Program Overview

The Liberia Foundational Skills Activity (LFSA) is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded program implemented by Chemonics International in Liberia. The project will work to increase the percentage of Liberian children accessing primary school and meeting government of Liberia learning standards.

Responsibilities:

As the Security Specialist for the Liberia Foundational Skills Activity, the employee is responsible for the following principal duties and responsibilities:

• Supports the development, implementation, and monitoring of the project’s security platform, assessing the specific security measures needed by the context, threats, project vulnerabilities, and identified risks
• Coordinates with other departments, units, stakeholders, and individuals to ensure that the project and personnel maintain the proper safety and security procedures in accordance with USAID and Chemonics policies
• Crafts and implements the security framework for the project, to include security assessments, action plans, recommended mitigation measures
• Conducts security reviews for project field trips, monitors staff safety and security during field trips, and crafts and implements field travel planning documents where necessary to enhance journey management
• Manages safety and security processes, standards, and operational plans throughout the project, including managing and overseeing subcontracts with local security providers, where necessary
• Understands the project’s security platform and builds in evaluation checks to assess if existing safety and security processes and systems are effective, recommending improvements to the platform as needed
• Takes leadership role in advancing safety and security for all aspects of the project
• Maintains deep subject matter expertise on safety and security threats and risks to staff
• Monitors, assesses, and analyzes national and county security trends through open-source reporting and field security engagement; communicates this knowledge to relevant field and home office departments, and external stakeholders
• Regularly reports to project leadership, project management unit, the security department, and field staff to communicate national and county safety and security risks or emerging issues
• Supports the continual awareness of and focus on employee safety and security for all staff across the project
• Manages the security response to county emergencies or crises by working with internal and external stakeholders to coordinate efforts and to ensure that all crisis response efforts have timely, accurate information on the security and risk situation as it develops to reduce the impact on staff, operations, and project reputation
• Works closely with field offices to ensure all safety and security incidents are reported and responded to appropriately and in a timely manner, as well as conducting incident after action reviews to gather lessons learned
• Develops guidance and mitigation measures to prevent incidents; socializes new measures to project leadership and field offices to ensure buy-in
• Ensures travelers understand the risk environment before travel and delivers pre-departure briefings to higher risk locations
• Develops relationships with UN agencies, such as the FAO and WFP, as well as government partner agencies to understand their programmatic approaches, as well as to know key stakeholders and security contacts.
• Designs and leads and otherwise monitors validity of relevant safety and security trainings to create a culture of safety for staff through one-on-one mentoring, small group trainings, broader information dissemination, and tracking of staff participation in important safety and security skills building (e.g., defensive driver training, first aid)
• Actively engages in internal or external professional associations and represents company at conferences, educational workshops, industry meetings, and through personal networking in the security industry
• Other duties as assigned

Location of Assignment

This long-term position will be based out of Monrovia, Montserrado County, Liberia.

Supervision and Reporting

The Security Specialist will report to and be supervised by the LFSA Operations and Finance Director.

Job Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field
• At least five (5) years of security, operational, risk, and project management and/or relevant work experience is required
• Experience working for a USAID implementer or donor funded program preferred
• Knowledge of the security context across the six counties of intervention (Montserrado, Margibi, Bong, Grand Bassa, Nimba, Lofa)

• Demonstrated ability in implementing security platforms for civilian operations in conflict zones, to include successful crisis management is required.
• Ability to manage security for numerous activities across the project is required.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, and lead presentations, training courses, and effective meetings is required.
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills
• Demonstrated ability to follow standard practices and procedures, receive general instruction and supervision on work progress, and make significant contribution to end results
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and concisely both orally and in writing in English, and deliver presentations, training, and facilitate meetings effectively
• Demonstrated experience with Microsoft Office Suite in particular: Word, Excel, and Power Point
• Ability to speak and write fluently in English.

Application instructions:

Please complete this form (https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/67955cefe60846e99854c43fa5f26fb9) no later than September 9, 2024. No telephone inquiries, please. Chemonics will contact finalists.

Chemonics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, or other non-merit factors.

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