Report to: WCS Global Safety & Security Director
Direct Reports: None
Key Relationships: Regional Directors, Country and Program Directors, APAMU staff, Protected area and field management staff, and senior programmatic staff
Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Summary of Position
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. WCS envisions a world where wildlife thrives in healthy lands and seas, valued by societies that embrace and benefit from the diversity and integrity of life on earth. WCS seeks to conserve the world’s largest and most ecologically intact wild places. These places are home to more than 50 percent of the world’s biodiversity and sustain over 300 million of the world’s poorest people.
This position will be assigned to work with WCS’s three regions in Africa, along with the Africa Protected Area Management Unit (APAMU) to focus on the programmatic security needs for WCS operations in Africa. WCS’s work in Africa comprises some of the largest programs within the WCS Global Portfolio in terms of budget and staffing.
The Regional Security Director is accountable for developing and implementing procedures, communications, and training to safeguard WCS personnel, assets and operations within WCS’ Global Conservation Program. This position is responsible for improving security readiness, awareness, preparing evacuation plans for priority sites, monitoring the security and safety situation in countries where we work, intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination, and providing the necessary advice and training to enhance security of our staff, assets, and operations throughout all program regions. The Regional Security Manager will also be responsible for creating, and reviewing existing, risk assessment and mitigation plans, security management plans, and crisis management plans; and providing guidance as needed to make sure all plans are current and effective.
Key Responsibilities
- For the first 3-6 months of this assignment, the priority will be to identify, document, analyze and prioritize programmatic threats and risks affecting the safety and security of WCS staff, visitors, and assets within Africa. This will include the development of site-based security and evacuation plans in those areas facing the most imminent threats (such as northern Mozambique, Eastern DRC, and northern CAR). Thereafter, the position will work with the Global Director to continue to monitor, evaluate, support and respond to the programmatic security needs of WCS programs within Africa.
- Work collaboratively with all Regional Directors for the purpose of developing and managing a regional security strategy
- Enhance WCS’s ability to receive, evaluate and react to threat intelligence and to analyze local, regional and global trends
- Prepare and deliver communication tools and training modules to disseminate regular security briefings and create broader awareness and responsiveness of staff to safety and security
- Design, implement and monitor threat mitigation strategies, including personnel risk management, asset management and communications protocols, in cooperation with all country directors
- Provide guidance and support WCS Africa leadership on building a more robust response to program security including guidance on applying for external funding to support near and long-term comprehensive security initiatives
- Perform regular onsite audits of all programmatic security infrastructure and procedures
- Assist all country directors with the recruitment and/or designation of staff best suited to oversee security processes within in each country program
- Coordinate and assist in the investigative responses to security incidents
- Actively participate in security networks (such as OSAC and INSO) for the purpose of creating a broader security awareness exchange with other NGO security resources
- Provide regular progress reports to the Global Safety & Security Director on the state of security for each region to include all accomplishments, short and long-term security goals and budget guidance.
Qualification Requirements
- Committed to the mission of the Wildlife Conservation Society
- A minimum of 10 years of increasing security responsibilities with a multinational organization with operations in remote high-risk environments. Thorough knowledge and experience applying security principles and practices in threat identification, management and mitigation, incident response and investigation, facility hardening, hostile environment/wilderness first-aid, kidnapping and hostage survival, site perimeter protection; access and control policy management, transportation security in hostile environments, counter-surveillance techniques, crisis management response, and intelligence collection and dissemination
- Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing with an emphasis on training and public presentation to a very broad range of audiences; apply sound judgment in ambiguous situations; effectively manage change, working effectively with and through others to achieve required results; establish and maintain effective interpersonal relationships
- Ability to work independently with extensive travel to remote regions
- Ability to maintain a thorough awareness of the intent and capabilities of criminal organizations within each region that engage in wildlife poaching and trafficking
- Verbal and written fluency in English and French is required, fluency in Portuguese a plus
- Strong computer skills (MS Office, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint or similar applications)
- Previous law enforcement and/or military experience within central Africa is desired
- Previous experience of working with an international NGO is desired
- Bachelor’s degree in a security or law enforcement related discipline is desired. Master’s level degree is preferred. Experience can be considered instead of formal education, on a case-by-case basis.