Technical Advisor III– Emergency Program Response (EPR) Generalist

Position duration: (Tentative July 1, 2026 – December 31, 2027)

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding. 

The Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) provides leadership and support to CRS emergency programming. The HRD strengthens CRS’ impact through high quality, innovative programs; improved technical and management capacity at the field level; and active engagement in global efforts to promote excellence and learning in humanitarian response. The HRD has technical staff that supports emergency program planning, rapid response, and capacity strengthening of staff and partners worldwide.

You will contribute to strategy development in Emergency Response and Recovery at a regional or global level and provide technical advice and leadership in program quality and management aspects of Emergency Response and Recovery at a regional or global level, including as a focal point for a geographic area as needed, in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to Technical Advisors and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your expertise, advice and influence will significantly contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ Emergency Response and Recovery programming is across a region or regions. 

This includes:

• providing rapid deployment leadership focused on program quality and management for breaking and ongoing humanitarian responses, including emergency programming in conflict-affected areas as well as responses to natural disasters such as floods, drought or food crises; 

• guiding CPs and partners on humanitarian funding opportunities and supporting humanitarian proposal design/development, in coordination with regional teams and HRD sectoral technical advisors;

• engaging with PIQA, Business Development and regional colleagues to bring a humanitarian lens to discussions on broader program quality initiatives

• Contribute to agency‑wide risk management efforts by conducting holistic risk assessments and providing technical leadership to CP teams on effective risk mitigation.

• Contribute to knowledge management and learning through the collection and analysis of lessons learned and best practices in ERR and CRS’ risk assessment/mitigation activities in high-risk field contexts to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to the Emergency Response and Recovery learning agenda. 

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• Experience in the development and production of curricula, tools, and other products to support Emergency Response and Recovery interventions and programming. Demonstrated experience in transferring knowledge to diverse audiences through training, mentoring, and other formal and informal methods.

• Strong understanding and application of technical principles and concepts in Emergency Response and Recovery. Good knowledge of related disciplines to ensure a proper cross-sectoral approach.

• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.

• Very strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment.

• Master's Degree in International Development, Disaster Management or related field is an advantage.

• Located in or able to cover UTC +0 – UTC +4 time zones.

• Experience should include high-risk field contexts such as emergency programming in disaster and conflict zones.

• Strong business development skills including project design, proposal coordination, proposal development, writing and review. 

• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation, including applying data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, and data presentation.

• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.

Required Languages - Fluency in English and at least one additional CRS core language (Arabic, French, and/or Spanish).  Proficiency in additional languages a plus.

Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 50% (i.e.,  6 months out of the year) ; duration of a deployment will generally be from 1 to 3 months, depending on the needs of the country program/partner. Candidates should have the capacity to live and work in difficult/stressful environments and serve wherever agency needs dictate 

• Bachelor’s Degree in International Development, Disaster Management or related field required.

• Minimum of ten years of work experience in Emergency Response and Recovery with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with three years overseas in multiple regions as a technical advisor and/or program manager of a Emergency Response and Recovery program and/or multi-sectoral project with an Emergency Response and Recovery component.