Coordinator, Rapid Response Team - Bundibugyo Outbreak

About the role

The IFRC is supporting the DRC Red Cross in a locally led response to the Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reporting to the Health Manager, the Coordinator, Rapid Response Team leads a mobile, multidisciplinary team of IFRC and DRC Red Cross staff deployed for two weeks to one month. The role leads rapid needs assessment, sets a prioritised deployment plan and coordinates integrated response across surveillance, risk communication and community engagement, safe and dignified burials, infection prevention and control, WASH, mental health and psychosocial support and links to clinical care.

Key responsibilities

• Prepare deployment readiness, objectives, role allocations, equipment and contingency plans with the Health Manager and DRC Red Cross counterparts
• Lead a joint rapid assessment on arrival and agree a prioritised, costed deployment plan within two weeks to one month
• Coordinate transport, accommodation, communications, supplies and briefing arrangements
• Coordinate an integrated response across surveillance, risk communication and community engagement, safe and dignified burials, IPC/WASH, MHPSS and links to clinical care
• Support the branch in setting up volunteer teams, supervision, alert and referral links and community engagement, without creating parallel structures
• Ensure high-risk activities are done only by trained, authorised personnel under approved protocols
• Provide day-to-day operational leadership, train and mentor volunteers, and represent the branch in health-zone coordination mechanisms
• Monitor outputs, expenditure and assets, and plan a documented handover with a joint debrief and end-of-deployment report
• Uphold security, duty of care, staff health and IPC requirements, and apply humanitarian principles and do-no-harm

Required profile

• University degree in public health, humanitarian action, disaster management or another relevant discipline; advanced degree preferred
• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in emergency health or humanitarian operations, including at least two years coordinating field responses or leading multidisciplinary teams
• Demonstrated field experience in infectious disease outbreak response and in insecure, remote or access-constrained settings
• Experience strengthening local partner or National Society capacities and leading mixed national and international teams
• Experience managing workplans, deployment budgets and supplies, and writing situation reports and handovers
• Preferred: previous Red Cross/Red Crescent rapid response deployment, Ebola or other viral haemorrhagic fever experience, and experience in the DRC or similar contexts

Required skills

• Outbreak response knowledge: surveillance, risk communication and community engagement, safe and dignified burials, IPC/WASH, MHPSS and links to clinical care
• Rapid assessment, gap analysis and prioritisation of field actions
• Operational planning, budget monitoring and logistics coordination
• Ability to work in remote, basic field conditions and accept short-notice deployments