Humanitarian capacity building coordinator jobs
Grade: 3
Salary: £44,542 per annum
Hours: 37.5 hours per week with occasional evening/weekend working - flexible hours considered (outside of deployments)
Position type: Fixed-term 12-month contract
Responsible to: Head of Emergency Preparedness and Response
Direct reports: None
Location: Truro, Cornwall or UK remote working (with regular travel to Truro at least 2x per year)
Travel: Work away from home, this may be UK or overseas training or an in-country deployment. You may be required to deploy for up to 50% of your time in any calendar year within 72 hours' notice. Deployments may last between 7 days and 3 months as standard, any deployments which exceed 3 months will be discussed and agreed by your Line Manager ahead of the 3-month time period being reached.
ROLE PURPOSE:
ShelterBox's Programme Delivery Team is divided into 4 sections - MENA/Asia, East and Southern Africa (ESA), West Africa and Latin American and the Caribbean, and the Philippines. These sections are headed by a Regional Director, who is responsible for the delivery of rapid-on set, protracted and preparedness projects in their regions. ShelterBox's Emergency Team supports the Regional Teams in the delivery of these projects. Each Emergency Coordinator is assigned to a Region but can be deployed to cover an emergency across the world depending on current capacity of the team.
As an Emergency Coordinator within ShelterBox's Emergency Team, you will be responsible for assessing and responding to emergency shelter needs because of sudden onset and/or rapidly escalating crises across the globe.
This role will support communities affected by disaster by establishing and managing ShelterBox's humanitarian responses in partnership, delivering impactful outcomes at speed and scale. Fast-paced relationship building, partnership brokering, and project management skills are essential.
Emergency Coordinators are often the most senior ShelterBox representative on the ground during an emergency response and are typically responsible for leading multi-disciplinary teams inclusive of response team volunteers. The role is highly deployable, and you can expect to work in austere conditions in countries affected by disaster. When working from the UK, either at our HQ in Truro, Cornwall or remotely from home, your time will be spent supporting an allocated region in the delivery of their project and preparedness portfolio. The Emergency Coordinator will also work with the Head of Emergency Response to support the technical emergency improvement initiatives as part of ShelterBox's strategy. This is likely to include the development of tools and processes, as well as work on emergency preparedness.
The role will be starting at a time when ShelterBox is realigning itself for further growth in the face of mounting humanitarian needs. We look forward to welcoming candidates who share our passion and would enjoy working as part of a strong team to achieve this.
WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
ShelterBox is seeking a delivery-focused, practical, and proactive individual with experience of working in humanitarian emergency settings. This role would suit someone with humanitarian experience, who is looking for shorter emergency deployments balanced by remote management of responses. The right person will have experience of project development and day-to-day management, risk management and meeting and reporting against agreed objectives.
DUTIES WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:
- Establish, design and manage the delivery of emergency response projects to assigned disasters in line with the organisational and programme strategies, policies, and procedures
- Support the delivery and implementation of preparedness planning and activities during time of non-response, working with regional directors and colleagues when not deployed
- Ensure timely, safe, and impactful project/programme design and implementation, through close coordination with the wider Regional Team and key support functions, including Finance, MEAL, Safety and Security, Shelter Technical and Supply Chain
- Provide the first point of contact for deployed teams and disaster monitoring on a 24/7 routine and emergency basis as part of a roster
- Deploy to areas affected by disaster, act as Project Lead when required and provide leadership and mentoring to team members, as identified by the relevant Regional Director and Head of Emergency
- Initiate and sustain strong and mutually beneficial partnerships with local and international organisations - develop working relationships and effectively coordinate with other actors
- Work closely with the Travel Security Management team to prioritise the safety of our teams. Adapt to evolving issues that could adversely affect ShelterBox staff, partners and/or project delivery
- Prioritise 'do no harm' principles. Ensure those who encounter ShelterBox as a result of our activities are safeguarded from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failing which place them at risk or abuse, sexual exploitation, injury, and any other harm
- Work closely with the Deployments Manager and Learning & Development to ensure appropriate resourcing from staff and volunteers, including supporting the delivery of training
- Maintain effective and coordinated budget management, working closely with the Programme Funding and Finance teams to ensure appropriate monitoring processes are in place
- Maximise contributions in support of Fundraising efforts, including media engagements from HQ and/or during deployments
- Provide timely updates on project delivery and impact to Regional and Emergency leadership and report verbally or in written format to internal and external audiences as required
- Lead a culture that actively promotes improvements in its practices, processes, and outcomes, across all aspects of its work, seeking feedback from all stakeholders
- Represent ShelterBox in any capacity as required as appropriate.
- Work away from home, this may be UK or overseas training or deployment to disaster affected areas. Whilst you are unlikely to respond more than six weeks at any one time, you may be required to deploy for up to 50% of your time in any calendar year.
- Any other duties as required which are deemed appropriate to the level and grade of the post.
This is an exciting opportunity to steer Asylum Aid at an important time in its 30-year existence. As Executive Director you will be responsible for delivering on our strategy for impact. You will oversee our work to increase access to expert, trauma-informed legal representation to those in the asylum, trafficking and statelessness systems and lead our policy and strategic legal work to achieve systemic change that contributes towards our vision.
You will line manage the Director of Legal Casework to oversee the provision of supportive and enabling leadership to Asylum Aid caseworkers so that they can continue to deliver high quality expert advice in complex cases, while being supported in their professional development and wellbeing. You will also manage and develop the work of our welfare advice team within the Westminster Advice Services Partnership and beyond, and work collaboratively with colleagues in the sector to build capacity and increase our impact.
The ideal candidate, who may be legally qualified, will have experience of leadership in the charity/NGO sector and a sound understanding of the asylum, human rights and trafficking processes in the UK and the legal frameworks which govern the protection of refugees, survivors of trafficking and stateless people, and of the role of law in achieving system change.
We are looking for someone who is strategically minded and passionate about providing supportive and inclusive leadership to our expert team. You will be committed to our objectives and to the role which expert legal representation plays in enabling people in need of protection in the UK to obtain it.
As is the nature of this sector, the role may be exposed to a high volume of traumatic and distressing material and, whilst they will be supported by the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO and surrounding team, the candidate should also be able to demonstrate knowledge of good self-care principles in an intense work environment and dissemination of those principles to junior members of the team.
How to apply
The first stage is to complete on our online application form on our website by 10am on Monday 26th January 2026.
The website form will ask you to:
1.Upload a short covering letter. Please tell us why the position appeals to you, and how your relevant skills and experience, including any voluntary experience and lived experience, matches the listed responsibilities and person specification. Please also state in your covering letter when you would be available to start the role.
2.Upload your current CV
3.Complete an online Equal Opportunities monitoring form – completion of this form will help us ensure that our recruitment procedures operate in such a way as to provide genuine equality of opportunity. The questions are entirely optional, and this information will not be available to members of the selection panel.
For an informal conversation about the post before applying, please contact Alison Pickup, the current Executive Director.
Selection Process
We will invite candidates to an initial online interview on Tuesday 10th or Wednesday 11th February, followed by shortlisted candidates attending in-person interviews at our office in Old Street on Tuesday 24th or Wednesday 25th February.
We offer a guaranteed initial interview for refugees, stateless people and others with lived experience of forced migration, provided that they provide some evidence of relevant experience or skills in relation to the essential criteria.
We regret that we can only respond to applicants who make it to the interview stage.
Eligibility
Please note that the successful candidate must have the right to work in the UK (as a small charity we do not have the capacity to sponsor work visas).
Successful candidates will also be subject to a basic DBS check. If appointed, you will also be required to give your consent to the charity to receive regular updates on your criminal records status throughout your employment and to disclose any relevant convictions incurred during your time with us.
Adjustments
We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always endeavour to be as accommodating as possible. If you require a different format of the application form, such as large print or Word format, or if you would like to discuss any specific requirements, please get in touch with us.
EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Our commitment to principles of equity, diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our approach to our clients, our volunteers and our staff, and we are an equal opportunities and Living Wage employer.
We are committed to attracting and recruiting diverse candidates because we are keen to make sure that our staff, trustees, volunteers and ambassadors reflect the communities we serve and the wider community we work in.
We genuinely welcome and encourage applications from candidates from a range of backgrounds, especially people of colour, people with disabilities, people from low socio-economic backgrounds, refugees, stateless people and others with lived experience of forced migration or trauma and of the housing and welfare system, who are under-represented in our organisation.
We recognise and value the role of lived experience in meeting the needs of our clients and acknowledge the under-representation of people with lived experience of forced migration and statelessness in the advice sector. We value experience gained overseas as well as in the UK.
We are also proud to be a member of the Experts by Experience Employment Network which aims to increase representation of people with lived experience in the charitable sector.
If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for an independent and confidential support for your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network and access other information and resources which may help in preparing your job application.
Please complete the form on their website to request support and they will confirm if they can match you with a mentor to support your application.
Saferworld is recruiting for a Programme Development Manager (Maternity Cover) to support teams and partners to co-design and mobilise funding for peace, security and justice programmes across a portfolio of 3–4 countries (based on the candidate’s experience and preference).
Working with Regional Directors, Country Managers and programme/grants colleagues, the post-holder will lead programme co-design and proposal development (including concept notes and proposals, theories of change, logical models, risk matrixes and budgets); develop and support country funding strategies and donor engagement strategies; and support new donor engagement while sustaining relationships with current donors. The post-holder will be responsible for managing funding portfolios across institutional and non-institutional donors in our programmes.
Applicants should have a strong track record in programme development and new business with institutional donors such as Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the European Union (EU), UN agencies and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), with additional experience mobilising resources from trusts and foundations and other mechanisms desirable, alongside proven programme experience and skills in coordinating complex processes and facilitating participatory co-creation to ensure proposals are robust, contextually relevant and strategically aligned.
Saferworld will not sponsor work visas; applicants must have the right to work in the country where they are applying and in which Saferworld has a presence.
Closing date: 20 January 2026. Interviews will be held in the week commencing 26 January 2026.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.