Senior Manager, Response Program

Vacancy No.S17743Category of ContractIntegrationPosition TypeIntegrationApplication Deadline17/06/2026Job Posted On03/06/2026Duty StationPanama City, PanamaDuration12

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies to prevent and alleviate human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.”  The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during, and after disasters, health emergencies, and other crises.

IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

IFRC is led by its Secretary General and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy, and Corporate Services.

IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and the Americas.  IFRC also has country cluster delegations and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster, and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

The American Red Cross is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Job Purpose

The Senior Response Program Manager will be responsible for:

  • Operating as a Response Lead. This includes managing and monitoring performance of programmatic portfolios of any events in coordination with regional teams and stakeholders and supporting regional teams on proposal development in areas of disasters and crisis.

Contributing to the ISD capacity to rapidly deploy (surge) subject matter experts in support of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent network response. This includes individual deployment and building local, regional, and global capacity. When deployed the Delegate will be embedded in response operations to support assessments, planning, implementation, operations, and reporting. They will provide leadership and expertise to operations to increase performance and improve timely, relevant, service delivery, and deliver regular operational updates to the American Red Cross.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Operational

  • Monitor programmatic and operational risk and provide timely, accurate, and relevant response options analysis and recommendations to senior leadership to program resources to operations.
  • Deploy as directed in these roles or others as needed: Rapid Response Team Leader; Technical Specialist; Interim Country Representative; Operations Manager; Disaster Management Coordinator; Recovery Assessment.
  • Work on improving control environment donating to appeal and influencing operations to introduce proper controls in operations.
  • Coordinate with the International Response Operations Manager and Roster Manager to acquire necessary pre-deployment specificities ahead of field deployments.
  • Mobilize roster resources and tools as needed to support operations.
  • Operate in accordance with the deployment Terms of Reference and provide timely communication to operational leadership

  • Demonstrates high cultural competence by adapting leadership, communication, and decision-making approaches to diverse Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) environments.

  • Understand and comply with all Standard Operating Procedures and ISD Concept of Operations

  • Identify opportunities to enhance key RCRC initiatives in CVA, IM, and Ops leadership.

  • Document and track all disaster related information in organizational IT systems

  • Actively participate in after action reviews, debriefings, and other post-event learning activities. Socialize lessons learned.

  • Conduct field missions to monitor performance of large-scale operations.

Fiscal

  • Lead and support diversity of funding opportunities and proposals for emergency response and recovery specifically through US Government and corporate donors.

  • Monitor the performance of American Red Cross contributions across the disaster cycle (time, scope, and budget).

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

Internal/External Relations

  • Assist national societies, AmRC or IFRC delegations with access to US-based/USG resources

  • Ensure strong relationships with AmRC Global Divisions, host national societies, and RCRC representatives

  • Ensure strong relationships with AmRC internal units including Operations, Grants & Agreements, Logistics, Monitoring and Evaluation, QDL and AmRC domestic disaster response.

  • Participate in disaster regional calls with movement partners and attend interagency coordination meetings.

Education

4-year degree in international development, disaster management, climate change adaptation, water and sanitation, environmental rehabilitation, organization development or related field required.

Administration, industrial engineering, or Humanitarian sciences master’s degree.

Experience

Minimum 7 years working in emergency humanitarian response, disaster relief and/or development environment with at least 2 years total in international disaster response in a variety of contexts required.

Minimum 2-years of supervisory experience, particularly in a team setting with strong relational and strategic leadership competencies strongly preferred.

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Demonstrated ability to prioritize multiple tasks while setting strategic direction, analysis, and implementation in a high-stress environment.

Must be detail-oriented and organized and have strong analytical skills.

Excellent interpersonal skills and diplomacy.

Candidate must have strong verbal and written communication skills and must demonstrate familiarity with evolving industry standards.

Must be responsible, self-motivated, and can work independently.

Competencies, Values and Comments

Fluently spoken and written English/Spanish

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