Regional Safety & Security Director

Location: Nairobi, Kenya, with other indicated locations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Kampala, Uganda. In-person position with travel of up to 40% of the time. The role is open to national and international applicants in the listed locations and potentially other IRC locations able to host the position.

Company

hirify.global is an international humanitarian non-governmental organization supporting people affected by conflict and disaster through health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and community-focused programs.

What you will do

• Provide strategic leadership for safety, security, humanitarian access, duty of care, and operational continuity across East Africa.
• Advise the Regional Vice President and Regional Management Team on risk-informed program, operational, and resourcing decisions.
• Partner with Country Directors to implement context-specific security risk management strategies, minimum standards, contingency plans, and humanitarian access approaches.
• Lead regional incident management, including crisis response, incident reporting, after-action reviews, and SHIELD database trend analysis.
• Build security and humanitarian access capacity through mentoring, training, simulations, and support to country teams and partners.
• Manage and develop the Regional Humanitarian Access and Safety Coordinator and support security leads through the Management in Partnership model.

Requirements

• At least 10 years of experience in international humanitarian assistance, with proven ability to plan, organize, and lead security management operations.
• Prior experience in East Africa and strong knowledge of regional and country dynamics.
• Fluency in English.
• Grounding in humanitarian principles, codes of conduct, NGO culture, gender-sensitive security management, and gender equality.
• Ability to influence without authority and build effective relationships across multinational teams, partners, and stakeholders.
• Ability to transfer knowledge through mentoring, coaching, and non-formal methods.
• Strong ability to analyze and present complex security dynamics and incidents clearly and at short notice, including operational implications.
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 40% of the time.

Nice to have

• Proficiency in a relevant regional language such as Arabic, Amharic, Somali, or Swahili.

Culture & Benefits

• Work within a regional humanitarian organization focused on safety, dignity, equality, accountability, and service.
• Collaborate with country programs, global safety and security teams, peer agencies, security networks, and external counterparts.
• National candidates from the region are prioritized for consideration and may receive the applicable national salary scale and benefits.
• Returning national candidates with more than four years of international work experience may receive competitive compensation, a return flight, shipping allowance, temporary housing, and a relocation allowance, subject to restrictions.

Hiring process

• Recruitment and selection involve key positions with safety and security responsibilities and emphasize high-caliber talent and diverse representation.