Technical Advisor II, Hazard Monitoring

Job Posting Organization:
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. Established to save, protect, and transform lives in need, CRS operates in more than 100 countries, providing assistance without regard to race, religion, or nationality. The organization focuses on various sectors including emergency response, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding. CRS is committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation, and it welcomes individuals from diverse faiths and secular traditions who share its values and commitment to serving those in need. The agency's work culture is collaborative and mission-driven, aiming to improve the lives of the poor globally. The organization has a strong emphasis on accountability and integrity, ensuring that its processes reflect a commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of all people.

Job Overview:
The Technical Advisor II, Hazard Monitoring plays a crucial role in providing advisory support, capacity strengthening, and systems support related to hazard monitoring, early warning, and anticipatory action. This position is integral to translating weather and climate forecasts, as well as conflict and other non-climate crisis analyses, into actionable information that supports humanitarian decision-making and risk reduction strategies. The advisor will work closely with CRS project and country teams, ensuring that emergency and disaster risk reduction (DRR) programming aligns with CRS program quality principles, donor requirements, and humanitarian best practices. The role requires a proactive approach to integrating weather and climate information into various humanitarian workflows, focusing on enhancing the organization's ability to respond effectively in complex and resource-constrained environments.

Duties and Responsibilities:
The Technical Advisor II will be responsible for a range of key activities, including: providing technical advisory support to CRS regions and country programs to integrate weather and climate information into risk reduction, early action, anticipatory action (AA), and early warning systems (EWS); gathering, analyzing, interpreting, and tailoring open-source weather and climate science data, as well as non-climate drivers, into pragmatic, decision-oriented information for humanitarian programming; supporting the design, adaptation, and use of dashboards, visualization tools, monitoring products, and bulletins for regional and country-level hazard monitoring and risk analysis; integrating new sources of weather, climate, and other contextual drivers of crisis information into existing humanitarian workflows; explaining and contextualizing uncertainty, probability, and forecast accuracy to non-technical audiences; identifying links between weather and climate impacts, livelihood changes, market disruption, and political conflict; advising technical sector leads on incorporating weather and climate data into sectoral analysis, program design, and response planning; developing and delivering tools, guidance, and learning resources to strengthen CRS and partner capacity in hazard monitoring and AA/DRR programming; and contributing to knowledge management by documenting lessons learned, promising practices, and innovations related to hazard monitoring, DRR, and AA, sharing insights through CRS technical networks and platforms.

Required Qualifications:
Candidates must possess a strong technical knowledge of weather and climate modeling, probabilistic risk analysis, satellite observation, GIS, and related analytical tools. Familiarity with multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS), climate data sources, and last-mile EWS approaches is essential. A solid understanding of disaster risk reduction (DRR) principles, including community-based approaches, is required, along with the ability to ensure a cross-sectoral approach to disaster risk management (DRM) and emergency contingency planning. Knowledge of design requirements and regulations of major donors, including the United States Government, the EU, UN agencies, and Caritas, is also necessary. Strong networking, presentation, and cross-cultural communication skills are critical, as is the ability to develop and maintain relationships with donors, peer organizations, and other partners. Candidates should demonstrate strong strategic, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to make sound judgments and decisions with limited information and offer innovative solutions. The ability to work effectively under pressure, manage competing priorities, and operate in fast-paced and sometimes stressful environments is essential. A proactive, resourceful, solution-oriented, and results-oriented mindset is highly valued.

Educational Background:
The position requires a Bachelor’s degree in meteorology, atmospheric science, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), environmental engineering, climate risk management, disaster preparedness, or a related field. A Master’s degree in one of these areas is preferred and may enhance the candidate's qualifications.

Experience:
Candidates should have a minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience with progressive responsibilities, including at least two years in a field-based position related to hazard monitoring or climate risk analysis. Experience applying DRR principles and approaches, including community-based methods, and collaborating across technical sectors to support integrated analysis is essential. Additionally, experience in capacity strengthening and working with local grassroots organizations, with a commitment to localization and applying best practices, is required.

Languages:
Fluency in English is mandatory for this position. Proficiency in additional languages such as Arabic, French, Spanish, and/or Portuguese is considered a plus, enhancing the candidate's ability to communicate effectively in diverse contexts.

Additional Notes:
The position is tentatively scheduled to last from July 1, 2026, to December 31, 2027, and is contingent on funding. The successful candidate must be willing to travel up to 50% of the time. There are no supervisory responsibilities associated with this role. CRS offers a comprehensive benefits package for U.S.-based staff, including medical, dental, life insurance, vision, and a generous retirement savings plan. For candidates employed outside the U.S., salary and benefits packages are based on the country of employment. CRS prioritizes candidates who are citizens or permanent residents of the countries where CRS offices are located.