Security Lead – Africa and Asia

We are currently recruiting an Security Lead – Africa & Asia to join our Safety and Security Team.

This is a remote position open to candidates based in an existing Relief International country of operations, with up to 50% international travel across Africa and Asia, including to high-risk and conflict-affected environments.

At Relief International, we are committed to building a representative, inclusive and authentic workplace. We strongly encourage applications from candidates from minoritized backgrounds and those who bring lived experience of the contexts in which we work.

We are proud to be a global recruiter, hiring people from around the world. We offer competitive salaries and benefit packages for all staff that are applied fairly and transparently. This means we are unable to advertise the salary as it is dependent on the local job market of the staff member; we will inform shortlisted candidates of the salary range as part of the selection process.

This role is classified as requiring advanced pre-employment checks and enhanced due diligence.

About Relief International

Relief International is an international non-profit organization that partners with communities impacted by conflict, climate change and disaster to save lives, build greater resilience and promote long-term health and wellbeing. We work in countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, providing Health and Nutrition, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), Education and Livelihoods programming that creates the foundation for community resilience.

About the Opportunity

The Africa & Asia Security Lead provides strategic security leadership across Relief International’s country programmes in Africa and Asia, strengthening Security Risk Management (SRM), access strategies and Duty of Care standards across a diverse and complex portfolio. Reporting to the Global Security Director, this role works closely with Country Directors, senior management teams and security focal points to ensure robust security frameworks, effective incident management and the continuous development of security capacity across multiple countries.

Your Responsibilities

This role includes the following responsibilities.

• Provide strategic leadership and oversight of security risk management, access and safety frameworks across Relief International’s Africa and Asia portfolio.
• Lead responses to critical security incidents and provide expert guidance to country teams, senior management and global leadership during emergencies.
• Conduct security assessments, field visits and audits to strengthen compliance, preparedness, risk mitigation and operational resilience across country programmes.
• Deliver training, coaching and capacity-building initiatives for security focal points, senior managers and country teams, including critical incident management and security risk management training.
• Represent Relief International in regional security coordination forums, donor engagements and inter-agency networks, while contributing to the development of global security policy and strategy. Frequent international travel, including at short notice, is required.

About You

You will bring the following experience and skills.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in security, risk management, international relations or a related field.
• Substantial proven experience leading security, access and risk management functions within humanitarian or NGO operations in conflict-affected and complex environments.
• Strong experience supporting multi-country or regional portfolios, including security risk management, critical incident management and security strategy development.
• Demonstrated expertise in security training, mentoring and capacity building, including supporting security focal points and senior management teams across multiple locations.
• Strong knowledge of Security Risk Management (SRM) processes, security frameworks, ISO standards and humanitarian security best practice.
• Excellent analytical, leadership, communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to operate independently and make sound decisions in challenging environments.
• Professional fluency in English and French is essential. Knowledge of Arabic, security risk management certifications, HEAT/HEIST qualifications, emergency first aid certifications and humanitarian access negotiation experience are desirable.