Overview
The Security Advisor (Focal Point) is responsible for enhancing security risk management by supporting operations through developing guidelines, conducting training, and analyzing contextual risks to ensure staff safety and operational continuity.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and support the integration of security risk management into operations by developing, updating and reviewing security tools.
- Advance a security approach centred on acceptance, trust, and engagement with local communities to enhance access, early warning systems, and effective mitigation and response strategies.
- Support operations and coordination teams by advising on security management, contributing to incident preparedness and response, and ensuring alignment between field realities and organizational security priorities.
- Represent MSF Ubuntu in intersectional security platforms and collaborate with key units to ensure coherent, principled, and effective security frameworks, reporting, and practices.
- Brief and debrief coordinators to strengthen security management capacity.
- Participate or initiate transversal security related research topics.
- Develop, update, and promote the use of security reference documents, SOPs, contingency plans, and mission security documentation.
- Monitor adherence to security frameworks and provide corrective recommendations.
- Advise operational line management on security risk analysis and management.
- Support missions in insecure and high-risk contexts with in-depth analysis of context-specific risk drivers and appropriate security mitigation measures.
- Provide strategic recommendations to coordination teams following debriefings.
- Follow up on updates of mission risk analyses, critical incident preparedness, simulations, and implementation of HQ recommendations.
- Provide specific security inputs to operational strategies, project openings, scale-ups, suspensions, or relocations.
- Ensure systematic recording, documentation, and classification of all security incidents.
- Lead the deployment, maintenance, and continuous improvement of security information systems and IT tools.
- Coordinate post-incident reviews, lessons learned processes, and structured sharing of insights.
- Lead headquarters-level critical incident preparedness, including development, regular maintenance, trainings, simulations, and preparedness sessions.
- Identify, propose, and maintain the crisis management pool (CMP).
- Act as regulator to all CI structures.
- Contribute to post-crisis evaluations and follow-up actions.
- Design, develop, deliver and review security training modules and workshops.
- Contribute to onboarding and preparation of newcomers on MSF security principles.
- Provide security inputs to learning pathways for key field-based positions and applied security courses.
- Support learning departments in reviewing existing tools and identifying gaps in security capacity development.
- Represent MSF Ubuntu in intersectional security platforms, ISA-related fora, SIMM exchanges, and external humanitarian security networks.
- Prepare and monitor the budget related to security activities, tools, trainings, and missions.
- Ensure timely provision of information required for management oversight.
- Support and monitor compliance with MSF Ubuntu Security Policy, internal procedures, and minimum standards.
- Provide ad hoc security advice, field support missions, briefings, or representation as requested.
Required Experience
Minimum 10 years of relevant professional experience in security advisory, risk management, or operational security in complex humanitarian, conflict, or high-risk environments. Demonstrated experience in field security operations, incident reporting, and crisis management within NGOs, UN agencies, or international organisations. Worked as Country Director or Project/Emergency Coordinator in MSF with demonstrated experience in integrating security expertise with operational realities. Practical experience in data management, analysis and reporting. Understanding of the MSF working environment is an asset.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in security management, Business Administration, International Relations, Political Science, Conflict Studies, or related studies.
