What we are looking for:

Are you ready to shape and lead Humanitarian Access & Safety (HAS) initiatives across NRC’s operations? This is your opportunity to play a pivotal role in enabling safe and principled humanitarian responses for the communities and partners we work with and our staff worldwide.

As NRC’s Global Director of Humanitarian Access and Safety (HAS), you will set the strategic and operational direction for humanitarian access, security risk management, and crisis management across the organisation. You will ensure that robust policies, systems, and practices are in place, aligned with NRC’s global strategy, to safeguard our ability to deliver where we are needed most.

This role goes far beyond systems and policies - it’s also about people. You will mentor HAS colleagues, drive the professional development of HAS staff, and nurture a culture of inclusion and collaboration across all functions and levels. By championing best practices and fostering learning, you will promote a strong HAS culture across NRC that balances safety, access, and principled humanitarian action.

If you’re passionate about safeguarding humanitarian action, building resilient systems, and empowering diverse teams to succeed, we want to hear from you. 

Apply now and help shape a safer, more impactful future with NRC!

What you will do:

Here are some of your generic responsibilities.

Policy, strategy and HAS development

1. Develop, maintain, and improve the humanitarian access and security risk management governance structure (policy, guidelines, SOPs, handbooks, best practices, etc.) ​and crisis management/ business continuity management organisation, and ensure that these are designed to support NRC in the delivery of its mission and that NRC upholds our duty of care to our people.
2. Develop and ensure the operationalisation of HAS policies, frameworks, standards, tools, and SOPs, working in partnership through the technical line and with operational directors. Ensure NRC’s HAS services are lean, effective and of good quality.
3. Own, run and improve HAS compliance across NRC and provide oversight on NRCs HAS performance through compliance reports, audits & reviews and operational KPIs. 
4. Own, develop and manage training programmes relating to HAS and crisis management, ensuring that these are based on organisational needs and contexts in which NRC is working.

Technical development and support 

1. Develop, maintain, and improve NRCs incident reporting, management of relevant incidents and provide regular analysis across NRC.
2. Develop Global HAS as “Centre of Excellence” for its area of responsibility and drive adoption of “best practices”.
3. Continuously seek to introduce, adapt, and strengthen accountability mechanisms and routines within the HAS and line management structure​.
4. Member of the Head Office Crises Management Team. Coordinator for NRC’s crisis management response in critical incidents​.

Representation and relationships

1. Responsible for identifying and maintaining relationships with relevant stakeholders (e.g., international HAS sector actors​, INGOs, private sector) related to the HAS development areas. Ensure that NRC is well placed within the wider sector, including representing NRC’s work. 
2. Responsible for supporting external fundraising linked to any of the HAS development areas, in collaboration with other relevant NRC departments. 

Team management and development

1. Line management responsibilities for directly reporting staff. This includes the
   • Performance management process: setting clear goals aligned to strategy and priorities, and to follow up and support staff’s achievement. 
   • Responsible for key processes as workforce planning, recruitment, staff induction and development and ensure Duty of Care for own staff
2. Ensure quality recruitment, induction, guidance, support, mentoring, capacity building, and development of HAS staff in the regional and global teams to strengthen operational leadership.   
3. Compliance and adherence to NRC policies, guidance and procedures, and a specific responsibility for the functions policies and procedures. 

Please download the detailed job description to learn more about the position. 

What you will bring:

• Relevant higher education or equivalent work experience and training. 
• Minimum 8 years of experience working in the field of health safety security, 4 of which must be within the NGO, UN or private sector (not including military or private security).
• Strategic development, planning and staff management experience at a senior level.
• Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile. 
• Extensive experience from complex and volatile contexts.
• Solid understanding of humanitarian principles and practices in broad humanitarian action, NGO safety and risk management, humanitarian access, and civil-military coordination.
• Demonstrated experience in incident, emergency, and crisis management.
• Excellent communication skills and fluency in English, both written and verbal. Fluency in Arabic, Spanish and/or and French is also an asset.
• Professional qualifications or studies in general management, Safety and Security and/or risk management.
• Prior work experience at the country level.
• Experience or qualifications in humanitarian access, civil-military coordination or negotiations.
• Experience in designing training concepts.
• Experience in change management.

What we offer:

• Duty station: Oslo, Head office; Rep Offices except Geneva & Washington DC; EoR Countries; Hosting in NRC’s Offices (within a reasonable time zone).
• Contract: Permanent.
• Travel: up to 25%.
• Salary/benefits: grade 13 on NRC’s salary resident scale, with accompanying terms and conditions. 
• NRC is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to diversity without distinction to age, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, and physical ability.
• We think outside the box, encourage ideas, and give responsibility to all employees at all levels. You will have many opportunities to be heard and take the initiative.

Find out more about the benefits of working for NRC

Important information about the application process

• For Internal candidates: To apply as an internal candidate, log in with your official email or click on Opportunity MarketPlace.
• When creating your profile, include your full name as given on your passport. Complete all the system-required fields for experience, employment history and education.
• Submit your application and CV in English, taking care to attach your latest CV.
• Applications that do not meet the minimum standards in terms of experience or qualifications will generally not be considered. Unsolicited applications not related to this specific job advertisement will not be considered.
• We receive many applications for each vacant position and so only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

If you have any questions about this role, please email ho.recruitment@nrc.no with the job title as the subject line.

Why NRC?

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. Our 15,000 staff work in crises across 40 countries, providing life-saving and long-term assistance to millions of people every year.

Watch this short video to see NRC in action.

We are looking for people who are passionate about helping refugees and people forced to flee. Are you one of those people? If you are, NRC offers you the opportunity to:

• do demanding and professional work, often in challenging contexts.
• join a work culture that empowers every employee to share ideas and take responsibility.
• be part of a welcoming and supportive community committed to human dignity.