Humanitarian Access and Safety and Security Advisor

Position description

INTERSOS is an independent humanitarian organization that assists the victims of natural disasters, armed conflicts and exclusion. Its activities are based on the principles of solidarity, justice, human dignity, equality of rights and opportunities, respect for diversity and coexistence, paying special attention to the most vulnerable people.

Terms of reference

Job Title: Humanitarian Access and Safety & Security Advisor

Code: SR-00-10198

Duty station: Any INTERSOS office or home-based, with field visits

Starting date: 01/07/2026

Contract duration: 12 months

Reporting to: Deputy Director General

Functional Supervisor: Access and security coordinators/managers in mission

Type of Duty Station: Family duty station

General context of the project

For over 30 years, INTERSOS has been working in emergency and crisis situations, supporting individuals whose lives are threatened by conflict, poverty, and disasters with a hands-on approach to assist the most vulnerable in challenging and hard-to-reach contexts. INTERSOS delivers a comprehensive multi-sectoral package of services to provide lifesaving and life-sustaining assistance. Because the delivery of aid has become increasingly constrained globally by violence, armed conflict, and bureaucratic impediments, navigating these complex environments to maintain access is a high priority.

General purpose of the position

The Humanitarian Access and Safety & Security Advisor is a senior position that combines a strong humanitarian access focus with safety and security management and deep analytical reflection. The Advisor will support INTERSOS country teams to navigate complex operating environments, enabling safe humanitarian access, operational presence, and programme continuity in high-risk areas. The Advisor also acts as the functional supervisor for access and security senior personnel at the country level, overseeing technical recruitment, performance evaluations, as well as the mandatory access and security induction and compulsory training cycle for all deployments.

A core component of this role is extending technical expertise and capacity-strengthening support to INTERSOS’s local partners to ensure a unified and principled approach to risk and access. The Humanitarian Access and Safety & Security Advisor is included in the Frontline Initiative funded by The Netherlands Refugee Foundation and maintains the responsibility of project management on the initiative.

Main responsibilities and tasks:

Humanitarian context analysis

• Monitor INTERSOS operating environments, identify new threats, assess operational vulnerabilities, and recommend proactive responses;
• Support regional and country teams in major crises on producing analysis or scenarios linked to strategic and operational decisions and, if needed, will deploy to field to carry out the analysis or support on negotiation or other;
• Proactively keep abreast of INTERSOS priority contexts and have a good working knowledge of INTERSOS operational dilemmas;
• Take on assigned leads of specific in-depth analysis and reflection papers/dossiers as required by the Deputy Director General and the Director General.

Humanitarian Access management

• Facilitate and support the regional and country teams in the development and delivery of strategies to advance humanitarian access;
• Lead the development and uptake of internal guidance, tools, and context-specific guidelines for humanitarian access and engagement;
• Advise and support country teams on principled access strategies, including negotiations with line-ministries, security forces, and armed groups, in coordination with the regional offices;
• Develop and deliver humanitarian access trainings to a diverse audience including frontline staff and key decision-makers (i.e. senior management, local partner staff, etc.);
• Document and share learning with colleagues and partners, and contribute to the internal community of practice and culture of learning and reflection and to cross organizational learning between Frontline partners SV and IRC;
• Maintain currency with methods, approaches and professional developments in humanitarian access and related topics;
• Represent INTERSOS externally in global access coordination mechanisms, including contributing to collaborative approaches, drafting access reports, joint operating principles, etc.

Safety and Security Management

• Lead the identification, analysis, and mitigation of safety and security risks, guiding country teams to implement context-specific security risk management strategies and emergency preparedness, to enable programmes and their continuity;
• Support the interpretation and implementation of Security Minimum Standards (SMS) and support the design of operational and programmatic contingency plans for sudden political or security shifts;
• Support country teams with timely incident notification and analysis; serve as a member of the Incident Management Team for high-tier crises;
• Provide advisory support to the operational line during major crises and assist in programme criticality determinations for high-risk areas;
• Build and maintain an active network of INTERSOS security focal points across missions and cultivate strong external relationships with professional contacts, peer agencies, and security counterparts to enhance risk management.
• Manage the access/security dossier for all staff deployments, ensuring the delivery of mandatory security inductions and the follow-up of compulsory safety and security trainings;
• Serve as the functional manager for Country Access and Security Coordinator or Managers, leading their technical recruitment process and conducting technical performance evaluations.

Capacity Strengthening and Support to Local Partners

• Extend INTERSOS’s security capacity to local partners, ensuring they receive tailored risk management support, access to systems, and benefit from relevant operational standards;
• Facilitate and deliver regular training for both INTERSOS and partner staff on humanitarian principles, context analysis, conflict-sensitive programming, and access negotiation;
• Design and update access and security training materials, embedding gender-sensitive approaches to address gender-specific risks and ensure inclusivity in preparedness.

Required profile and experience:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s level) in a relevant field, or equivalent professional experience
• At least 7 years of experience in international humanitarian assistance, with a proven track record in leading security management and humanitarian access in complex crises;
• Previous experience with INTERSOS a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in context and conflict analysis, humanitarian access strategies and engagement, access negotiation, programme criticality and operating in politically sensitive environments;
• Deep understanding of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), humanitarian principles, security risk management with gender and conflict sensitivity;
• Strong ability to adapt and develop training material and transfer technical knowledge and skills through mentoring, coaching, and training diverse audiences, including local partners;
• Ability to analyse and present complex access and security dynamics clearly, and a proven track record of proactively identifying problems and proposing solutions;
• Excellence in cross-cultural communication and the ability to persuade and influence across multi-disciplinary teams and external stakeholders;
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently to fragile or conflict-affected contexts. At least 4 field vists are to be foreseen in the 12 months period.
• Fluent English and French are mandatory.
• Leadership
• Communication and negotiation skills
• Great sense of flexibility and adaptability
• Coaching, mentoring and training/capacity-building skills
• Ability to maintain long-term interpersonal relationships with country teams and partners that allows for transparent, collaborative working relationships to achieve organisational/access goals
• Analytical and problem solving skills
• Collaborative, empowering: works with teams and partners, not above them. Helps other grow and take ownership.
• Mentality to want to contribute to learning
• Commitment to INTERSOS principles

Application instructions

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