations and utilising findings to analyse and adapt response options and prioritisation;
• Identifying DRC Red Cross response capacity-strengthening opportunities;
• Support the DRC Red Cross in strengthening its leadership, auxiliary role, and strategic positioning within national and international coordination mechanisms.

Support the Head of Delegation by:

• Ensuring strategic decision-making is undertaken jointly with the leadership of the DRC Red Cross;
• Maintaining trust and sustained engagement with the leadership of the DRC Red Cross;
• Supporting Movement and Membership coordination;
• Preparing strategic analyses, briefing notes, and decision-support materials for leadership engagement;
• Representing the IFRC in strategic inter-agency fora;

Supporting high-level engagement with authorities;

• Engaging in internal and external strategic forums and dialogues;
• Supporting strategic donor engagement;
• Ensuring effective risk, safeguarding, security, and duty-of-care governance, including appropriate oversight and escalation mechanisms.
• Exercise delegated decision-making authority on behalf of the Head of Delegation for agreed aspects of the emergency response, and escalate matters with significant strategic, financial, reputational, security or safeguarding implications.

Education

Required

• University graduate degree in management or relevant area
• IMPACT training or equivalent

Experience

Required

• At least 10 years of relevant professional experience in disaster management, including managing staff
• Experience in large scale epidemic response
• Experience working in volatile and insecure areas
• Experience in project-cycle management, including proposal development, budgeting and reporting, monitoring and evaluation
• At least 5 years of work experience with RC/RC
• Experience in project cycle management including proposal development, budgeting and reporting, monitoring and evaluation
• Good knowledge and relevant work experience in the regional context

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

• Results-oriented and demand-driven individual, entrepreneurial, with the ability to lead in unprecedented and/or ambiguous situations
• Demonstrated management skills, including the ability to lead within a matrix management structure and utilise the talent and experience of team members in a productive way
• Outstanding networking, representational and negotiation skills. An ability to be proactive and persuasive
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Effective project management skills
• Excellent analytical skills and solution-oriented mindset
• Good mentoring, coaching and capacity development skills
• Ability to work well in a multicultural, multilingual and cross-functional team setting
• Excellent stress management skills
• Demonstrated accountability
• Cultural sensitivity and ability to work in a cross-cultural and cross-functional environment as well as to communicate in such environment
• Demonstrated core proficiency in (a) digital communication & collaboration, (b) basic digital content creation, (c) digital safety & security, (d) data literacy, and (e) problem solving with technology (including responsible use of AI assistants.
• Understanding of and commitment to IFRC’s mission and values.
• Fluent spoken and written French and English

Preferred

• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic)

Competencies, Values and Comments

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability
Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust
Functional competencies: Strategic orientation; Building alliances; Leadership; Empowering others
Managerial Competencies: Managing Staff Performance; managing Staff Development.