JOB SUMMARY: The Senior Specialist, LEARN Emergency Response will oversee International Medical Corps' infectious disease response portfolio under the LEARN project and separate donor funding, and serve as the primary liaison between field-based response teams and donor representatives. Based in Washington, D.C., the position will provide coordination, communication, and operational support to ensure effective implementation of outbreak response activities while maintaining strong donor engagement and compliance.
Working closely with country offices, regional platforms, technical advisors, grants management, monitoring and evaluation teams, and senior leadership, the Senior Specialist will ensure timely information flow, effective decision-making, donor reporting, and alignment of infectious disease response activities within broader LEARN project objectives and International Medical Corps' organizational priorities.
This position plays a critical role in supporting emergency surge operations, monitoring outbreak developments, identifying operational bottlenecks, facilitating cross-functional coordination, and ensuring donor requirements are met through high-quality reporting and communication.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function with or without reasonable accommodation.
MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Program Coordination and Response Management
• Serve as the primary focal point for International Medical Corps' infectious disease response activities under the LEARN project.
• Coordinate communication and information sharing between field response teams, regional platforms, headquarters departments, and organizational leadership.
• Monitor outbreak developments and response implementation across affected countries and provide timely analysis and recommendations to leadership.
• Track response priorities, action items, operational challenges, and critical decisions to ensure effective implementation.
• Facilitate coordination among technical, operational, security, logistics, finance, grants, and program quality teams supporting ID response activities.
• Support rapid response scale-up efforts and facilitate surge coordination during outbreak emergencies.
• Identify programmatic and operational risks and work with relevant stakeholders to develop mitigation measures.
• Foster a continuous understanding of the outbreak operating environment and emerging response needs.
Donor Liaison and External Representation
• Coordinate donor communications, updates, briefings, presentations, and response-related meetings.
• Lead preparation for donor engagements by collecting inputs from field teams and cross-functional departments.
• Ensure donor communications accurately reflect operational realities, response achievements, challenges, risks, and funding needs.
• Prepare donor briefing materials, situation updates, presentations, and meeting summaries.
• Support donor visits, virtual briefings, and monitoring activities as required.
• Represent International Medical Corps in external meetings, coordination forums, and technical discussions as delegated by senior leadership.
Reporting, Analysis, and Information Management
• Analyze and synthesize field data, operational updates, epidemiological information, and response metrics from country teams and regional platforms.
• Produce high-quality donor reports, situation reports, briefing papers, executive summaries, and response updates.
• Develop and maintain systems for tracking key response indicators, milestones, risks, and action items.
• Ensure accurate and timely information sharing with internal and external stakeholders.
• Support development of strategic analyses to inform leadership decision-making and response planning.
Proposal Development and Resource Mobilization
• Support the development of emergency funding proposals, modifications, and cost extensions related to ID preparedness and response activities.
• Coordinate inputs from technical, operational, finance, and country teams for proposal development.
• Assist with donor negotiations and funding discussions as requested.
• Ensure proposed activities align with donor requirements, operational realities, and strategic response objectives.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
• Collaborate with Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) teams to track response performance and outcomes.
• Ensure response data is incorporated into broader LEARN monitoring and reporting frameworks.
• Support learning reviews, after-action reviews, and documentation of best practices and lessons learned.
• Promote evidence-based decision-making through data analysis and performance monitoring.
Cross-Departmental Coordination
• Collaborate with Grants, Finance, Compliance, Security, Human Resources, Logistics, Procurement, Communications, and Program Quality teams to support effective response implementation.
• Facilitate timely review and approval of agreements, budgets, reports, and operational requests related to ID response activities; act as ID response budget manager as assigned by Sr. Leadership.
• Ensure compliance with donor regulations, International Medical Corps policies, and organizational standards.
• Support organizational leadership in addressing complex operational, compliance, and risk management issues.
Knowledge Management and Capacity Strengthening
• Develop tools, templates, guidance documents, and coordination mechanisms to strengthen outbreak response management.
• Support documentation and dissemination of lessons learned and best practices from response operations.
• Contribute to strengthening organizational emergency response systems and preparedness efforts.
Security and Duty of Care
• Support implementation of organizational safety and security policies related to response activities.
• Coordinate with security personnel to monitor operational risks and ensure appropriate follow-up actions.
• Promote staff safety, well-being, and adherence to duty-of-care standards during emergency operations.
Perform other duties as assigned. The duties and responsibilities listed in this document are representative of the nature and level of work assigned and not necessarily comprehensive.