Costa Rica Disaster Risk Management Specialist – Latin America and the Caribbean’s Regional Disaster Assistance Program Activity (RDAP) At Tetra Tech

Tetra Tech International Development Services is currently accepting expressions of interest from qualified candidates for a Disaster Risk Management Specialist position on an anticipated USAID-funded Regional Disaster Assistance Program (RDAP) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). RDAP’s primary objective is to build disaster management and risk reduction capacity to improve the ability of host nations and regional entities to effectively respond to disasters, reducing the human consequences of disasters and the need for U.S. government assistance. In LAC, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) office provides support to risk management programs through its regional office in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Position Description: The Disaster Risk Management Specialist will oversee and deliver the coordination of technical assistance to build national and local capacity in disaster management, risk reduction and disaster response. This position will be based out of San Jose, Costa Rica.

Responsibilities:

*Assess hazards, risks, vulnerabilities, and exposures, existing capacities, and required capabilities to address those issues nationally and undertake country-level strategic planning to address assessed gaps in capabilities.

*Work with project staff to develop and execute a training and technical assistance program to address key emergency management, disaster preparedness, disaster response, or disaster risk reduction capacity gaps for public, private, and regional disaster agencies and organizations.

* Actively participate in the preparation, execution, monitoring, and evaluation of the annual work plan and country plans;

*Maintain a robust network of key stakeholders in disaster management and emergency response, and support all project activities as needed in country, including procurement, mobilization of rapid response surge capacity, and technical support across project objectives.

* Develop and maintain a roster of technically qualified surge consultants for each country and manage the mobilization of consultants as needed

​**Qualifications:**

*Bachelor’s degree in related field required; Master’s degree, or higher, preferred;

*At least five years of academic and/or practical experience in fields related to emergency and/or disaster risk management, such as, but not limited to, emergency operations center management, fire management, search and rescue, disaster assessment and needs analysis, disaster response, emergency medicine, and shelter management.

*Experience in providing/supporting emergency management or disaster preparedness training and technical assistance programs.

*Excellent knowledge of capacity building best practices and ability to identify significant capacity building opportunities; good understanding of capacity assessment methodologies.

*Previous experience in supporting disaster relief programs is strongly preferred. Expertise in food security; nutrition; health; water, sanitation, hygiene; environmental health; shelter; gender, protection, and inclusion; logistics; and/or the ability to analyze cross-cutting issues is preferred.

*Professional proficiency in both spoken and written Spanish and English.

*Candidates must be able to legally work in Costa Rica.